15 February 2005 | Approved: 15 March 2005
HPC members present: Bob Booher, Chair, Chris Kirtz, Ed Mroczka, Bruce Rothrock and David Neumann. David Stopak attended as Town Council liaison.
The February 15th meeting of the Historic Preservation Commission began at 7:30 p.m. with the approval of the agenda. The Chair asked Chris Kirtz to take minutes and approved the minutes of the December meeting with minor revisions.
Open items from the last meeting
Clare Cavicchi brought her files and the first hour of the meeting was devoted to discussing how to best use and archive this material. Mary Challstrom and Missy Yachup who are working on archiving attended this first hour and were a part of that discussion.
Clare has a variety of materials in her possession which she is willing to make available but wants to do so with an understanding that we have sufficient safeguards in place to ensure they are not misused or lost. Bob Booher will contact her to propose that we Commissioners and/or Washington Grove Archivists are allowed to access them for HPC or Archival use but that anyone else who requests access to items from her materials — which will be stored and labeled separately — will need to contact her directly and get her permission to use.
Archive Regulations: Mary Challstrom and Missy Yachup are still endeavoring to obtain sample archival guidelines currently used by other towns for the HPC to use as a starting point to develop its own Washington Grove ones.
FAR subcommittee: Bob Booher, David Neumann and Bruce Rothrock agreed to meet to discuss the utility of suggested FAR protocols as a possible tool to help mandate design elements important to the HPC, e.g. bulk and massing.
Design Guidelines. Bob Booher and Ed Mroczka agreed to meet and prepare a new set of Draft Guidelines based on the comments received in time for review at the HPC’s March meeting.
Heritage Committee Volunteers: Chris Kirtz reported that with the assistance of Scott and David Neumann, Bruce Rothrock, Ed Mroczka and others from the town, he hoped to have digital photographs of the major facades of the Contributing Structures by the March HPC meeting.
Mansionization Conference. Chris Kirtz reported things were progressing well with a walking tour in the planning stages and Wayne Goldstein, the Conference organizer, appreciative of the Grove’s support. David Neumann agreed to ask Bill Saar to hold Website space for information about the Conference.
Permit Application Process: Bob Booher agreed to get a revised copy of the materials the Town Clerk has to hand out at the next Town Council meeting to ensure it properly reflected the text agreed upon between the HPC and the Planning Commission.
Bulletin: Chris Kirtz agreed to work with the Town Clerk to make the invitation for early review more enticing and to place a notice about the HPC’s photography project so town residents would not be alarmed if they saw people taking pictures of their houses.
New Business
The Commission approved the letters Bob Booher prepared stating the HPC’s position with regard to the ICC and his letter to the ICC Project Team of the Maryland State Highway Administration.
The next meeting was scheduled for March15, 2005.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:39 p.m.