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City Planner Contradicts Negative Findings on Cross Roads
Suzi Aratin, a native Santa Cruzan who "discovered" that Lighthouse Liquors had originated as the Cross Roads Drive-In, is challenging the findings of the City of Santa Cruz's consultant who ruled that the Cross Roads has no significant historical value.Ms. Aratin was employed as a planner for the City of Santa Cruz in 2001 when she was assigned to check the building as preliminary preparation for the state-required Environmental Impact Report (EIR) that would be drafted by consultant Susan Lehmann.While surveying the building, Ms. Aratin realized it closely resembled a drive-in diner in Wisconsin that she and her parents had visited when she was a child. She mentioned the similarities to her mother, who graduated in 1958/59 from Watsonville High School, which is in Santa Cruz County. Ms. Aratin's mother reported the building had been a drive-in when she was a teenager in the '50s, and she had visited the Cross Roads after football and basketball games that her high school played against Santa Cruz High.Word spread, and Ms. Aratin eventually contacted Len Klempnauer, creator of this web site and son of the Cross Roads founders who lives in Capitola, also in Santa Cruz County.A 1991 graduate of Soquel High School in Santa Cruz County, Ms. Aratin holds a master's degree in historic preservation.Ms. Aratin currently works as a planner for the City of Watsonville.
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Highlights of Planner's Challenge to Consultant's Report
The City of Santa Cruz planner who "discovered" that Lighthouse Liquors was birthed as the Cross Roads Drive-In has declared that the building IS significant historically because it:
o Represents a distinctive 1950s' drive-in style of architecture and, also
o Stands as a symbol associated with a definable culture -- the 1950s' teenage car culture.
Suzi Aratin, now a planner for the City of Watsonville, filed her comments May 8, 2002, as a formal response to the draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the Depot Park project prepared by consultant Susan Lehmann of Santa Cruz.
Ms. Aratin partly states in her challenge:
1] "It appears that the conclusion regarding eligibility for inclusion (of the Cross Roads Drive-In) in the State Register of Historic Places has been misconstrued and misinterpreted by the City of Santa Cruz."
2] "It is also apparent that the building is eligible for inclusion in the Santa Cruz Historic Building Survey...which would give the building protection under the California Environmental Quality Act."
2] "It has become obvious, through letters to the Planning Director, the City Council, and the Editor of the Santa Cruz Sentinel, that there is significant public interest in the preservation of the Cross Roads building, yet the DEIR does not include any consideration for further research to determine the eligibility of this building for inclusion in the local survey."
3] "Flippant decisions by the City of Santa Cruz regarding historic resources within their jurisdiction is disheartening to see, because once an historic resource is lost, there is no recapturing it."
4] "The City of Santa Cruz has been charged with stewardship over the city's historic resources, and to discount the experiences of people who lived in Santa Cruz in the 1950s simply because research into the structures remaining on the Depot Site was not conducted until late in the master planning process is ludicrous."
The city council endorsed the Depot Park plan on Oct. 23, 2001, as reported in the Oct. 24 Sentinel. Yet Ms. Lehmann's report on the Cross Roads is dated Nov. 1, eight days after the council's approval.
The only background information about the Cross Roads available to Ms. Lehmann when she prepared her report was a half-finished draft of the history piece published on the "History" page of this web site. The draft did NOT mention that students from the Class of '54 wanted the building preserved and restored. The draft history piece was given to Ms. Aratin in July, and she later turned it over to Ms. Lehmann.
The first letter to the editor and to City Hall recommending that the Cross Roads be saved as part of the museum complex was emailed on Oct. 28, 2001, from Bev (Caton) Pinelli of Corning, Calif., a member of the Santa Cruz High Class of '54.
The other letters to the editor and to City Hall didn't start coming in until November and December of that year.
Ms. Lehmann reportedly is on retainer with the city. Joe Ghio, a former Santa Cruz mayor and a member of the SCHS Class of 1956, had said that consultants on retainer are expected to provide the kinds of answers that City Hall wants -- or they don't remain on retainer very long. Mr. Ghio was not specifically referring to Ms. Lehmann but was referring to consultants in general.
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Complete Text of Planner's Comments on Cross Roads Findings
To: City of Santa Cruz
Department of Planning and Community Development
809 Center Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
To Whom It May Concern,
This letter serves as a comment to the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) prepared by Stephanie Strelow for the development of the Depot Park Site as it relates to the Lighthouse Liquors building, also known as Crossroads BBQ.
In reviewing the report compiled by Susan Lehmann, historic preservation consultant, it appears that the conclusion regarding eligibility for inclusion in the State Register of Historic Places has been misconstrued and misinterpreted by the City of Santa Cruz.
Ms. Lehmann's report calls for further historic research in the form of a context statement for the 1950s in Santa Cruz to determine whether the Crossroads building would be a significant contributor as it relates to 1950s' culture in Santa Cruz. Historic context reports are helpful in assisting preservationists, local governments and laypersons in determining how buildings fit into the historic context of the city. After Ms. Lehmann's report had been published, it has become apparent from the letters that have been sent to the City of Santa Cruz from people expressing interest in the preservation of the Crossroads building that this is an important reminder of the 1950s' culture in Santa Cruz and, therefore, can be considered significant in the context of 1950s' car culture in Santa Cruz. Therefore, it appears that the building would meet Criterion A (an association with events that make a significant contribution to the broad patterns of local, state, or national history) of the California Register of Historic Places. In addition, it is also apparent that the building is eligible for inclusion in the Santa Cruz Historic Building Survey, which follows similar criteria but places more emphasis on local significance, which would give the building protection under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
Regarding historic integrity, Ms. Lehmann refers to the lack of original signage and the current murals painted on the building as detriments to the building' integrity. Signage for 1950s' drive-in restaurants and similar structures can be viewed as a character-defining feature when the original signage was more impressive than the architecture of the building on which is sits. When looking at the historic photographs of the Crossroads, the original signage was not a spectacular visage. Paint is a temporary masking device which can be easily removed to reveal the original fabric of the building. As an example, the integrity of the Del Mar Theater was not compromised simply because green stonework had been applied to the front facade and the building had been painted a different color. Both of those were removed during renovation of the theater, and the theater has been determined as a significant resource under CEQA. Moreover, the footprint of the Crossroads building, the slanting front windows, the main entrance, the applied stonework on the front facade are character-defining features that remain intact today.
In the second to last paragraph of Ms. Lehmann’s report, it is stated that if there is public sentiment for the preservation of the Crossroads building, "the City should consider further research and documentation to determine if the structure should be added to its Historic Building Inventory." It has become obvious, through letters to the Planning Director, the City Council, and the Editor of the Santa Cruz Sentinel, that there is significant public interest in the preservation of the Crossroads building, yet the DEIR does not include any consideration for further research to determine the eligibility of this building for inclusion in the local survey. From reading Ms. Lehmann's report, it appears that the consultant did not come to a final conclusion as to the historic significance of this building. Ms. Lehmann spelled out the need to do more research to determine whether the building is significant. Therefore, further research must be conducted by a qualified historic preservation consultant to determine the level of significance this building carries.
Flippant decisions by the City of Santa Cruz regarding historic resources within their jurisdiction is disheartening to see because once an historic resource is lost, there is no recapturing it. The City of Santa Cruz has been charged with stewardship over the city's historic resources, and to discount the experiences of people who lived in Santa Cruz in the 1950s simply because research into the structures remaining on the Depot Site was not conducted until late in the master planning process is ludicrous. The Crossroads building holds a high level of significance to people who were living in Santa Cruz in the 1950s, and consideration of this constituency and the historic significance of the Crossroads building must not be so easily discounted. Furthermore, preservation of the Crossroads building and the construction of a new Natural History Museum are not mutually exclusive. What better way to fuse the history of the built environment and Santa Cruz culture with a history of our natural environment? Preservation does not mean that the Crossroads building must be frozen in time; it means that there is an opportunity to creatively adapt the building to become an integral part of the new history musuem.
In closing, Susan Lehmann's report regarding the Crossroads BBQ building does not conclusively determine the building's significance, and the city must conduct further research before the EIR can be finalized.
Sincerely,
Suzi Aratin
Capitola, Calif.
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San Jose Mercury Columnist Reports on Cross Roads
The following was published in the May 8, 2002, column of San Jose Mercury Columnist Leigh Weimers. It is on-line at:
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/news/
columnists/leigh_weimers/3220924.htm
Is Drive-in Historically Significant, or Just Old?
By Leigh Weimers, Mercury News
What began as a strictly local attempt to save an old Santa Cruz drive-in eatery has gone international. That's because the National Trust for Historic Preservation is spotlighting the campaign as its story of the week online
(see www.nationaltrust.org/ magazine/story/ index.htm).
"At a Crossroads -- A California city longs for its small-town past" headlines the trust's story, detailing efforts to save the Cross Roads Bar-B-Q Drive-In, a popular Santa Cruz hangout at the foot of West Cliff Drive in the '50s.
Granted, the building no longer looks exactly like its former self. When the drive-in craze faded in the '60s, the Cross Roads was sold and spent its later years as a liquor store. It's currently owned by the city, which plans to demolish the building for a planned park and national history museum. But fans of the drive-in's "American Graffiti" days, led by Len Klempnauer of Capitola, the son of the drive-in's founders, think it deserves better.
"We'd like to see the building preserved," Klempnauer says, "its facade restored and the building be made part of the museum complex as a symbol of the never-to-be-repeated 1950s' teenage cruisin'-the-drag drive-in culture." The city, on the other hand, contends that the building no longer has enough going for it architecturally to warrant preservation and is better off removed.
No final decision has been made. But at least the web exposure is letting observers from around the nation -- and beyond -- chime in on what the National Trust calls "a debate that addresses the fine line between whether a building is historically significant or just old."
History of the Cross Roads Drive-In
Click on the History link at the top of the page to read about the Cross Roads and the Fifties -- "When Happy Days Reigned in Santa Cruz" -- which includes anecdotes from Santa Cruz High Class of '54 members about their experiences at the two local drive-ins and the importance of drive-ins in teen lives of that era.
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