The proposed demolition of a historic home on the eastern outskirts of the village Cazenovia has rekindled a debate that has pitted local preservation advocates against development proponents for decades. At the center of the controversy is a two-story federal-style home and barn long Route 20 near the entrance to the rural village. The buildings were built around 1810...
Ted Bartlett is one of a number of Cazenovia residents rallying to preserve Enders Farm House, which could be demolished as part of new development on the outskirts of the village.
The proposed demolition of a historic home on the eastern outskirts of the village Cazenovia has rekindled a debate that has pitted local preservation advocates against development proponents for decades.
At the center of the controversy is a two-story federal-style home and barn long Route 20 near the entrance to the rural village. The buildings were built around 1810 by a Revolutionary War veteran.
Now known as the Enders property, the home was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the 1988 as the Zephaniah Comstock Farmhouse.
But a developer’s request to take down the building in hopes of developing the site has residents pushing for a public dialogue about how to treat the community’s cultural and historic resources.
In letters and at recent board meetings, preservation proponents have asked town officials to revisit a comprehensive plan, which recommended that “cultural and historic resources receive consideration for their contribution to the community well-being and necessary protections.”
“It is part of the fabric of the community,” resident Ted Bartlett, who heads the village’s historic preservation and architectural advisory review committee. “Once it is gone, its gone.”
But developer David Muraco believes the same comprehensive plan gives him the green light because he says the plan sets aside the northern portion of Route 20 as an appropriate location for commercial development.
Muraco, who also owns the nearby Town and Country plaza, has offered to gift the home to those who want to preserve it, suggesting that they move it to another location.
“Things are happening out that way,” said Muraco, who is currently renting the home to a family on a month-to-month basis. “It’s a good thing to see. There will be an economic impact. That’s what we need.”
It is not the first time the community has been divided on the issue. An adjacent 108-acre parcel of land was the center of controversy when Wal-Mart proposed a 154,000-square-foot superstore in the 1990s.
The Cazenovia Preservation Foundation bought the property in 2000 to protect the village gateway from “big box development.” When the foundation proposed selling the land to another developer in 2006, a private citizen took over ownership and has since planted trees and crops to maintain the rural aesthetic at the village’s eastern portal.
But the acquisitions never included the historic home, and the building’s inclusion on the historic register would only come into play if the developer accepted state or federal grant dollars.
Bartlett and others have called for a moratorium on demolition of properties deemed as cultural and historic resources until the issue can be vetted.
“We may be protecting this area in the short-term, but we’re protecting them all in the long term,” Bartlett said.
Contact Alaina Potrikus at 470-3252 or apotrikus@syracuse.com.