HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-27-11 Historic Preservation Advisory Board MinutesHistoric Preservation Advisory Board at HRDC —
27 October 2011
Members Present: Mark Hufstetler (Chair), Jillian Bowers, Jennifer Britton, Lesley Gilmore
(Secretary), Lora Dalton, Jared Infanger, Courtney Kramer (City Liaison), Ryan Olson, Anne Sherwood
- Quorum was established.
Absent: Jecyn Bremer, Bruce Brown, Angela King Keesee, Steven Keuch, and Paul Reichert
Guests: None.
I. Meeting was called to order at 6:42 pm.
II. Minutes from prior meeting:
A. Motion to approve was made by AS, seconded by RO
B. Unanimous approval.
III. Public Comment: None.
IV. Ex Parte Communication:
A. Anne Sherwood spoke with Cyndy Andrus while at the MPA event at Story Mansion. Spoke of
the tax abatement and revisions. Cyndy asked when are you going to get to demolition by
neglect? Anne told her this was on the agenda. AS said that we'd probably come to the
commission in the spring — let the commissioners know in advance, so that enough PR and
education of intent. Cyndy said we need something so that we can deal with the depot.
B. Lesley Gilmore relayed a very similar conversation with Cyndy Andrus.
C. LD reiterated that Cyndy Andrus has been very supportive and educated about our preservation
efforts.
D. Definition of ex parte communication: a private one -sided discussion with a decision -maker
about an actual decision that would have an outcome.
V. Introduction of Invited Guests: None.
VI. Project Review and Recommendations to Staff: None.
VII. Chair's Report (MH)
A. Lost one member, gained one.
B. Need two.
C. Jillian will gladly join the Policy & Planning Committee.
D. Website updates:
1. Jillian used it recently, and was successful in finding out about a friend's property on Tracy.
2. RO suggested including some interior photographs.
3. AS happy to take some photographs.
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4. CK recommended a blog page which would focus on a specific concern, like the Armory.
Discussion ensued about the time commitment.
5. LD — even listing current events.
6. AS — could maintain a chain of news events.
7. RO — the basis of his concern is if it gets stale and we lose public interest.
8. AS — content and article doesn't necessarily get outdated, but dated articles or blogs can
make it appear outdated.
9. MH — Members should send non time - sensitive content to Mark. We can add stuff if we're
inspired or have ideas about what might be missing.
10. CK — send pdf's of walking tour maps. List of NR properties.
11. AS — always nice to have photos of preservation awards. CK to get 2010 photos of award
winners to MH. This will entice new entries for awards this next year.
E. Tours
1. Neutra House really needs to be experienced in the spring or summer — to enjoy the sod
roof.
2. AS — Thomas Bitnar's house might be for sale — the old Koch House on Story and Grand
3. LD — the Rose House (Malcom Story) at Willson and Dickerson (pink) is for sale — very nice
inside. Just beautiful.
VIII. Policy and Planning Committee (LD)
A. Tax Abatement: We've been working on it. Now have a revised clean copy. A few questions
remain. LD needs — with Jecyn's and CK's help — to check statute references and definitions.
B. LD wrestled with several outstanding issues — getting complicated ideas into simple sentences.
Need to make it simple for us — and the applicants — to understand. LD explained that lack of
simplicity was one of the reasons we needed to fine tune it. Fixed a lot of typographical errors
and cut out a lot of underbrush. Didn't make any radical changes.
C. LD has continued to maintain the adjusted copy, for the city to be able to track our changes.
D. Next thing we will address is demolition by neglect. First we'll need to establish what the city
commissioners want. For contributing properties in historic districts and NR properties only.
E. MH — the disadvantage is that this will be a negative incentive for NR listing. This would be a
good reason to have the ordinance impact the entire conservation overlay district.
F. Meeting: Tuesday, November 8, 2011. 6:30 pm at CTA's office on Main Street.
IX. Education and Outreach Committee (RO)
A. Survey: One grouping, since our last meeting. Still about' /2 of the properties need to be
completed. Goal was to complete before the snow flies.
1. Next survey session: Sat., Nov. 5 at 11 am, meet at Rockford Coffee.
2. CK will try to get an updated GIS layer built, to track our progress.
3. RO — what's the next step after this? Is it something we should discuss as a board? Yes,
MH — let's put it on the agenda as a special item.
B. Cemetery tour last Saturday — 30 -50 people. We had a nice size crowd. Definitely more than
last year. LD says last year's attendance was 41.
1. The ad was great.
2. The news coverage was also.
3. Good to focus on the military experience.
4. Officially recognize Dale Martin for his background research and presentation. His
presentation was well received.
5. AS — since Dale is really good at this, we should talk with him about doing something similar
during Preservation Week.
6. RO — next year we should book the larger room in the Library
C. Next event: The Preservation Awards in May.
1. AS will be in charge of organizing the nominations.
2. RO will invite AS to a meeting early in the year.
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D. Next meeting: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 6:30 - to discuss walking tour app and where we
are with MSU contacts on that. RO will set a location.
X. Staff Liaison Report (CK)
A. Preservation Board budget:
1. Have spent $450 on cemetery tour.
2. Future expenditures: Print preservation board business cards for people. Maybe magnets.
3. May 2012 Preservation Days — review budget more thoroughly at that time.
B. Grants:
1. SAT:
a) Ace Owenhouse will probably apply for the SAT downtown grant.
b) Mark met with Bret Potter, an architect who's done fagade grant downtown.
c) Like the notion of turning it into a 1950s store. They're really excited about the project.
2. Eye on various grants for the coming year — NTHP planning grants.
3. Mayoral support for a NP Depot project; doesn't know if we'll have city manager support.
4. Armory — in the news today. They implied very strongly that they want to prioritize the
building being as asset to the city as it is. Spoke more of the location, than the building.
a) CK and Brett Fontenout have not been able yet to speak with the bank.
b) CK — is it good timing to update the four -year old update of the oped piece that AS and
MH wrote when the Armory project first came before the public. Grasping for
competitive applications (SAT) with application due November 21. CK to ghost -write a
paragraph to add to MH and AS's "second chance" oped.
5. Evaluation of the city's 22 -year old preservation program.
a) Three legs: city's development standards and review process; preservation board and
review and education; all these other history - related organizations.
b) Tim knows someone at MSU's Master of Public Administration (MPA) program, who
could help facilitate a review process. To bring in an unbiased group to help us
evaluate.
c) MH is concerned that if it dilutes the preservation program, we might never get that back.
d) RO — we need to just put forward a better argument.
e) CK:
i. Basically an attempt to evaluate what the board needs CK to do, such as new
historic districts, demo by neglect ordinance, etc.
ii. Evaluate the board's role in preservation.
iii. A holistic exercise.
iv. The MPA students would set up a framework. Could research other historic
preservation programs in towns this size.
f) RO — we could push the students' agenda along broad historic preservation themes —
this is what we want.
g) JI — shouldn't this be a grass roots effort?
h) MH — the developers won't support historic preservation.
i) CK — our process is based on old inventory — the out -dated data set is why the program
isn't working well.
j) RO — would be great if we could get the independent group to say we need an update
inventory.
k) MH — we'll find that Bozeman has the most successful hpres program in the State of
Montana.
1) MH, LD: Discussed again the drawbacks of combining city with county historic
preservation programs.
m) CK: Is it the HPO's role to fundraise for preservation efforts?
n) CK: we will cautiously move forward to evaluate our program.
o) LD: Feels that fundraising efforts should come from a non - profit advocacy group — like
Story Mansion — not us. Like Missoula's Friends of Historic Preservation.
p) JI — could they interview people in historic homes and get the stories out to the public?
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q) LG — format? Workshops where ideas can be shared? Or individual interviews? Be sure
to get non historic preservation viewpoints.
r) CK — need full breadth.
s) AS — but we don't want to hear about vendettas.
6. CK — shot SWIMBIA an email to ask if they'd do their playhouses this year based on historic
buildings.
7. JB — will be meeting with the tree advisory board in two weeks. Will report back on how to
approach heritage trees.
XI. Scheduling of next board meetings:
A. Thursday, November 17, 2011, at HRDC Building on S. Tracy.
B. For holiday party, invite long -time preservationists such as Jane Klockman, Dale Martin, Jim
Webster, etc.
XII. Motion to adjourn at 8:00 pm — by LD, seconded by JI.
END OF MINUTES
Secretary: Lesley M. Gilmore
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