City Council/Historic Preservation Special Joint Meeting
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CITY OF NORCO CITY COUNCIL / HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION SPECIAL JOINT MEETING AGENDA Wednesday, October 28, 2015 City Hall Conference Rooms A and B, 2870 Clark Avenue, Norco, CA 92860 CALL TO ORDER: 4:00 p.m. ROLL CALL: Herb Higgins, Mayor Kevin Bash, Mayor Pro Tem Kathy Azevedo, Council Member Berwin Hanna, Council Member Greg Newton, Council Member Matthew Potter, Chair Diane Stiller, Vice Chair Patricia Overstreet, Commissioner Mark Sawyer, Commissioner Teresa Edwards, Commissioner PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Mayor Pro Tem Kevin Bash BUSINESS ITEM: 1. Review of the Draft Norconian Property Historic Resources Survey and Evaluation Report and Authorization for National Register Nomination. (Historic Resources Consultant Bill Wilkman) At its June 4, 2014 meeting, the City Council unanimously authorized the preparation of a historic resources survey and evaluation of the Norconian property for its Naval Hospital and Guided Missile eras. Wilkman Historical Services (WHS) completed this work earlier this month and the document is ready to be submitted to the California State Historic Preservation Commission for consideration of the property’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places for the significance of these eras. Recommended Action: That the City Council and the Historic Preservation Commission concur in the qualification of the Norconian property for National Register listing in relation to its Naval Hospital and Guided Missile eras and that staff and the Cultural Resources Consultant be directed to work with the Historic Preservation Commission in the preparation and submission of a National Register Nomination to the State Historic Preservation Commission. ADJOURNMENT In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, any person with a disability who requires a modification or accommodation in order to participate in this meeting, please contact the City Clerk’s office, (951) 270-5623, at least 48 hours prior to the meeting to make reasonable arrangements to ensure accessibility. Staff reports are on file in the City Clerk’s Office. Any writings or documents provided to a majority of the City Council regarding any item on this agenda will be available for public inspection at the City Clerk’s Counter in City Hall located at 2870 Clark Avenue during normal business hours. CITY OF NORCO STAFF REPORT TO: Honorable Mayor, Members of the City Council, and Members of the Historic Preservation Commission FROM: Andy Okoro, City Manager PREPARED BY: Bill Wilkman, Cultural Resources Consultant DATE: October 28, 2015 SUBJECT: Review of Draft Norconian Property Historic Resources Survey and Evaluation Report and Authorization for National Register Nomination RECOMMENDATION: That the City Council and the Historic Preservation Commission concur in the qualification of the Norconian property for National Register listing in relation to its Naval Hospital and Guided Missile eras and that staff and the Cultural Resources Consultant be directed to work with the Historic Preservation Commission in the preparation and submission of a National Register Nomination to the State Historic Preservation Commission. SUMMARY: At its June 4, 2014 meeting, the City Council unanimously authorized the preparation of a historic resources survey and evaluation of the Norconian property for its Naval Hospital and Guided Missile eras. Wilkman Historical Services (WHS) completed this work earlier this month and the document is ready to be submitted to the California State Historic Preservation Commission for consideration of the property’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places for the significance of these eras. BACKGROUND/ANALYSIS: The City of Norco has been deeply involved in the objective historical documentation and evaluation of the Norconian property for decades. While the City has been involved in the recognition of the Norconian’s historic significance in a number of ways, the property’s qualification for listing on the National Register of Historic Places has been a significant issue that the City has dealt with. The history of Norco’s involvement in the historical significance of the Norconian property is multi-faceted and complex. For the sake of simplicity, only the two following events are summarized. In 1998, when a Navy historic resources survey and evaluation of the Norconian’s Resort Era found nothing of national historical value, the City of Norco hired, at its own expense, Knox Mellon and Associates to independently survey and evaluate the property. The result was a determination that nineteen resources qualified it for listing on the National Register of Historic Places as the Norconian Resort Era Historic District. In 2000, the Agenda Item: 1 Review and approval of the historic resources survey and evaluation of the Norconian property’s Naval Hospital and Guided Missile RDT&E Eras. Page 2 October 28, 2015 property was formally listed per this report. More recently, another Navy funded historic resources survey found nothing of national historical value for the property’s Naval Hospital and Naval Guided Missile Research, Development, Testing & Evaluation (RDT&E) eras. The City’s comments regarding this finding were either rejected out of hand or ignored by the Navy. Consequently, the City found itself once again in a position where it needed to spend city funds to independently document and evaluate the property. At its June 4, 2014 meeting, the City Council unanimously approved the engagement of Wilkman Historical Services (WHS) for this purpose. Recently, WHS completed well over a year’s worth of research and evaluation work, in the form of an approximately 300 page report that thoroughly documents these two historical eras. As a result of this extensive research and evaluation work, WHS found the Norconian property eligible for National Register listing in relation to both eras. To help the City Council and the Historic Preservation Commission navigate the rather complex Naval Hospital and Naval Guided Missile RDT&E histories, WHS developed the attached summary report. The Council and Commission will also find it useful to read the Executive Summary sections of the full historic resources survey and evaluation and to examine the full report where there are many more details about the property, including illustrative photographs, charts, maps, and tables. FINANCIAL IMPACT: WHS is under contract to see this project through to National Register listing for a not to exceed fee of $25,000. Thus far, $10,000 has been invoiced. Attachments: Summary of the Historic Resources Survey and Evaluation Norconian Property Historic Resources Survey and Evaluation, Full Report SUMMARY OF THE HISTORIC RESOURCES SURVEY AND EVALUATION OF THE NORCONIAN PROPERTY’S HISTORY AS NAVAL HOSPITAL CORONA AND DETACHMENT CORONA Prepared for the Joint Meeting of the Norco City Council and the Norco Historic Preservation Commission October 28, 2015 The following is a summary of the approximately 300 page draft report entitled Norconian Property Historic Resources Survey & Evaluation: Hospital Era (1941-1957) Guided Missile RDT&E Era (1951-Present, dated October 1, 2015. This summary is basically a distillation of the two Executive Summaries (one for the Naval Hospital Era and the other for the Naval Guided Missile RDT&E Era) in the full report. NAVAL HOSPITAL ERA The active history of Naval Hospital Corona extends from 1941 - 1957. The U.S. Navy created Naval Hospital Corona (NHC) by converting and expanding a massive luxury resort originally developed by entrepreneur Rex Clark in 1929. Unfortunately, the Norconian Resort Supreme, as it was known, was completed shortly before the onset of the Great Depression, and it suffered economic challenges throughout the 1930s. In 1941, the federal government recognized that its entry into World War II would necessitate a need for many thousands of hospital beds. One way in which it sought to satisfy this need was to take control of luxury hotels and resorts throughout the United States for conversion to convalescent hospitals. The Norconian property was unique in this regard, as it was converted into a Naval General Hospital, providing primary treatment for a wide array of illnesses and injuries. The Norconian was also the only resort purchased fee-simple by the federal government. All of the others were leased and returned to their owners after the war. While located within the community of Norco, the naval hospital was identified with Corona, the City immediately to the south of Norco. Naval Hospital Corona (NHC), was fully functional from 1941 through1949 and then from 1951 through 1957. To allow the property to operate as a fully functional general hospital, the Navy expanded the original Norconian resort with new, largely permanent buildings designed to complement the Spanish Colonial Revival design of the existing resort buildings and to reflect California’s traditions related to this style. NHC benefitted greatly from the organizational, knowledge, and medical talents of two teams of doctors from the Mayo Clinic. Arriving in 1942, the final team of doctors left NHC in 1944 for service at the front lines. Because of this pool of talent, NHC quickly became a highly respected Naval hospital. Ultimately, the Navy developed the Norconian property into three “units” each organized as an essentially independent hospital. Unit 1 was the central general hospital where the command center was located and where sailors and marines received medical treatment and rehabilitation therapy. Unit 2 was