American Fork Main Street

The recently constructed Good Earth Whole Foods development on West Main Street in American Fork is blatantly more conspicuous than the early 20th century house it replaced and therefore more impressive in our collective memory. With little effort the developer abandoned the historic value of the site and in a larger sense further eroded the historic fabric of American Fork’s Main Street. The ostensibly trivial removal of elements in American Fork’s historic core do not seem to be a legitimate concern to those involved in local city planning. It’s akin to whittling away at the base of a mature oak tree, initially the cuts are harmless, but over time the cumulative effect undermines the entire structural system and destroys the tree with catastrophic and irreversible effect. Death by a thousand cuts, as it were.

The proposal to demolish the historic house was presented at a planning commission meeting in 2006. A few local preservationists in attendance spoke in defense of the historic structure on Main Street and decried the proposed Good Earth development. If and when historic architecture is replaced, the replacement should be better than that which is replaced and should at a minimum reference the historic condition. There is so much potential to develop responsibly and sustainably, yet cities seem to lack resolve in upgrading exiting Euclidian codes and are reluctant to confront developers. The disruptive urban and architectural issues with the Good Earth development are numerous. The building is set back from the street face with parking areas awkwardly plopped in front paying homage to the automobile. Without decrying the distasteful nature of the architecture, to replace a historic residence with a strip mall is contrary to every current urban planning best practice.

The home’s eventual demise was delayed due to some technicalities in the approval process required for the demolition permit, but ultimately not prevented. During the course of that meeting the Planning Commission Director blithely remarked, “We can’t save everything.” The decision to demolish the structure was based on economic considerations and the director was accurate in suggesting that not everything can be saved. But when one looks at the losses to date in this growing community it is long past time to unequivocally affirm that the remaining historic architecture will not be sacrificed for mediocre and poorly conceived replacements. Decisions to demolish historic structures for the sake of economic development set dismal precedents. Economic development is essential to sustaining cities, but big box and strip mall development is inappropriate and counter productive in the downtown core and especially on historic main streets in small towns like American Fork. The community as a whole is failing to protect the historic core, and until an historic overlay district is established in the downtown core with city ordinances to boot, the trend will continue and increase toward substandard development allowing unabated erosion of the remaining historic architecture and destroying it as a public and civic place.

When one spreads the losses over a number of years and generations those losses are more easily accepted, but when the cumulative effect of the losses are considered it is revolting. It is difficult to imagine that American Fork City seriously considered the demolition of American Fork’s City Hall (1903) just a few years ago. After persistent determination on the part of local and state preservationists and some determined internal city administrators, City Hall was preserved and restored in 2006, reassuming it’s rightful position as American Fork’s crown architectural jewel and receiving numerous state preservation awards. City Hall is once again the metaphorical and physical center of American Fork City.

The economic benefit reaped by developers may not necessarily be beneficial for the fragile communities which we have desperately tried to establish and retain. With each loss towns like this moves one step further from creating and retaining a walkable and pedestrian friendly city center with public amenities which includes a compelling and attractive inventory of historic architecture. In short, a distinctive and unique city center where one prefers to be. With each loss we propel ourselves one step closer to an environment geared entirely toward the automobile, a metastasizing and ubiquitous phenomena which ultimately leads to pedestrian barren landscapes like US Highway 89 which is an unrelenting amassing of strip malls and car lots. A pedestrian no mans land, a non-place. The opposite of the non-place is obvious, as James Howard Kunstler put it: “The idea that people and things exist in some sort of continuity, that we belong to the world physically and chronologically, and that we know where we are.”

A major car dealership in American Fork recently expanded to the east resulting in the demolition of three houses in Columbia Village, a historic Post-war development built in the late 1940s. This just to expand a parking lot filled with gas guzzling super-charged Dodge Ram pickups. The losses will continue to accrue until communities decide enough is enough.

Using American Fork as a mirocosmic example, this trend is occurring in many of Utah’s local communities. All is done in the name of economic development, which in no way guarantees good development. What do we care though, as long as we optimize our conveniences and destroy what created our sense of community and sense of place, to ultimately establish our coveted new organic food stores, Wal-Mart Supercenters and Auto Malls to feed our relentlessly insatiable consumerism.

© 2010 Steven D. Cornell