Update: Board kills new owner's plan to move house

Another house in the city's Hayes Historic District will be restored to its past glory after a Sioux Falls board recommended saving it, although its current owner described it as a liability in its current condition.

"If I can't do anything with the property to move it, I'm looking at selling it," said owner Jesse Deffenbaugh.

Deffenbaugh, who lives at 221 W. 24th St., had purchased the house next door at 1606 S. Center Ave. with the intention first of razing it, then later of moving it to Brandon. But the house's potential for restoration and its role in retaining the neighborhood's character led the Sioux Falls Board of Historic Preservation to vote that its removal would have an adverse effect.

"I see a house that can be restored," board member Ed Lund said.

The interest in saving 1606 S. Center Ave. and recent efforts to preserve another house at 1601 S. Dakota Ave. has galvanized the neighborhood and likely will lead to the creation of a neighborhood association, said resident Del Donaldson.

"I think the view is, we will not let a good crisis go to waste and do something nice for the cohesion of the neighborhood," he said.

The Hayes Historic District's boundaries include 22nd Street to the north, Phillips Avenue to the east, 26th Street to the south and Dakota Avenue to the west. Commercial property on Minnesota Avenue has begun to creep east, endangering some of the district's houses, which are nearing 100 years old. The South Center property was built in 1916.

It has not been fully inhabited for seven years, however, and Deffenbaugh said it has been allowed to become ramshackle and has rotted sewer lines. Back taxes are owed on the property, and it is in foreclosure.

His house on West 24th Street, built in 1919, has no backyard, and he saw potential in expanding his lot with the Center Avenue property, Deffenbaugh said.He has made several improvements to the property in the past six weeks since he purchased it.

A dozen neighbors attended the Board of Historic Preservation meeting and asked that the house be left in place with one neighbor saying it could become "a shining jewel representing the Hayes Historic District" if it is renovated.

Deffenbaugh's neighbors are "not a group of cranky people looking for a fight," Donaldson said. Instead, they are people who chose that neighborhood for its quality of life.

"People have chosen these residences for a reason," he said. "They don't mind the fact they have smaller lots. They don't mind that they don't have large garages. They do it for the character of the home, for the legacy, the neighborhood and the quality of relationships between neighbors."

Deffenbaugh said Tuesday he will put the Center Avenue property back on the market. He has been contacted by one person interested in a doing-it-yourself remodeling project.

That puts the control of a property that has been allowed to become run down for years in someone else's hands, however, and Deffenbaugh said such renovations can overwhelm a non-professional.

"I'll make due with the parameters I'm up against," Deffenbaugh said. He does intend to continue with plans to remodel the garage on his property.