17 June 2003 | Approved: 22 July 2003
HPC members present: Bob Booher, Chair, Clare Cavicchi, and David Neumann
The June 17, 2003 meeting of the Historic Preservation Commission began at 7:00 p.m. with the approval of the agenda. The Chair asked David Neumann to take the minutes.
Preliminary Reviews
Jerry Ruley and Reggie Norton presented preliminary plans for an attached addition to the east side of their residence at 409 Brown St. The addition would consist of a garage with an attached shed. Changes were envisioned for the entrance to the residence. Applicants presented hand drawn sketches with elevations showing the project, a plat of the lot, and photos of the existing house from all four sides.
The addition would be visible from Brown Street, Cherry Avenue, and from the adjacent property to the north. 409 Brown St. is a Contributing Structure.
Suggestions were made of ways to make the addition differ somewhat from the original structure yet still be reflective of its style. Differentiating an addition from the original when the original structure has historic character was suggested here as it has been at previous reviews. The principle is to make a sufficient differentiation so that the style and character of the original is preserved making apparent what is new and what is old. Suggestions were made as to ways to accomplish this goal. Those will be incorporated in the written review. Additional discussion focused on the entrance to the house and the exterior – brick vs. stone – materials.
The question arose as to whether our preliminary review would expedite the building permit application process. The conclusion was that our procedures are still in flux and that it was our intention to do what we could to expedite the process when applicants presented their plans to the HPC prior to submitting their formal application for a building permit to the Town Planning Commission.
Application to replace an existing shed at 311 Locust Lane. A motion was made by Bob Booher, Chair, that we not review permit applications for renovations or structures that are covered by the Special Structures Section of the Code of Ordinances Art. 4 Section 5. Thus if no permit was required under that section of our ordinances, we would not review the permit. The motion was seconded and approved unanimously by the Commission.
Other Business
Adoption of minutes of the May meeting. The minutes were adopted subject to several changes.
Contributing structures. Clare stated that she still wanted to review several structures, which she would like us to discuss further at our next meeting. It was proposed that we would start with the list of contributing structures included as an appendix to the Town’s application to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. We would then approve changes to that original list and publish it in the Town Bulletin and then allow one month of comments. We also discussed just publishing the list as it was not agreed that it was necessary to allow a month for comments. It was proposed that we vote on the list of contributing structures at our next meeting.
Descriptor. We discussed the details of the descriptor. Modifications to the descriptor were made. The adopted descriptor is attached to these minutes.
We discussed the HPC review procedure. Three documents were discussed:
- Early HPC Review Procedure
- "Permit Review Proc." and
- Timetable
We discussed a list of Items the HPC will not be reviewing. Clare moved and Bob seconded that we approve and adopt the list of items the HPC will not be reviewing. The motion was carried unanimously.
It was decided that our next meeting would be the third Tuesday of July on July 15th.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:18 p.m.