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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/08/2002 - Regular Minutes - Historic Preservation Committee MINUTES Historic Preservation Committee October 8, 2002 CITY OF COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS 5:30 P.M. MEMBERS PRESENT: Chairman Sanford, Lancaster, Dannhaeuser, Chester, Grom, Davis & Conlee. MEMBERS ABSENT: Members McGee& McDermott. STAFF PRESENT: Staff Assistant Grace, Staff Planner Hitchcock, Senior Planner Battle, City Planner Kee, and Staff Planner Elrod. AGENDA ITEM NO. 1: Oath of Office. Ms. McDermott called before the meeting saying that she was going to resign from the Committee due to her father's failing health. AGENDA ITEM NO. 2: Call to Order. Chairman Sanford called the meeting to order at 5:35. AGENDA ITEM NO. 3: Consideration, discussion and possible action on absence requests. Member McGee did not turn in a request. The Committee did not vote on his absence. AGENDA ITEM NO. 4: Hear Visitors. No visitors spoke. Chairman Sanford took this time to introduced Kate Elrod to the Committee. Ms. Elrod will be the Staff Liason for the Committee. Ms. Elrod gave the Committee a brief summary of her background and experience AGENDA ITEM NO. 5: Consideration, discussion and possible action on place to store historic documents/materials. Ms. Elrod reviewed that at the last meeting Assistant City Manager Glen Brown committed to researching possible location to store historic documents. The report from Mr. Brown states that items could immediately be stored at the Office of Technology and Information Systems (OTIS) building on Krenek Tap Road. This facility offers the best climate controlled space available at the City of College Station. The MIS Department for the city is developing the capability to scan pictures & documents into a computer system and to create templates(indexes)for each item. HPC Minutes October 8,2002 Page 1 of 1 The City of Bryan and Brazos County also have also purchased the same software system. Ms. Elrod reported that she would be accompanying the Director of OTIS Olivia Burnside on Thursday to a meeting with Clara Mounce at the City of Bryan Carneige Center of Brazos Valley History to discuss the scanning and archiving of historic documents. The scanning would allow citizens to bring an item to the City of College Station to be scanned. Citizens could then donate the item to the City or take it home if do not want to give it up. Ms. Elrod said that Mr. Brown reported that long term storage of documents could be arranged at the College Station Public Library. Ms. Mounce's preference is to have everything at the Carnegie Center but she would comply with College Station's wishes. Ms. Elrod suggested that documents could be processed, scanned, and stored at the OTIS building and then at a latter date transferred to the College Station Public Library. Mr. Chester asked if a computer terminal could be available for citizens at the library to access the scanned material documents. Ms. Elrod committed to find out. Chairman Sanford stated that she feels strongly that College Station's historic records should stay in College Station. Mr. Chester asked how long would the OTIS building be available to house historical documents. Ms. Elrod committed to find out. Ms. Elrod reported that Ms. Burnside would be available to give the committee a demonstration of the scanning process at the November 12th meeting. Due to the equipment needed for the presentation the meeting would need to take place at the OTIS building. Mr. Lancaster made the motion to accept the offer of a demonstration by Olivia Burnside on November 12th at the OTIS Building. Mr. Chester seconded the motion,which passed (7-0). AGENDA ITEM NO. 7: Consideration, discussion and possible action on the creation of historic districts and regulations. (Agenda item #6 was skipped). Mr. Battle gave the Committee a recap of discussions that have taken place over the last couple of years. The topics are as follows: Creation of a Historic District and what that would entail - if the district was created what would we tell citizens they could and could not do with their property was a concern. Historic District verses a Neighborhood Conservation District — A true Historic District focuses on the actual preservation of structures and architecture of an area. A Conservation District is a bit broader. It focuses on the conservation of the neighborhood and the character of the neighborhood. From a regulatory standpoint typically a Historic District focuses on the preservation of structures to a specific time period in detail. Where as in conservation terms you look at what is called bulk regulations, meaning setbacks, lot size, buildings heights, etc. that are not as detailed but overall affect the character of the neighborhood. HPC Minutes October 8, 2002 Page 2 of 5 Mr. Battle told the Committee that the city in 2000 started the process to revise all the development codes. This Committee met with the consultant to talk about what type of things could be included in the Unified Development Code in terms of historic preservation and conservation. This Committee put together a report that was given to the consultant, Planning & Zoning and City Council. The final draft of the UDO has just been released to the public and is scheduled to be adopted in February. Mr. Battle told the Committee that he went through the final draft to see how many of the recommendations from the Committee were in the draft. In general, the draft of the UDO did have some contextual architectural standards from this Committee's report. At a joint City Council and Planning & Zoning Workshop it was decided to remove from the UDO most of the items submitted by this Committee. It was decided it was more regulation then they would like to implement at this time. Exceptions being requirements for front setbacks for homes platted prior to 1970 and an amendment to the subdivision regulations adopted in March 2001 that regulates the lot size. Lots may not be subdivided to less than 8500 feet or less than an average of similar lots in the area. A report was presented to City Council this spring on property maintenance standards and steps are being taken to be more proactive on property management standards. Also there was a report on parking and how to address parking issues on a case by case basis and the City has developed a traffic-calming program. Mr. Grom asked for definition of the boundaries of the historic preservation/conservation district. Mr. Battle replied that there is not a historic preservation district. Chairman Sanford stated that she thought HPC had defined the boundaries. Mr. Battle replied that there are a couple of different process that have been done to define historic areas but that he could not recall what the boundaries were. Mr. Lancaster replied that it is generally Timm to Wellborn and George Bush to Holleman. Chairman Sanford stated that she thought the Committee had worked on that with the past Chairman and it was approved by City Council. Mr. Battle replied that there are some areas associated specifically with the subdivision regulation that outlines where that applies, but he does not know if it coincides with the committee's historic area boundaries. Ms. Kee stated that she thinks the area is broader because the maps this Committee put together identified subdivisions that were platted prior to 1950. The subdivision amendment references developments prior to 1970. Ms. Kee added that she dose not recall the maps ever going to Council. Ms. Kee stated that it might have been added in a Committee update to Council. Ms. Kee ended by saying that the areas do not have any official designation as districts or zones. Mr. Battle told the Committee that there has never been anything officially adopted by Council as any specific district. Mr. Battle suggested that if the City were to develop a conservation district defining the area would be the first step. Mr. Grom asked if there was reluctance on the part of the city to designate districts because it is seen as a regulator activity. Mr. Battle stated that his impression from the joint City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission workshop was specific contextual standards were more regulation then they wanted. The Committee discussed the Northgate Historic Reference Guide that was supplied to them in their packets. Mr. Chester asked what was the purpose of the Northgate Historic Reference Guide if there are no regulations. Mr. Battle stated the survey was completed in 1995. Ms. Kee replied that guide was done because a special zoning district was created for Northgate. There were some design guidelines created with recommendations as how to treat properties according to whether survey determined structures to be of low, medium or high historic significance. Mr. Chester made the comment that some of the high priority buildings have been demolished. Ms. Kee stated that the city did not have an ordinance that prevented buildings from being demolished. HPC Minutes October 8, 2002 Page 3 of 5 Ms. Kee described the process of the UDO as being a huge process. It was when the consultant came forward with the contextual standards and ideas for a regulation district she was surprised that the City Council nixed the idea. Those ideas grew out of neighborhood concerns that had gone to the City Council over the previous years. Ms. Kee told the Committee that she did not know what was going on and what made that happen. It was decided at a meeting that the City Council did not want to go to that level of detail at this time. Ms. Kee ended by telling the Committee that the only items in the UDO from this Committee are the front setback and the pre-1970 lot sizes. Ms. Elrod went over the Historic Preservation Committee Purpose as stated by City of College Station ordinance. Ms. Elrod gave the Committee web sites to research. The question was asked what the designation of the plaques by HPC affords the building owners. Ms. Elrod stated that it recognizes the structure, property, an event or a person that is historically significant and is educational in nature. The Committee discussed ways of getting the word out to the citizens to get support for creating districts. Mr. Grom suggested starting with the Southside residents since the majority of the home plaques have been given in the area. Mr. Battle brought to the Committee the picture slides of the Southside Historic Resource Survey that was started. The slides were pictures of all homes that were identified as being constructed before 1950. Mr. Grom made the motion to develop a procedure to begin looking at how to pursue the homes that eligible for home plaques. Ms. Davis suggested having a tour of homes. The Committee could ask owners of historic homes if they would like to be a part of the tour. Tickets would be sold and the money would go toward the Committee. This would get those people interested in preservation out for the tour. It was suggested to gear this toward the Christmas Holiday. Mr. Lancaster stated that would take a great deal of organization. The Committee continued discussions on the home plaques and the application process. AGENDA ITEM NO. 6 Consideration, discussion and possible action on "Current Holdings" Ms. Elrod went over the list of current holdings. Ms. Davis made the motion to move the items on the current holding list to the OTIS Building. This would exclude the items at the Conference Center. The items at the Conference Center will be scanned. Mr. Chester seconded the motion, which passed unopposed (7-0). HPC Minutes October 8, 2002 Page 4 of S AGENDA ITEM NO. 8: Consideration, discussion and possible action on Committee project/program ideas and way to implement. Chairman Sanford requested a copy of the HPC budget. She continued by saying one way to implement some of the projects/programs is to define the areas and do a mailing inviting them to apply for a plaque. Chairman Sanford stated that there are a lot of good ideas and they need to get started. There were discussions on several ideas. Mr. Battle told the Committee that doing things outside of the monthly meetings is encouraged. Mr. Battle added that when this Committee began it relied heavily on sub-committees. At one time there were up to 5 sub-committees going at one time. Ms. Hitchcock gave the Committee on update on the plaques and the cost. There are presently 2 and 10 on order. The 10 on order have come in a little cheaper than what had previously been ordered. Ms. Davis seconded the motion that was made by Mr. Grom in agenda item No. 7. (Mr. Groin made the motion to develop a procedure to begin looking at how to pursue the homes that eligible for home plaques.) The Committee voted in favor(7-0). AGENDA ITEM NO. 9: Consideration, discussion and possible action on future agenda items. Assign Sub-Committees. The Committee took the list of web sites Ms. Elrod handed out and assigned a member a web site to research before the next meeting. Ms. Elrod stated that she wanted to setup PR dates for TV and radio for 2003. Chairman Sanford stated that would be great. AGENDA ITEM NO. 8: Adjourn The meeting was adjourned. APPROVED: ITLetha6_MarSanford, Chairm. ATTE 'T: tb Deborah Grace, Staff Assistant HPC Minutes October 8, 2002 Page 5 of 5