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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02/02/2000 - Regular Minutes - Historic Preservation Committee Wislon'c cPreservalion Comm//lee 9egular Wee/mg College dial/on Conference Center 1300 george aish 'Drive (Wednesday, 'February 2 2000 - 515 pm MEMBERS PRESENT: Russell Duke, Co-Chair; Bill Lancaster; Shawn Carlson; Elton Abbott; Monte Trenckmann; Marsha Sanford MEMBERS ABSENT: Deborah Jasek, Chair; Dock Burke; Margaret Griffith; Joan Perry STAFF PRESENT: David Gerling, Special Facilities Superintendent; Pamela Springfield, Committee Secretary VISITORS PRESENT: Melissa Bingham 1. Call to Order: Russell Duke called the meeting to order at 5:27 p.m. 2. Approval of Minutes: Bill Lancaster made a motion to approve the January, 2000 minutes. Shawn Carlson seconded. The members voted unanimously to approve the minutes as written. 3. Hear Visitors: Melissa Bingham stated that she was there to observe the meeting. She explained that she was working on her Girl Scout Gold Award, and that she had to put in at least 50 hours of work to earn that award. She said she has done research in the Southside area on different homes on Pershing and Fairview Streets, in order to fill out historic home plaque applications. David Gerling added that she had some gaps in her information, and introduced her to Bill Lancaster. David told her that Bill could fill in a lot of the gaps. She said she had a list of questions. She and Bill agreed to get together at a later time. 4. Historic Home/Building Plaques — Discussion and Possible Action: There were no applications turned in, however Melissa Bingham said she should have some of her applications ready for the next meeting. 5. Update on the Status of the A&M Church of Christ — Discussion and Possible Action: Elton Abbott said this is the church at the corner of College Main and Church Streets, located across the street from and belonging to, the Methodist Church. It is a historic building, which was originally built as the Church of Christ. Ernest Langford, the first mayor of College Station, designed it. It has been modified quit a bit from its original state, but is still a noteworthy structure. Elton said that currently there is a committee of the church trying to decide what to do. He said that he didn't know if it was the Historic Preservation Committee's (HPC) place to tell religious institutions what to do with their properties, but he would like for the committee to encourage them to support and preserve that structure. He explained that the church is not eligible for the National Register because it's been modified too much, but he said that didn't really matter because the community has lost structures that were eligible in the past. There are really no other buildings in the city of that age. He said the church committee has voted against moving it. Shawn Carlson asked if a letter should be written to the church committee. Elton said yes. No motion was made. 6. Southside Area Lightin• Pro®eC U• •ate from Subcommittee — Discussion and Possible Action: Russell Duke, Bill Lancaster, Margaret Griffith, Monte Trenckmann and Deborah Jasek form that subcommittee. The idea was for the subcommittee to go out with David Massey, with the Electrical Department, to identify places to put light poles. David Massey would be able to tell the subcommittee if it would be feasible to put light poles in the locations that they choose. David G. said the poles were in the process of being ordered. The electric department has agreed that all the lights ® the ones that will go into the park and the ones installed on the streets ®will be the white mercury vapor lights. The lights already in Brison Park are the white mercury vapor lights, while the current streetlights are the high-pressure sodium, yellow lights. Marsha Sanford was concerned about two different colors of lights on the streets. David G. said all lights purchased for City parks were the mercury vapor lights, but if the HPC wanted to change to the yellow lights, a decision should be made as soon as possible. Elton said aesthetically, he did not believe it would matter that much, and to go with the most cost-effective light. David G. said the concrete poles are coming out of the Midwest, while the globes are coming from California. He said that the model of globe that was ordered, now comes with aluminum built into the fixture, to help diffuse the light. The aluminum can be removed if you want the light to be brighter. -7. Memorial Plaques for the Decorative Light Poles — Discussion and Possible Action: Elton said his understanding of this project was, that Deborah wanted to do this as a memorial to the students killed in the bonfire accident. Marsha said Deborah had indicated to her that she wanted there to be a separate plaque per light pole, for each student. David said once the HPC decided that's what it wanted to do, he needed to get prices for the plaques so that this could be presented as a project to be funded through the 2001 budget. Shawn asked what the connection between Brison Park and the students was. She said she knew that A&M was already planning on doing a half million-dollar memorial, and wondered if this project would be necessary. She said she wasn't opposed to it, but thought it might be more appropriate to put memorial plaques on the lights with names of long-term residents, or names of families instead. Since Deborah was absent and she had initiated the project, the members agreed to table ._ this discussion until the next meeting. 8. Boundaries for Historic Neighborhoods, Update from Subcommittee that Met with GIS. Discussion and Possible Action: Shawn, Elton, and Marsha were on the subcommittee. Shawn said when they met with Cathy Raney, the only information Cathy had been able to pull up that was helpfuCshowed parcels of land that had a date of 1950 or earlier on them. However, Cathy had said that not every parcel had a date on it, so there could be other parcels that predate 1950. Shawn decided that what was needed was the subdivision plat date, so she went to the county clerk's office and looked up the plat dates, and gave Cathy the names of those subdivisions. When Cathy did the maps, she was able to show all those subdivisions that were 1950 or pre-1950, based on the dates Shawn looked up. Doing this basically defined the historic boundaries. Shawn stated that these subdivisions showed up in blue on the maps that were displayed. Northgate: Shawn stated that the boundaries for Eastgate should be Nagle Street, University Drive, Wellborn Road, and the College Station/Bryan City limits. Elton moved that those would be the boundaries, and Marsha seconded. Hearing no opposition, the motion carried. Eastgate: Around the edges there were some properties that encroached, making the boundaries uneven. Elton recommended keeping the lines straight, in order to keep the borders from having a sawtooth effect. He said doing so doesn't give any homes that are added into the district any extra rights, because each individual lot will still have to meet the criteria that's decided on. The new houses that fall into the historic area, will not be eligible for anything for a long time. 1 David asked if the area were to be designated a conservation area, as opposed to an historic if g pp storec area, if that would change the way the boundaries were drawn out. Elton said possibly. Shawn stated that a conservation area preserves the neighborhood, as opposed touttin g specific criteria P g P (what people can and can't do) on houses. She thought that the conservation overlay could be done now, to get started, and that it might be able to be done in such a way that the historic criteria could be added to it later on. Elton said he felt that the HPC should go with the historic overlay from the start as well, defining it as just areas that are of a certain age, since there would not be any modification limitations placed on structures. In this way conservation and preservation could be encouraged, it couldn't be enforced, but encouraged perhaps, through some sort of incentive program. Bill said this needed to be market driven, and that people need to be encouraged to take the properties and homes in the area and do something with them. He said just because a home was built in 1950, if you try to preserve it without any regard as to how it was built or how it looks, he's afraid the HPC will end up doing something wrong. Shawn stated that this discussion related to the ordinance, and the boundaries needed to be defined first. Shawn made a motion that the boundaries for Eastgate should: start at City limits on Texas Avenue, go south on Texas to the property line at the back of the lots on George Bush East Drive (this doesn't include properties facing Dominik, only properties facing George Bush East and Kyle), follow up to where it jogs over to Dominik, up past Munson, up to the back of the lot lines on Westover, and continues north across Francis up to Lincoln, west on Lincoln past Tarrow, P ast Avenue B, past Churchill, to the back of the lot lines that front on Pasler, that goes north and follows Chappel Street to the city limits. Elton seconded the motion. All were in favor, and the motion passed unanimously. Southside: Shawn asked if The Knoll Subdivision should be included in the historic area. Several members agreed that it should be included, as it would be very significant one day. Russell asked what the significance was. Monte said it was the area of houses built in the 1950's, done by Caudill and other architects who went on to reach national prominence. Bill made a motion to approve the boundaries (as per the attached map), for the Southside area. Marsha seconded. All were in favor and the motion passed unanimously. 9. Begin to Draft Criteria for Historic Area Ordinance(s) — Discussion and Possible Action: Shawn asked if someone from the Texas Historical Commission (THC) could come to the next meeting to help the committee with the ordinance. She said that one of the model ordinances she'd read, had stated that 27 cities had adopted that ordinance. She felt that someone from THC could explain what other cities have done. Bill said the ordinance shouldn't stymie growth, adding that you didn't want to make it so restricted that no one wanted to come in and do something with the property. He said there needs to be appropriate growth. He said the ordinance could state that you don't want high density, but you didn't want people to buy a piece of property and not be able to do anything with the house. Monte said historically, houses evolve anyway, and elements in an area do change. Elton stated that the THC had very strict ideas of what history was ®® and you didn't touch it. Monte used Russell's renovation to his home as an example. He stated that (if the ordinance is too strict) it would be like someone telling him he couldn't have done what he did to his house, and it would have just deteriorated. He said if the rules are not so severe, you could retain a good portion of it and make a worthwhile project. Shawn said that the Southside Preservation Report listed different things that people wanted in terms of preserving the Southside neighborhood. She said each HPC member needs to go to the meeting with THC, with a list of things they want preserved. The THC can help the HPC decide if those are the right things to include, and how it should be phrased. She said it might be that different things are wanted in each of the different areas. Bill said if expressed properly, he woulduld like to encourage buying and renovation. . : David said he would contact TexasHistorical • • Commission to see if someone would be willing to attend the next meeting. Russell..asked if there was someone locally that could be contacted. Elton said he could ask David Woodcock at A&M, but he would probably recommend contacting THC, because they have people on staff to do that type of thing. Elton reminded the members that they didn't have to accept any of the recommendations put forth by the THC. David said if no one from THC could come this month, then he'd find out when someone would be available. Shawn asked if there was money in the budget to hire a consultant to write the ordinance — someone who's actually done this before. Shawn said the HPC could decide what it wants and what it doesn't want, and do a draft. The consultant could look at the draft. David said there was money in the budget for office supplies, copies, etc, and about $700 to pay for the foundry costs for a state historic marker. David stated that the HPC had to go to City Council to ask for the extra sum of money for the contract for the oral history book, because what was needed had far exceeded what had been in the budget. 10. Wall of Honor at the High School — Subcommittee Update: The subcommittee members were not present to give an update. David said this item would be tabled until the next meeting. 11. Status on Updating of "A Guide to Historic Brazos Valley": David said the Brazos Heritage Society has undertaken to have the guide reprinted, since they've all been distributed. The Brazos County Historical Commission and the HPC have agreed to help pay to have this done. The format will be changed into booklet form. David said there is misinformation in the brochure, and it needs to be updated and gotten to Bill Paige with Brazos County Historical Commission, who will correct and input the information. Elton said the boundaries that had just been defined for the districts could be included in the brochure. David asked everyone to mark the incorrect information in the brochures in red, so the information could be gotten to Bill Paige. 12. Agenda Items for Future Meetings: * Elton asked for an update on the oral history book, or a visit from Jeff Carroll if he had anything for the HPC to review. David said he had talked to Jeff after the first of the year, and he was still working on the second half of the book. When it's ready he will bring it in to receive the HPC's approval for the entire book. After that it has to be published, and there are four or five book signings that we are obligated to help him set up. David said a publisher needed to be discussed at the next meeting, and decided on soon. Bill asked if A&M Press had turned the book down. David said they didn't turn us down, but they said they wouldn't make a decision until they saw something in print, and after that it would have to go to a committee for approval. * Light Pole discussion * Wall of Honor at the High School * Memorial Plaques in Brison Park * Someone from THC to help with the ordinance 13. Adjourn: The meeting adjourned at 6:47 p.m.