18 March 2008 | Approved: 15 April 2008
HPC members present: Bob Booher, Chair, David Neumann, Ed Mroczka, and Mimi Styles. Margot Bohan was unable to attend. David Stopak attended as Liaison from the Town Council. The meeting was called to order at 7:30 p.m. Mrs. Shelley Winkler was present to present plans for an addition to her house. It was moved, seconded, and unanimously voted that we adopt the agenda proposed by Bob Booher with a number of changes. David Neumann agreed to take minutes for the meeting.
The minutes of the HPC meeting held on February 19, 2008 were approved with minor changes. Minutes from December 2007 have not yet been approved. Approved minutes from earlier meetings from the Fall of 2007 have been sent to the Town web site. There is a delay in posting these to the Web site as it is being upgraded.
MINUTES of the MEETING of the Commission DRAFT
Reviews
- Preliminary plans for an addition to the home of David Stopak and Shelley Winkler at 501 Brown Street were presented by the owners. Two alternative plans with perspectives were shown. The plans were discussed and the review will be written up by Mimi Styles.
- A special meeting of the HPC with the builder and manager of the commercial corner is planned for Thursday March 20 at 7:30 pm to review their plans for renovating the building whose addresses are 11 Brown Street and 105 Washington Grove Lane.
Town Council Report
David Stopak, the Council Liaison, reported on Town Council actions. :
He reported on the resolution to accept two of the block surveys (one is the survey for Acorn Lane). He explained the mitigation issue whereby words were put into the resolution to mitigate the effects on property owners of the effects of the re-determination of the block corners. The council will record the new surveys with the County Land Records Office.
He explained that the Council had heard from Chris Kirtz on the property at 315 Grove Road. The building is a contributing structure. It is believed that the porch on this house facing 2nd Avenue is intruding onto the right-of-way. The Council voted to provide the seller with a document that would explain the position of the Town on the encroachment. The seller (Kirtz) needed it in order to complete settlement. David Neumann mentioned that as new business he would like to discuss the HPC role in the Town policy towards encroachments on public lands.
Other Business
HPC Budget: This will be the subject of the next Council meeting and he wants to make sure that the HPC budget is correct. We discussed the budget and asked that David Stopak explain to the Council that the archivist salary ($4400) should not be set to zero, as David Neumann may not continue to work in that capacity for the whole year. It was resolved that we ask that ½ year salary be included in the HPC budget. We discussed the purchase of the Rock and plaque in this fiscal year, but it seemed that those costs would carry over to the next year. We also discussed the portion of the budget ($10,000 for FY 2009) associated with the oral history project led by Judy Mroczka. There is $5,000 associated with income to the Town from a National Trust Grant to the Town for the oral history project. $465 is in the budget for a minutes-taker for the HPC. We discussed the need to find someone to fill the spot. The Town Budget will be discussed on Mon. March 24 by the Town Council.
Board of Zoning Appeals. The BZA has received an application for a variance on a building permit submitted by Carolyn Sanford that had been turned down by the Planning Commission. The BZA will meet on this matter on April 26. The HPC members discussed the implication of the HP Ordinance (Art. XV, Section 5(e)) which states that the HPC has 30 days from the time it receives the application from the BZA to provide the BZA with its comments and review. This is also found in Art. VII Section 11.311. It was resolved to ask the BZA to send the application to the HPC. The HPC has written a review of the plans submitted by the Sanfords with their building permit application. We discussed whether that review was sufficient and resolved to review the variance application as a separate entity from the building permit application.
Ed Mroczka has taken some photos of the exterior of the Sanford house. There is no progress in our request to photograph some of the interior structure before it is demolished. A form releasing the Sanfords of liability has not been delivered. It would allow Bob Booher and Ed Mroczka to photograph the interior structure.
HPC Rules of Procedure: David Neumann has been editing the Rules of Procedure of the HPC. He promised to send the new draft to the HPC members this coming week.
Oral History Project. This was only discussed in connection with the HPC budget.
Placement of an historic marker in Morgan Park. Ed Mroczka said that he would go to Tri-State quarry and buy the rock for the plaque n the next two weeks. David Neumann volunteered to accompany him. Ed also agreed to provide a report to the Town Council on the wording on the plaque and the size and shape of the Rock. He would like to spend the money on the Rock and Plaque before June 30 (end of the Town’s fiscal year). We discussed the placement of the rock. It was agreed to set it further back from Grove Road, closer to the path that crosses the park to Brown St. We agreed that the plaque would face the RR and the beaten path.
Poetry Contest. Not discussed this time.
Annual Award Criteria. The discussion of the criteria to be used for annual awards was supposed to be discussed but was again postponed to the next meeting.
Design of a new Path: Bob Booher proposed a new path for pedestrians walking from their homes along Brown St. to the RR station. The path would parallel Brown St. from the East and swing down along the existing foot path then continue on the other side of Grove Road and go though the wooded area in a curve up to Grove Road and Brown St. We agreed that that would enhance the rock and marker and allow pedestrians to avoid cars along Brown Street.
House Histories. Ed Mroczka mentioned that he would speak to Phyllis and John Pentacost a bit more to get more of the history of their house.
Master Plan: The HPC sent its comments and ideas to the Planning Commission. This material is primarily for Section 8 of the Master Plan. It is entitled “Development and Preservation Strategies” we agreed that it would be helpful if one or more of the members of our commission could be present at the next meeting of the PC on Weds. April 2, 2008.
Email List: We discussed the question of disseminating information in town. It was suggested that an email list could be set up and that when announcements need to be made, then they could be sent to the persons on the email list. The question was raised as to why we would need this since we had an excellent Town Web Site. The current Town listserv was not deemed sufficient. We askd David Stopak to take this up with the Town Council.
Town Office Library: Members discussed the need to improve the library in the Town Office with material helpful to homeowners who want to do renovations and documents and books, etc. related to historic preservation. Neumann said he would try to do more to improve the library.
ICC: Bob Booher reported on the trip he and several residents made to discuss the ICC issues with our state representatives in Annapolis. The results did not seem encouraging. Health, road surface, forestation, and noise abatement issues were discussed. Bob mentioned that they said that Rte 370 would be asphalt paved and that might provide some noise abatement. Delegates and SHA were not interested in exploring other road surface materials for various reasons.
New Business
David Neumann has put down in writing some ideas that could be used as guidelines for a Town policy on mitigating encroachments on public land that are primarily in the R-2 zone. He explained that it would be best if each violation not be dealt with in total isolation, but that a process and some guidelines be developed for the Council so the issues can be dealt with as equitably as possible. David Stopak said he would forward these ideas to the Council after other members of the HPC had reviewed them.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:00 p.m.