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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/05/2000 - Regular Minutes - Historic Preservation Committee 9reservalion Comm//tee 9egular Weeling College dial/on Conference Center 1300 george bush cDn've clOednesday, 91pni 5, 2000 - 515 pm MEMBERS PRESENT: Russell Duke, Co-Chair; Monte Trenckmann; Margaret Griffith; Joan Perry; Elton Abbott; Marsha Sanford MEMBERS ABSENT: Deborah Jasek, Chair; Bill Lancaster; Shawn Carlson STAFF PRESENT: David Gerling, Special Facilities Superintendent; Pamela Springfield, Committee Secretary VISITORS PRESENT: Mike Luther; Dennis Maloney I. Call to Order: Russell Duke called the meeting to order at 5:21 p.m. 2. Approval of Minutes: Russell made a motion to approve the March 1, 2000 minutes. Margaret Griffith seconded. Hearing no objection, the motion passed unanimously. 3. Hear Visitors: Mike Luther had nothing to present. 4. Historic Home/Building Plaque Applications Submitted for Approval: No applications had been submitted for approval. Presentation, Discussion, and Possible Action regarding text for Judson Loupot Subject Marker David Gerling stated that Loupot's Bookstore had approved the text for the subject marker. Russell asked if the plaque would be located on the inside or outside of the building. David suggested putting the plaque on the outside for better visibility. David said the committee needed to decide whether the plaque should be presented at a City Council meeting or if there should be a press release with an unveiling. Everyone agreed that a public unveiling should be done, with notification to The Battalion and The Eagle. Joan Perry made a motion to approve the text for the subject marker for Judson Loupot. Margaret seconded, and hearing no objection, the motion passed unanimously. 5. Update on the Status of the A&M Church of Christ, Elton Abbott — Discussion and Possible Action: Elton stated that A&M United Methodist Church, who owns the building which was formerly A&M Church of Christ, is proposing to tear the building down and use the area for parking. It had been used for daycare purposes, however, plaster was falling from the ceiling, and so it was closed. Elton explained that it had been designed by Ernest Langford, and is one of the older buildings in town. The building has been modified. The main entry and portico that faced College Main were removed, and a rest room and another main entry were added. Even though it retains much of its original character, those changes make it ineligible for the National Register of Historic Places. He said the church is a private entity and could tear the building down if they wish. He Historic Preservation Committee April Minutes Page 2 stated that if it had been eligible to be on the National Register of Historic Places, then the Historic Preservation Committee (HPC) could have had it declared eligible, and no one would be allowed to tear it down. Since it is not eligible, all that can be done is appeal to the church's sense of historic preservation. He said it would be economically feasible to restore it for use as a professional office or gallery space. His company put in a proposal to purchase the building but never received a response. Others have also expressed interest. He said the church has decided to remain at its' current location instead of moving to the Highway 6 Bypass. A firm has been hired to take another look at their master plan. Marsha Sanford made a motion that a letter be sent to A&M United Methodist Church expressing the HPC's desire that the old Church of Christ building be saved. Margaret said the letter should state that the HPC understands that the building is theirs to do with as they please. It should also request that alternative uses for the building be considered, since so much of the history of Northgate has been destroyed. David said he would draft a letter for the member's approval. Joan seconded the motion. All members were in favor and the motion passed unanimously. David said he would e-mail the letter to all members and get a hard copy to Monte Trenckmann. 6. Updates from David Gerling - Presentation, Discussion, and Possible Action: a. Representative from Texas Historical Commission (THC) to help with the writing of the ordinance - David said he had not been able to get anyone to agree to come talk to the HPC regarding ordinance writing. He stated that the THC's annual conference was coming up in May and there would be two workshop session topics that might be helpful. "Developing Historic Preservation Ordinances,"and "Putting the Ease into Conservation Easements"would be the two sessions of greatest interest to the HPC. David said that he and Shawn Carlson would be going, as well as the past president for the Brazos County Historical Commission. b. Review and discussion of updates to "A Guide to Historic Brazos Valley" - David stated that Pam Springfield had been going through the old guide making additions and revisions to the College Station information. The most recent version was passed out to everyone (attached). David said copies would be gotten to Bill Paige, who was gathering the information for the brochure. The cost for the brochure would be divided between the City of Bryan, City of College Station, the Brazos County Historical Commission, and the Brazos Heritage Society who was overseeing the printing. They were hoping to go to print in early summer so the brochures could be ready before the end of September. c. Update on Oral History Book David stated that since he hadn't gotten a response back from A&M Press and it had been three weeks since he'd talked to Jeff Carroll, he had nothing to report. 7. Southside Area Lighting Project Update from Subcommittee: Margaret said she and Russell had discussed the placement of the lights in Southside. She said they felt it would make more of an impact if the lights were placed on one or two streets, instead of spreading them out randomly throughout the district. She asked Dennis Maloney how many lights there were. He told her there were 40 lights, plus the money to purchase nine more. The members agreed that finishing the lights around Brison Park should be done first. David stated the City's Electrical Department was already on-line to do the Brison Park lights first. The members again discussed the idea of placing memorial plaques for the twelve bonfire victims on the light poles in Brison Park. Everyone agreed that the project should be done and that there should be one light pole dedicated for each student. Elton suggested installing and dedicating an additional marker to accompany the plaques and possibly dedicating the park itself to the memory of the twelve students. After some discussion Elton moved to memorialize the twelve students killed in the bonfire accident with twelve individual plaques inscribed with their names on twelve light poles, as well as a separate, permanent marker to be created that would highlight the reason Historic Preservation Committee April Minutes Page 3 for the twelve individual lights. Margaret suggested putting the bonfire emblem on the individual plaques. Everyone agreed it was a good idea, and so the motion was amended to include the bonfire emblem. Margaret seconded Elton's motion. All members were in favor and the motion passed unanimously. Discussion continued regarding placement of the remaining lights in the Southside Area. Monte stated that he thought it was best to have the lights shared throughout the area instead of concentrated on one or two streets. David suggested having the lights concentrated in two or three different high-traffic areas. Elton suggested having one street concentrated with about ten lights and then scattering the remainder throughout the district. Joan said the installation needed to be done in conjunction with the removal of the halogen lights from those same areas. Margaret suggested concentrating the lights on Dexter all the way down to Winding Road, to show how it would look. Elton made a motion to empower the subcommittee (Margaret, Monte, and Bill Lancaster) to decide where the lights should go when they went through the area with David Massey of the City's Electrical Department. Joan seconded. The motion was voted on and passed unanimously. David said he would be in touch with David Massey and then e-mail the subcommittee with tentative dates to visit the Southside area to decide on the lamps. 8. Boundaries for Historic Neighborhoods — Discussion and Possible Action: Shawn Carlson was to have gotten updated boundary maps from the City's Geographic Information System (GIS) Department showing the Northgate, Eastgate, and Southside Historic Areas as identified by the HPC. David added that this went along with what the Planning & Zoning (P&Z) Commission was doing with overlay districts. Dennis Maloney stated that this would be discussed at the Planning & Zoning meeting scheduled for Thursday, April 6, 2000, and that he would be present at that meeting. Margaret asked if Dennis would update the HPC at the May meeting regarding the outcome of the P&Z meeting. Dennis said he would. Mike Luther asked to speak. He informed the HPC that he had gone to the courthouse and had made copies of every deed transaction recorded by the Southside Development Company for the original College Park area, until their demise in 1942. There were about 150 transactions, which would include some of what Hershel Burgess had done. Mike stated that with a little more research he would have copies of everything on record, of what were probably the first transactions for approximately 180 different houses, from 1923-1948. He said that the information only gives the date that the property was first sold, with volume, date, and page numbers. He said he would get copies of all those original deed transactions to the HPC. Some of the deed transactions were done in the area prior to the time that Hrdlicka plotted it out in 1918. He said he also had oral histories from several people, and before it's over, he should be able to tell the HPC what happened to the small black community, which was probably the first houses/subdivision in the area. Everyone thanked Mike for his hard work. 9. Discussion and Possible Scheduling of a Second Meeting in April to Develop Details on Pending and Ongoing Projects: Margaret stated that she had requested that this item be added to the agenda. She suggested that the HPC hold either a second meeting or a workshop to create timelines and to discuss projects that are both pending and in progress. She asked everyone if they would be willing to have a workshop and if an agenda was necessary. David stated that there would have to be an agenda any time the committee met. The members agreed it would be wise to have a workshop so that some of the projects on hold could either be moved on or gotten rid of. The members decided to change the May meeting from the 3rd to the 10th, so that Elton and Monte could be there, and an extended meeting with dinner would be held. It was also decided that there would be a couple of summer meetings. No meeting would be held in June. There would be a meeting held on July 12th, and a meeting held on Wednesday, August 2, 2000.