18 July 2006 | Approved: 15 August 2006
HPC members present: Bob Booher, Chair, Chris Kirtz, Mimi Styles, Ed Mroczka, and David Neumann.
David Stopak attended as liaison for the Town Council. The meeting was called to order at 7:45 p.m.
After some modifications and deletions, the Commission members approved the Agenda presented by Bob Booher. David Neumann agreed to take minutes for the meeting. Minutes of the regular meetings of May 16, 2006 and of June 21, 2006 were approved, subject to a few changes.
Early Consultations
Rebecca Richters of 305 First Ave came to discuss her preliminary renovation plans. She showed photos of her house as it is now and a plan for changes, e.g. approx. 4 feet bump out to enlarge the kitchen and the addition of a back door to the east side of the structure. This was an early consultation.
Margo Cavenaugh also came for an early consultation with the HPC to discuss changes to their residence at 125 Chestnut Ave. She and Mark Dubnick are planning a roof over their patio and basement stairs that face Chestnut Road and a screened in porch on the Chestnut Ave. side of the building.
Chris Kirtz also asked for an early consultation and presented new plans for a renovation of his rental residence at 315 Grove Avenue. Maggie Range (8 The Circle) and Candi Byrne (203 2nd Ave) came to express their concerns that changes to the roof on 315 Grove Avenue might have a deleterious effect on their neighboring houses. Chris Kirtz showed the results of the new survey of the property boundaries and explained that it reduced some of the problems of encroachment onto Town rights-of-way.
Review Session
The HPC decided to review the revised plans for renovations to 206 Grove Avenue submitted by Conrad Ritter and Christiana Figueres. At the last HPC meeting plans were submitted for this renovation, but they were insufficiently clear to permit a review. As the plans were resubmitted for review again, but were still quite "sketchy," the HPC decided that it could only do a preliminary review of the drawings. One of the main problems was the lack of scale and precise dimensions of the drawings.
It was decided that Ed Mrozcka, who was writing the review should be asked by the Planning Commission (PC) to check that the final plans submitted to the PC are consistent with the material submitted to the HPC and consistent with the review and recommendations of the HPC.
It was decided that a copy of the material submitted should be kept in the files of the HPC so that a later comparison can be made. Had the applicants been present the review might have been easier. Commission members asked that the record show that the materials submitted were “sketchy” and had made the review difficult. It took two hours of discussion to perform the review. Luckily, the Town computer had a good set of photographs of the structure which allowed members to orient themselves with the sketches presented.
The application for a permit to build a gazebo at the rear of 127 Washington Grove Lane was submitted. The plans were discussed and a review will be written by Chris Kirtz.
There was some discussion on plans by Carolyn Sanford to demolish and build a new house at 115 Chestnut Ave. This discussion touched on the language of the deed by the Town to Carolyn Sanford of an abandoned piece of Town property. It also touched on the decisions of the Zoning appeals board.
Report to HPC on the Town Council
David Stopak and Bob Booher commented briefly on the Cator Property subdivision plans. A cluster zone is proposed by the Town attorney. The comments of the HPC are needed by the Town council by the next meeting on August 15. Members agreed to discuss this at our next meeting. The question was raised as to which other properties this type of zoning would apply in the future. It was decided to ask Mary Challstrom for a list of properties in Washington Grove that still can be subdivided.
Other Business
It was decided to invite Missy Yachup to attend a meeting in the fall so that the HPC members can hear about the status of the Town Archive and the archive data base project. The boxes of records and copies of documents that were the basis of the Town histories were given to Bob Booher by Clare Kelly. They are now in Bob Booher’s home. David Neumann promised to provide some plastic containers that would be more solid than the present cardboard boxes. It was decided by the members to do the collation of the house photos in the fall.
Miscellany
Bob Booher again raised the subject of commemorative plaques, such as the one that marks the Sacred Circle, which was a private donation. He suggested we discuss at a future meeting whether with HPC would want to encourage similar commemorative plaques, for example to designate buildings that have been lost (e.g., the hotel and the auditorium).
Victoria Erhart came into the meeting ca. 10:30 pm to ask the members’ assistance in asking a young man and a girl in a car to remove their car from Chapel Park (across from the Town Hall). The car had MD plates that read 4BKG84 MD. Despite their reluctance, Chris Kirtz successfully persuaded them to leave.
The next meeting will be on August 15, 2006 at 7:30 pm.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:30 p.m.