Before you knock down an old building in Cody, you may need to wait a bit.

After a couple historic structures were abruptly leveled, the City of Cody chose to adopt a new policy that requires property owners to wait up to 21 days before starting demolition.

The delay on full building demolitions is meant to give the Park County Historic Preservation Commission a heads up and, potentially, “a little time to work with the owner to see if there’s anything in there that would be of historical value,” Cody Mayor Lee Ann Reiter explained in a summer interview.

For example, the preservation group might seek permission from the owner to take pictures of the property, preserve certain materials or even explore the possibility of moving a historic structure to another site.

However, Reiter stressed that the Park County Commission-appointed volunteers ultimately cannot stop a demolition from moving forward — nor is the landowner obligated to work with the group.

Only a handful of demolition permits are issued in Cody each year, and only a fraction of those involve buildings with historical value. In most cases, the preservation commission expects to quickly notify the city that it has no interest in a building, which could result in a demolition permit being issued in a few days.

“Our intention is not to hold up development or save every single shed that’s torn down,” Park County Archives Curator and historic preservation commission member Brian Beauvais said in an interview. 

Rather, Beauvais said, “we just don’t want to have prime historic buildings demolished without any sort of community input or … no opportunity to document that history.”

In response to razings

The city’s new waiting period was spurred in part by the sudden 2023 demolition of the Lockhart Inn. The building previously served as the home of famed Western writer and Codyite Caroline Lockhart and had already been moved from the heart of the city to West Yellowstone Avenue to avoid an earlier razing.

“There were a lot of people with the means and desire to save it,” Park County Archivist Robyn Cutter told the Cody Enterprise in January 2023, “but we unfortunately weren’t a part of the conversation.”

The conversation resurfaced last year, when two downtown buildings on Sheridan Avenue were leveled to make way for a modern, three-story structure, and in the spring, when the nearby Cody Dairy building was knocked down.

Cody business owner and county commission candidate Karin Richard was among those to voice concerns about the demolitions.

“They’re not just tearing down history and not just tearing down buildings that make Cody unique and different from EVERY other town in the country,” Richard wrote in March. “They are also changing the makeup and culture of a town that drew people here in the first place.”

Following the public feedback, members of the historic preservation board raised the idea of seeking a delay on Cody’s demolition permits.

At a May meeting with Park County commissioners, board chair Laura Scheiber said they hoped a slight delay would enable them to see “if there’s an opportunity there to archive it or to present information … or even save pieces of it.”

Scheiber said the board can also offer education — such as helping people understand that, “even if something has been listed on the National Register, [it] doesn’t stop people from doing whatever they want on their own property.”

While many were upset about the destruction of the Lockhart Inn, “really there’s nothing they could have done,” Scheiber said, but giving people someone to talk about a building and the rules could help “with that sense of injustice.”

Commissioners gave the board their blessing to work with the city on a waiting period.

Next steps

At an August work session, Cody City Councilman Jeremy Laing voiced concern that the 21-day waiting period was “just adding more bureaucracy” and making the demolition process more cumbersome.

Reiter countered that the move could allow the preservation of valuable history. For example, she suggested the bricks from the former Cody Dairy could have been saved instead of being trashed.

“I don’t think this is too much to ask,” Reiter said of the delay.

The council informally approved the new administrative process in September.

Richard said in a Saturday email that she’s pleased Cody officials listened to local residents’ concerns and said the city has “done some great work.” However, she hopes Cody will consider adding more zoning criteria for “targeted preservation districts” and provide information to property owners about the grants and tax credits available for preserving historic buildings.

Ultimately, property owners can do as they wish, Richard said, “But if they have information that clearly outlines the historic value of their property it may give them pause before they tear it down.”

She’d also like to see an additional 30-day waiting period prior to demolition to offer one last shot at relocating historic buildings, because once they’re gone, “Cody is also changed forever,” she said.

As for the new up-to-21 day waiting period, Beauvais said the historic preservation commission’s primary aim has been to ensure historic buildings aren’t destroyed without warning.

“Change is inevitable and a lot of times change is a good thing,” he said, “but we don’t want to demolish historic buildings without documentation.”

So far, Beauvais believes the concerns have been specific to Cody, as the Park County Archives head hasn’t heard any similar objections to razings in Powell or Meeteetse.