Photo: Kevin Stewart

The proposed Confluence Project hit a detour Tuesday when the Eau Claire Landmarks Commission voted to pursue a historic designation for one of the buildings that would be torn down to make way for the multiuse arts facility, a move it took only hours after the building’s owners filed for a city permit to demolish it.

Confluence supporters decried the effort as a stalling tactic while those who supported the resolution said it was merely a step to allow public input on whether one of the structures – the former Kline Department Store, 6 S. Barstow St. – should be named a local historic landmark.

The commission voted 4-3 to hold a public hearing in about 30 days on whether or not to make the designation. The hearing would presumably be held at the commission’s next regular meeting on Oct. 7.

"If everyone’s got so much interest in those properties, it’s curious they’ve sat there so long without being improved." – Stuart Schaefer of Confluence Project developer Commonweal Development

Landmarks Commission member Dave Strobel, who also serves on the City Council, made the motion to pursue the historic designation. He said the effort fell within the panel’s mission of identifying and protecting historic landmarks and noted the commission had previously said the Kline building and the structures around it were worth preserving. Before the Confluence Project moves forward, members of the public should have the opportunity to weigh in on the topic as well, Strobel said.

“These buildings were fine until somebody wanted to tear them down,” he said.

Later, he added, “I don’t believe in any way this would delay the project. … I don’t see this group trying to kill this project.”

Stuart Schaefer of Commonweal Development – a private firm that’s partnered with UW-Eau Claire and the Eau Claire Regional Arts Council to pursue the Confluence Project – vigorously disagreed. He said designating the Kline building as a landmark would lead to an appeal to the City Council, causing a delay in the project of at least 60 days and possibly as long as 18 months.

“Are you proposing to put the (historic) district in place against the wishes of all the property owners there?” Schaefer asked the commission before the vote. He said the Kline building and adjacent structures, which were built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, were structurally unsound and had been poorly maintained. It would be prohibitively expensive for even their facades to be incorporated into the $77 million Confluence Project, which would include a shared performing arts center, commercial space, and student living quarters.

“If everyone’s got so much interest in those properties, it’s curious they’ve sat there so long without being improved,” Schaefer noted.

Schaefer said the owner of the Kline building – a Winona, Minn.-based corporation called simply 6 S. Barstow LLC – filed Tuesday for a demolition permit for the structure. Likewise, developer John Mogensen – who owns the rest of the buildings in the block facing South Barstow Street – applied for permits to demolish them. Schaefer said the buildings would likely be torn town by the end of the year.

Mogensen told the commission he bought some of buildings on the block with the intention of rehabilitating them. However, he explained, “I thought this new project would be far better for the community.”

Several advocates for historic preservation urged the commission to act to save the buildings.

Janice Wnukowski, president of the Eau Claire Historic Preservation Foundation, told the commission that the Kline building was structurally sound and that she supported giving it and its neighbors historic designations. “I just feel that they’re all important to save,” she said.

Members of the commission and several people who testified disagreed about the panel’s previous action regarding the Confluence Project. Commission chairwoman Katrinka Bourne, who supported pursuing landmark status and praised the historic nature of the buildings slated for demolition, maintained that the commission never endorsed the Confluence Project. City Councilwoman Kathy Mitchell, who was a member of the commission when the matter was discussed last Nov. 5, maintained that the commission’s 5-2 vote at that time was in support of the project despite its impact on the buildings.

“It’s clear to everybody that you’re being asked to do this to delay the Confluence Project,” Mitchell said.

After the commission’s vote Tuesday, Schaefer agreed. “They’re doing damage as a really crude delay tactic,” he said of the commission