19 June 2012 | Approved: 17 July 2012
Present Members Mimi Styles, Bob Booher, and Margot Bohan, and Town Council Liaison Joli McCathran. The meeting began at 7:40 pm at the Town Council chambers.
Approval of Agenda and Adoption of Minutes
The proposed agenda was approved unanimously after deferring 3.9 (Next workshops), 3.10 (Solar Panel guidelines), and 3.11 (McClelland Permit precedent). Minutes of the May 15th meeting were reviewed and adopted, as revised.
Projects
The HPC reviewed permit applications to install solar panels on the roofs at 348 Ridge Road and 352 Ridge Road. The HPC also reviewed a permit application for 119 Maple (Peggy Ebner/MaryKay Dubois’ home) for dormer window alterations on the roof. Mimi will draft these 3 HPC reviews. Reference was made to Gail’s intention to search for guidelines for solar panels in historic districts. Gail, apparently, has looked at Washington, DC’s approach and will likely be able to share her findings at our next HPC meeting.
Report by Council liaison
There was nothing to report.
PC Meeting Report
Discussion of interest and relevance to HPC: (1) Building permits and solar panels – The Town doesn’t require permits for solar panels, but the county does. HPC will review and comment; (2) Towne Crest – Revised plan for 356 residences versus original proposal for ~450+ (107 residences are there now). In comments from the Town on the revised plan, CChallstrom/PC referenced historic incompatibility and interest in resuming contact with County Parks and Planning re: concerns about impacts to the Town woods. The HPC/DStopak started an impact review of the original Towne Crest proposal. Now, we have a chance to bring it to completion and incorporate the verbiage from the CChallstrom input; Bob will talk with David about this. Bob is to also find out if/when the deadline is for comments on this latest plan; (3) CSX – The Town’s Bridge Committee had a very positive meeting with the CSX representatives for the bridge rebuild. The CSX representatives were amenable to the Town’s interest, offering us approval of the planning process for the rebuild and landscaping of the surroundings (from Commercial Corner to Atchinson Crossing), i.e., if we don’t like what’s being done, CSX will stop. The Bridge committee is now in the process of getting estimates for a landscape architect, arborist, civil engineer and historic preservationist to see this project through.
PC Liaison
Bob attended the June 6th PC meeting. Gail is slated to attend the July 11th meeting.
Streetlighting
The HPC briefly discussed the Town Council’s actions at their last meeting regarding street lighting. Recognizing the HPC has a role to play in this discussion, the group reiterated its interest in providing its commentary from the historic perspective about streetlights to both the Town Council and Town Lighting Committee. We also discussed benchmarking what other historic towns are doing. Bob asked if any HPC member could pursue historic lighting research; noone has been identified at this time.
Town Bulletin
Pat Patula’s Archive Report mentions missing camp meeting association minutes from 1884-1902; Mimi will include this information in the next town bulletin with a request for folks to look in their attics, etc., if they think there might be a chance these are stashed in someone’s home files. For a future bulletin, Joli will ask Pat to take a photo of and write a description about the 1800s collapsible shipping box. Also for future bulletins, Mimi will contact Pat Patula and inquire about 100-year-ago factoids from the Town Archives or even quotes from 100-year-old town minutes that’d be suitable to put in the bulletin.
Meadow Park
The County came in and did spraying and invasive removal. Shelley commented that trees may have been negatively affected by the spraying. This issue is to be addressed to County Park and Planning because it is not the town’s doing.
Archive Report
Pat Patula submitted a monthly archive report (attached) on the work she (and Wendy & Joli) has (have) done on the archives. Joli will look into the details of Pat’s reference to computer backup problems on the town hall computer. Joli will also look into finding the cloth Washington Grove maps referenced in Pat’s report (they may be at Don and Jean McCathran’s house).
Board of Appeals
Jim Snyder’s appeal of the PC’s ruling against his proposal to enclose his carport was denied. He is now proceeding with a request to change language in the Town ordinance that motivated this decision. This will be discussed at the next Town Council meeting, July 9th.
Permit Application Review Procedures
Margot agreed to come to the next HPC meeting prepared to discuss her progress on updating the permit application review procedures. She’ll send out all relevant materials to HPC members in advance of our next meeting. All should come prepared to comment and consider the best options for making continued progress.
Design Guidelines
The Town’s design guidelines haven’t been updated in several years and could benefit from a review to ensure they’re meeting the Town’s current needs. It was decided that the HPC will integrate review of the design guidelines with the updates to the HPC building permit application procedures.
Commissioner terms up for expiration or renewal
David Stopak and Bob Booher’s terms as commissioners are set to expire and/or are up for renewal. Bob has agreed to continue on in his capacity as commissioner and chair. Bob will follow up with David to confirm his interest in renewing his term as HPC commissioner.
The next HPC meeting is July 17th.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:55 p.m.