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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/06/1996 - Regular Minutes - Historic Preservation Committee HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1996 -- 5:15 P.M. CENTRAL PARK 1000 KRENEK TAP ROAD HISTORIC COMMITTEE Bill Lancaster, Chairman Deborah Jasek, Co- Chair Dennis Maloney MEMBERS PRESENT: Sharon Menn Carol Wagner Bryan Howard Elton Abbott Aaron Ffrench, Old Main Society Liaison MEMBERS ABSENT: Mary Jane Hirsch Bill Fox, Council Liaison STAFF PRESENT: David Gerling, Special Facilities Superintendent Pamela Einkauf, Senior Secretary Bridgette George, Staff Assistant VISITORS PRESENT: Mike Luther Betty Groce, Community Appearance Committee I. CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 5:18 p.m. by Bill Lancaster, Chairman 2. SWEAR IN NEW AND RE- APPOINTED MEMBERS: Bridgette George was present to swear in re- appointed member, Carol Wagner. After Carol was sworn in, Bill told everyone that Carol had been named "Volunteer of the Year" by the Bryan/College Station Chamber of Commerce. 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The minutes for 10/2/96 were approved as written. 4. HEAR VISITORS: Both Mike Luther and Betty Groce were not present at this time, but arrived later in the meeting. 5. 'L ► •• • • J . 1 . il •L . At t _ • t L 1 - 1 Staff Planner, Development Services: David stated that Joey Dunn would not be present, but that his presentation would be moved to December or January. At that time, the Historical Area research will have been done. David explained that there were two or three students who would be documenting the Southside area by taking area -wide photos, close -up photos, cross - referencing the documentation with any information the HPC might have, and finally, putting all the information in a comprehensive book. Bill L. said he had the original plat of College Park and the title abstract from the Southside Development Company for College Park. It identifies College Park, showing South Oakwood on one side and West Park on the other. Bill said Joey could use whatever he wanted, but because the abstract was so detailed -- going all the way back to Stephen F. Austin -- he would make copies of just the information that would be helpful to Joey. 6. REVIEW & DISCUSSION OF HISTORIC HOME APPLICATIONS: David said he had not received any applications for review, but he knew that there were about eight applications in the Historic Preservation Committee Page 2 works. Dennis had an application which he had just received from Mrs. Deliah Fleming for 103 Fairview, however, he said she had not included any information about herself or her husband in the narrative. Dennis stated that Mrs. Fleming had taught school for 27 years, and her husband had been with Mechanical Engineering at A &M for 37 years. Dennis said that she would send a picture. Dennis said the problem he was having with people regarding the applications was that they were willing to put together the information, but were embarrassed to write about themselves and a lot of times didn't know what to include. Dennis asked if a sample could go out with the applications which would give people a guideline. David said he would go through the files and find a good example of one of the best ones, and make copies of it to go out with future applications. The HPC agreed that it would like for Mrs. Fleming to provide more information about herself and her husband before approving the application. David said he would get with her and then re- submit the application next month. 7. SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS; Bryan asked if there was a list of the Texas State Historical Markers located within the city. David said there was, and Pam got him a copy of the list showing markers located within Brazos County. David said the information could be accessed through the Internet as well. Bryan said that he'd been looking for information that could be used to help obtain a "Native American" state marker. Since he'd been unable to find information on anything site - specific within the city limits, it looked as though the Lick Creek Park research would be the best bet for hard data. He said he did find a few other things he'd like to look into, but he wanted to look at the list of current markers to see what had already been done. Sharon brought some photos that she'd taken. She wanted to know if they would be acceptable for documentation purposes. She said it was impossible to stop on streets like Texas Avenue or FM 2818, and that is was very difficult to take pictures from a moving vehicle, but if her driver stayed under 25 mph she could take some pretty good shots. She said she'd taken about 80 photos altogether, and that she'd been taking them to Wal -Mart to be processed as 4 "x6" prints. She told David she was buying the film from there as well, but that she hadn't turned in any receipts yet. She said she was labeling the photos, and wanted to know if she should continue as she'd been doing, or if perhaps she should change cameras, or have the photos developed as slides. Bill emphasized that the pictures Sharon had taken were only one part of the photo documentation process, and encouraged the HPC to continue trying to collect old photographs. Aaron stated that an Old Main Society member who'd done a lot of research on old campus, had put together a slide presentation showing old photos of campus. Aaron said that it was an excellent presentation and he would be glad to arrange to have the presentation shown to the HPC. Bill said that would be great. Elton asked David what photo documentation Joey Dunn and his people were doing, and how that tied into what the HPC was doing. David said they would be taking photos of part of a block, as well as photos of the actual residences on the block. Black and white photos, as well as slides, would be taken. David said he didn't know the scope of the Southside project, but he knew that when the Northgate study had been completed, Joey had about four, three -inch binders full of information. Elton said he wanted to know what the HPC was trying to do with its photo documentation. Bill stated that it hadn't been that carefully defined, but basically, the HPC was just collecting information. What would be done with that information, had yet to be determined, but the HPC had found out that it was very hard to find photographs taken before the era of the 35mm and the camcorder. Elton asked if the focus was more on old photos than on current photos. Bill said yes, but Historic Preservation Committee Page 3 added that what Sharon was doing was due to the changes which would be taking place over the next 5 -10 years as the City grew, and the HPC was trying to get a collection of photos together on the City as it appeared now. Sharon added that every 5 -10 years the process would need to be repeated. She said that having aerials in that collection would be wonderful. Bill said that Bill Kling had a handle on that, and aerials weren't as readily available as people believed. He explained that Bill Kling, as an engineer, had sought them for his own business, and pictures are made, but hard to find. He added that Bill Kling had a good collection of aerials, and the HPC could probably get copies of some of his stuff. Grace Calbert also had a collage of some aerial photos Mr. Kling put together. Sharon asked how recent those aerials were, and Bill said 1932. Brett asked if the collection of new photos Sharon was taking included shots of the new buildings being constructed, and the widening of Texas Avenue. Sharon said yes. Sharon said she knew the photos weren't going to be the best quality, but the HPC had to start somewhere. Elton said if there were some gaps in the project, then copies of photos could be gotten from the city archives. He told Sharon that the camera was adequate, but she really needed to stop the car and walk around and take the photos. He knew it made it harder to do the project, but the image would be a lot clearer. Dennis suggested that over the Christmas holidays when the students were gone would be an excellent time to take photos. He said he'd go with Sharon and with flashing lights on the back of his truck, and her car in front, she could stop safely and take pictures. Brett said that in 20 -30 years it would be very difficult to tell where some of the landscape photos had been taken, even if they were labeled. Elton suggested marking a map to show where the photos had been taken. Elton said that if you went to the Highway Department, they have a large aerial map and you could pick your spot and they'd make you a print of the area you wanted. Dennis asked if special equipment was needed for aerial photography. Elton said the Highway Department used large format cameras so that you got a very clear image. Mike Luther said that he had probably a couple hundred photographs showing railroad trains and everything, that he'd be happy to loan the HPC so that they could be duplicated. Elton said it would be wonderful if the collection could be accessed through the Internet for everyone to enjoy. Bill suggested putting some pictures on the Internet and asking for more. David said that the Parks & Recreation Department was currently working on a historic preservation home page, which would be tied in with Parks & Recreation's Internet information. Elton asked if a collection of photos could be put on there by category -- by year or decade perhaps. David said yes, his understanding was that a photo would just have to be scanned into the system, but it would come down to a matter of money. Sharon asked the HPC if she should be taking black and white photos instead of color and Elton said no. She asked about having the negatives developed as slides instead of pictures. Bill said not yet. Elton said that slides were cheaper, but harder to look at. David said that Parks & Recreation had run into that problem -- trying to find a particular photo and having to look through the slides to find it. Elton suggested to David that the city's information technology department put together a visual database for viewing those slides. Mike Luther said that an example of a slide collection like that, had been done by Paul M. Sitler from the Texas A &M Agricultural Experiment Station, and that it could be accessed through the Internet via www.leviathan.com. He said there were about 5,000 slide images at that web site. He said the HPC might be able to get Mr. Sitler to come show the HPC how to put the collection together, index it, and show how it could be done. Elton gave his Internet address as well, to view a smaller collection of architecturally related photos -- www.arkitex.com. Bill thanked Mike and Elton and said the information may help Sharon. Historic Preservation Committee Page 4 Deborah didn't have anything new to report. She said she had a couple of ideas, but those would have to be on hold for a month or two. Dennis wanted to know if it would be possible for different pockets of streets in Southside to form their own homeowner's associations, and still get matching funds. David said from the last meeting he'd attended, he understood that it was up to the neighborhood to define the different associations. Dennis said he'd talked to Bill Kling about it, and Mr. Kling had suggested forming smaller neighborhood associations, since there were so many small pockets of houses that would want to participate, such as Breezy Heights, Oakwood, Dexter, and College Park. They would all fall under the umbrella of the Southside Historical District, with a representative for every association and a main representative for the overall district. Elton said he felt the Gateway Committee would be supportive of that idea as long as there was a defined association. He said he thought it would be nice if small plaques could be added to the lamps identifying the different neighborhoods. Dennis said he would like to check with the City and propose a plan whereby someone could purchase a lamp for $750, the HPC would put a plaque on it dedicating it in memory of someone, and see if the city would install and maintain that lamp. David said he's talked to the City Electric Department and they've said they take care of street lights for safety, not aesthetics. Dennis said these could be considered safety lighting. Brett said it could have something to do with the fact that the existing lights produce more lumens because of their height. David said he knew that currently there was a program being put together as far as a donation catalogue, where someone could purchase a tree or a park bench, etc., and he said he would check into it and see if possibly the lamp could be included. David said the HPC needed to make sure the idea for donating lamps was planned out carefully. Perhaps have a map with pre - designated locations for the lamps, and then, as people donated, they could choose one of the locations on the map where no lamp had been placed. Bill said that was a good idea because he didn't want the lamps to be like the signs where there were too many in one area. Brett said the best idea would be to develop a master plan for the whole area and then divide it up into different districts. Dennis asked if he was the one who should do that. Bill said before that happened the HPC needed to get through the neighborhood issue. Brett said when the whole thing was over it would be something that was unified throughout the whole district. Everyone agreed, and Bill said the HPC shouldn't proceed without that. Sharon asked who with the city should be contacted to do the planning. Brett and David both said it would be the electrical department. David said he'd try to get a transformer map from the Electrical Department and get it to Dennis to show him where the electrical sources are in those neighborhoods and go from there. Dennis asked David to find out how much the lamps like the ones at Thomas cost in different quantities in increments of 50. Dennis said there was $10,000 from the federal government for security lighting - not decorative lighting. That money could be spent from Fairview on over (west) , and he felt the HPC should take care of that first before that money disappeared. Even if the lamps were purchased and had to be stored for awhile until the program was developed and people began purchasing them - like the HPC did with the historic home plaques. Bill asked about Brazos Beautiful taking on Brison Park as a project. He said the HPC needed to coordinate whatever was done with them very carefully. David said Brison Park was a unique park because there were some deed restrictions there, which was why there was no playground equipment, benches or anything there. He said that whatever Brazos Beautiful did, it would have to fall within those deed restrictions. Bill said he felt that a lot of the restrictions were over - interpreted Historic Preservation Committee Page 5 and could be overridden if the HPC tried. Dennis said he wanted to make sure the lights were coordinated with Brazos Beautiful. Bill said an overall plan needed to be structured in such a way that different groups didn't do different things. Elton asked if anyone knew what Brazos Beautiful wanted to do at Brison, and David said no, but they probably had been coordinating with Steve Beachy, the Parks & Recreation Director. Carol said she thought it was just trees. Bill and Dennis both said they thought lighting would be involved as well. Dennis said he'd received a letter from Jim Callaway with the City's Development Services, and on November 14, there would be a meeting at the City Council chambers regarding Southside. Dennis said he would be there to make sure the two groups weren't at cross purposes, and encouraged the other members to attend. 8. OTHER COMMITTEE CONCERNS: Brett said he'd brought a copy of an historic preservation district's ordinances for Dennis. He said it was not very restrictive and Dennis could look at it and see what he thought. Dennis said he assumed everyone on the HPC was in agreement that they would like to see Southside as an historic district rather than an historic area, since a district carried a little more weight. There were no objections. Brett said the ordinances he'd given Dennis only said that changes had to be presented to the Historic Review Board. It couldn't dictate house paint color, etc., it could only give recommendations as to what could be done to make it more historic, and those recommendations weren't binding. David said Bryan's historic district ordinances were a little bit stronger. Brett told Dennis if he needed copies of other ordinances to let him know. David said a request had come in to put up historic signs, going east -- from where the parking signs stopped -- to Timber and Holik. David said the HPC didn't have the signs or the money but it might be something to think about in the future. David said some people thought they needed signs and some didn't. Bill said the reason there were no signs in some areas because there was no parking allowed along either side of some of the streets. Dennis said people on Fairview would like to see a Southside Historical sign put up that said "No Parking" at all times -- it wouldn't fold down. He asked David if there was any money in the budget for that. David said no, and he'd have to check into it, but there were only about a dozen replacement signs and the thought was that those signs would be popular and stolen often. 9. DISCUSSION ON NEW MEETING PLACE; David said that the last few meetings had been pretty crowded. David wanted to know if the HPC wanted to continue meeting there or move the meetings to the Conference Center on George Bush Drive. Everyone said it would be more convenient for them to move it there. David said as long as the HPC continued to meet at 5:15 there shouldn't be a problem with parking. Everyone agreed to move the meetings to the Conference Center. David said that it would start with the December meeting. Bill said the Holiday on the Brazos Historic Homes Tour was looking for docents and if anyone was interested in volunteering, they needed to contact Gracie Calbert at 764 - 3746. 10. ADJOURN: The meeting was adjourned at 6:39 p.m.