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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHPC-Minutes-20080219 HASTINGS HERITAGE PRESERVATION COMMISSION Minutes of the Meeting of February 19, 2008 Held at 7:00 p.m. at City Hall in the Community Room I. Quorum : Goderstad, Simacek, Behnke, Sovik-Siemens, and Hellie present. Staff: Fortney, Grossman, Egger, Montgomery; Chairman Goderstad called the meeting to order. II. Minutes January 15, 2008 A.. A motion by Sovik-Siemens for approval with a spelling change was made and seconded by Simacek; motion carried. III. Review of building permits or design proposals A.608 Eddy St – Replacing the siding Justin Fortney presented the staff report. Paul Trautmann with Timberland exteriors said that he will be using a 4-inch lap Hardiboard because he believes that is what was used on the house. He added that he will increase the window trim similarly to what was previously around them. Sovik-Siemens said that she believes projects that were started prior to the beginning of the study should be able to continue with appropriate plans that were in process. Motion by Behnke, second by Simacek to approve replacement of the siding with Hardiboard as proposed; motion carried. IV. Business A.Make recommendations to the City Council on the 2008 street reconstruction project adjacent to the Old Hastings Historic District. Justin Fortney presented the staff report with Thomas Montgomery, Public Works Director and Nick Egger, City Engineer providing further details. Commissioner Sovik-Siemens said that the engineers prefer a 5’ sidewalk and she has measured most of them at 4.5’. Montgomery stated that the City Council has adopted 5’ sidewalks due to complaints from citizens after the construction of narrower sidewalks. He added that the HPC’s direction for the new sidewalks in this area would be forwarded to the City Council. Chairman Goderstad asked how many trees will be removed during this project. Nick Egger said that 10 trees have been identified for removal due to the risk they pose to safety because they are diseased or otherwise prone to falling down. Sovik-Siemens said she noticed that in the past protection for trees disappeared and left roots exposed and wondered if more could be done to protect them this time. Egger said that they have done more planning and will be doing more inspections than ever before for this project. Montgomery agreed. Goderstad asked which streets will be widened. Egger explained the map showing that all the streets within the historic district will not be widened. He added that streets outside of it are proposed to be widened to 32’ where there are no constraints. Goderstad asked where walls would be located. Egger said that some of the major wall projects were going to be at thth Eddy and 6 in addition to the south side of 8. These major walls will be approximately 2-3 feet tall. th Joe Balsanek of 224 7 St W asked if a retaining wall was proposed on his property. Montgomery stated that a small one was to be installed. Sovik-Siemens asked if any alley work was proposed. Egger said yes, to stabilize the new walls being installed as part of the Vermillion St wall reconstruction project. Balsanek asked if historic lighting was proposed with the project. Montgomery said no. Balsanek said that other districts have lighting and theirs should too. Montgomery said there is not a policy to install lighting. Goderstad asked how many lights are in the district. Montgomery said mostly just at intersections. He added that the City spends $200,000 dollars per year on electricity for streetlights. Dick Graham of 608 Eddy St asked what the projected cost of decorative streetlights would be for the project. Egger responded $500,000. Balsanek said that homeowners in the district must get special permission to perform work on their homes, why should the City not have to do extra work like the homeowners. Commissioner Simacek responded that since lighting is not being replaced it does not have to go for approval and the HPC could then not require it. He added that if a homeowner was changing siding, the HPC could not require the windows to be replaced. Balsanek asked if there will be any extra money to improve the district if the streets and sidewalks are narrowed. Egger answered that the amount of money saved would be negligible because labor and preparation would not change, only a little less material. Paul Swanstrom owner of 807 Vermillion asked if there were streetlights in this area before. John Grossman said that some iron lights existed from the 1920’s to the 1950’s, but he is not sure how far they were located into the neighborhood. He added that if the Commissioners wanted streetlights, they could request a separate program that would install a couple new lights per year. Graham stated that a few lights per year will eventually get us there. th Andy McCoy of 209 7 St W said that Wilson Park has an exposed aggregate sidewalk. He asked if that is what is being proposed here. Montgomery said no they are proposing normal concrete because it lasts much longer. Balsanek asked if they considered stamped concrete. Montgomery said they used that downtown and they are not happy with how it is holding-up and they would not likely consider using it again. Sovik-Siemens added that it is not a historical design. McCoy asked if the alley behind him could be improved to help with drainage. Montgomery said they would look at it and would improve it if it could simply be done with a grader. Behnke asked how much a light pole costs. Egger said $8,000 to buy and install it, not including energy and upkeep. Motion by Sovik-Siemens, second by Behnketo approve rebuilding the streets within the Historic District at existing widths of 30 feet; motion carried. Motion by Sovik-Siemens, second by Simacek to approve rebuilding the sidewalks at 4.5 feet wide, which is the width of most of the sidewalks in the district; motion carried. Motion by Hellie, second by Simacek to approve the design and construction that should minimize the impact on the existing trees as much as possible; motion carried. Motion by Simacek, second by Behnketo provide a recommendation for an ornamental lighting program within the historic district to the City Council; motion carried. Motion by Sovik-Siemens, second by Hellie to construct retaining walls within the historic district that are similar to the previously approved Vermillion Street Historic Wall Repair alternate flat concrete modular block design; motion carried. Motion by Sovik-Siemens, second by Hellie to amend the motion to require that if fences are needed on the walls, they must be brought to the HPC for approval; motion carried. B.Make a recommendation to the City Council on St. John’s proposed on street parking that is adjacent to the Old Hastings Historic District. Justin Fortney presented the staff report with Thomas Montgomery, Public Works Director and Nick Egger, City Engineer providing further details. Percy Damrow, Pastor at St. John’s Church explained that parking is essential to any business in addition to a church. They bought the historic home in 1978 and planned to move it to build a parking lot until the City expressed apprehension about it. They then sold the house and planted some trees. The HPC suggested curb cuts for parking. The Engineering department made a diagram of how the parking could be laid out. On January nd 22 we had a meeting with City staff and felt betrayed when they suggested a private parking lot rather than curb cuts. David Senter who spoke on behalf of St. John’s said that there was a good faith deal with the City. We felt that the City got what it wanted and now we don’t. Duane Groth who spoke on behalf of St. John’s said the City moved the 10 commandments monument to the church. Henry Hoeft who spoke on behalf of St. John’s said they put the trees there and would put them back. Balsanek asked how many parking spaces would be gained after all of this work is done. He added that the diagram shows 7 spaces proposed, how many parallel cars can be parked there? A couple people from the audience responded 4. Balsanek responded that a total of 3 spaces would be gained from this proposed location. Dan Dancer who spoke on behalf of St. John’s asked if you are taking a fair and balanced approach to the well being and safety, to an unspecified person. Groth explained that with angled parking people would not have to exit their car in the snow. McCoy said the diagram shows 22’ [between the ends of the angled parking spaces], is that consistent with the separation between the parallel-parked cars? Egger responded that there would currently be 14 to 16 feet of space. McCoy asked if it could be posted that no large cars/ trucks could use these spaces. Damrow said they could post that in their bulletin. Goderstad reminded everyone that we are to only be concerned with the east side of Eddy St at this meeting. Simacek asked what the width is of a road that posts no parking on one side of it. Montgomery responded 28’ wide or less. Sovik-Siemens said we are only here to follow our guidelines. Behnke agreed and said it could set a precedent. Groth said when you changed your guidelines you should have sent us notice that it wouldn’t let us make curb cuts for parking. Damrow said the diagram was made at the HPC’s Request. Goderstad said the parking diagram didn’t come to the HPC in 1988. Montgomery said the diagram was done later for a parking analysis to determine if the angled parking could be done within the right-of-way. John Grossman said the diagram wasn’t drawn for the HPC, it was done later for the church to see what was feasible. Damrow said John Grossman’s letter suggests that parking could be done with curb cuts rather than a parking lot. Behnke said he feels value in holding decisions that were made in the past and I would like to table it. Motion by Behnke, second by Simacek to table the request; motion failed to carry. Hellie and Sovik-Siemens opposed. Simacek asked if they are really only gaining 3 parking spaces in this area. Groth responded that it is also a safety concern with opening doors. Duane said that if you are afraid of affecting precedent, no one else has a 20-year-old letter about it. Simacek said that the issue is that the request is not inline with our adopted guidelines that we are here to follow. We are really between a rock and a hard place. Sovik-Siemens said you would have been notified that the property was included in the district. Duane responded that we wouldn’t have known what that meant to our proposed parking. Hellie said his concern is that if we approve these 7 spaces and the Planning Commission denies the one across the street, it would result in a reduced driving area. He added that he does feel as though he has an obligation to consider a recommendation from 20 years ago, but it was a recommendation. Sovik-Siemens said that even if they actually gave approval for work to be done on a property 20 years ago and the work was never done and the regulations changed since that time, they would have no choice but to abide by the new regulations like everyone else. Damrow said we have been continuing to make the two properties appear as two. Swanstrom said it makes no sense to have one side of the street different from the other. Hellie said now it makes sense to have this tabled. Motion by Hellie, second by Behnke to table the request to a special meeting on th Tuesday 26 at 7:00 P.M.; motion carried Not an agenda item- Paul Swanstrom owner of 807 Vermilion St wanted to discuss the impacts of the designation study and designation. Swanstrom said it appears that designation wouldn’t have allowed him to place the vinyl on his property and you can’t even tell that it has vinyl. Swanstrom asked how to not be researched for designation. Fortney said you would have to ask to be put on the agenda for the Commission to consider removing it. Fortney added that the most appropriate time to make the case for not being designated would be when the HPC receives the completed research and recommends properties to the City Council for designation. All property owners who were selected for research will be notified of that HPC meeting. C.Consider selecting 906 Vermillion St for further research for the 2008 Designation Study. Justin Fortney presented the staff report Keith Estenson said he is interested in buying the property for its historical value, but he is not in favor of historic designation if it does not provide a benefit. He added that another prospective buyer may want to build an addition onto it and he wonders if the HPC would approve that. Commissioner Hellie said we should continue the discussion on this property. It was decided th to continue discussions at the special meeting on Tuesday the 26. V.Adjourn. Motion by Behnke, second by Hellie to adjourn and continue the discussion of items B and C at the Special meeting on February 26th; motion carried. – 9:50P.M.