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HomeMy WebLinkAbout~Master - Historic Preservation Commission Minutes 12/11/2017 MINUTES CITY OF AMES HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION CALL TO ORDER: Kim Hanna, Chairperson, called the meeting to order at 6:00 PM. APPROVAL OF AGENDA: MOTION: (Hallock/Snell) to approve the Agenda for the meeting of December 11, 2017. MOTION PASSED: (6-0) APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF OCTOBER 9, 2017: MOTION: (Hovis/Hallock) to approve the Minutes of the meeting of November 13, 2017. MOTION PASSED: (6-0) ____________________________________________________________________________ PUBLIC FORUM: There were no public comments. ____________________________________________________________________________ DISCUSS INFORMATION TO INCLUDE IN THE 2017 CERTIFIED LOCAL GOVERNMENT ANNUAL REPORT Mr. Anderson stated every year they get the form from the State Historic Preservation Department to complete the Certified Local Government (CLG) Annual Report. He mentioned that there were a couple questions that needed to be brought to the Commission for their input before they can complete the report. Mr. Anderson noted that further input from the Commission is needed for answers to questions #5 and #8. Staff has provided a draft of answers to these questions. Mr. Dietzenbach stated that overall the report looks really good but would like to include the grants that City Council put forward regarding the plaques. Mr. Dietzenbach noted that he will email this information to Mr. Anderson as there were about 4-5 grants along with a special one for the Depot. Ms. Hanna mentioned that one of the challenges she would like to see noted would be to get people to attend their educational sessions. Mr. Hallock stated that a lot of it would be publicity and trying to get new people to attend. Ms. Hanna stated that another challenge is reviewing the Historic Preservation Plan and what they are going to do with it. Mr. Anderson stated they could include challenges the Commission is having from this year or some they may anticipate next year. Ms. Hanna asked if it would be considered a challenge that they have not seen many Certificate of Appropriateness presentations and if this is because of the changes to Chapter 31 that were done. Mr. Anderson stated that they have seen a few come through City staff however numbers are still down compared to previous years. 2 Mr. Grevstad-Nordbrock stated that he would recommend adding working with ISU and students and finding more ways to do this. Mr. Anderson stated that the two new Commission members will be getting an email from him regarding their background information as this is required in the report. ___________________________________________________________________________ REVIEW OF THE AMES COMPREHENSIVE HISTORIC PRESERVATION PLAN Ms. Hanna stated that the Commission was asked to review Chapter 4 and look at the Historic Property potentials list and identify any of those that they would like to focus their attention on. Ms. Hanna stated that there are several possibilities throughout Ames and asked if there are any areas that are not on the list that they should add. Ms. Hanna asked if neighborhoods have come to the City asking for the City to look at historic surveys of their neighborhood. Mr. Anderson stated there has not been any. Mr. Anderson stated that many of the areas of the community identified in Chapter 4 of the Historic Preservation Plan have already had some degree of research done. He noted that some of them have had Windshield level survey, which is walking down the street or driving by and taking notes and some have had a Reconnaissance level survey which is has some detail but not extensive, and then there is the Intensive level survey which is research and detailed information for each property within the boundaries they would be looking at. Mr. Anderson stated that the next step following a Reconnaissance level survey would be to conduct an Intensive Survey. He did mention that the State and CLG Program have grants available to help with surveys. Following the Intensive level survey, would be a National Register Nomination, or designation as a local historic district. Mr. Dietzenbach asked if it would make sense to put money in their budget to have meetings with districts for next year. Mr. Anderson stated City Council would like more specifics as what kind of project they would like to use the money for. Ms. Hanna asked if it would be possible to do a blanket survey to the neighborhoods to see if any of them are interested in learning more about Historic Preservation. Mr. Hallock stated he knows a few people that are outside the Old Town District and would like to be part of the district. What would be the process for them to become part of the district? Mr. Anderson stated the first step would be for them to send a letter to City Council with background information and describe why they want to be included in the Old Town Historic District. Mr. Anderson stated that as the Commission looks at the neighborhoods identified in Chapter 4 it is recommended to prioritize which areas the Commission would like to pursue. Ms. Hanna wanted to know who would be doing the Reconnaissance or Intensive surveys if the Commission wanted to start on one of those. Mr. Anderson stated that they would more than likely hire a consultant to do the work and this would take approval by City Council. Mr. Hallock stated that he feels that the first step would be to do an outreach to the neighborhoods to see who is interested in moving forward with more research instead of the Commission picking an area where the neighborhood doesn’t have any interest. Ms. Hanna asked if a timeline needed to be set as to when this all should happen. Mr. Anderson mentioned that if the Commission was looking for City staff to reach out to the neighborhoods then they would have to send a letter to City Council asking for them to direct staff to do this as City Council has a work plan set up for them. If the Commission wanted to do it themselves they could draft a letter and get the Neighborhood Associations contact information from Julie Gould, City Planner. 3 Mr. Grevstad-Nordbrock wanted to know if they would be able to hold a workshop with the Neighborhood Associations, Historical Society, and ISU together and where the Commission is going with the City of Ames. Mr. Dietzenbach stated if they find a district they wanted to pursue and it didn’t happen until the late spring they would not fall within the fiscal funding calendar and what would they need to do then. Mr. Anderson stated that there is $2,000 in the budget this year and should also be next year as well and if the Commission thought they needed more money they would need to write a request to the City Council for contingency funds. Mr. Dietzenbach stated they would be able to use the CLG grant money for surveys. The Commission had further discussion about how they should proceed and it was in agreement that the hosting a workshop would be a great idea. Ms. Hanna asked the Commission to set a timeline as to when they should hold the workshop. The Commission thought about holding the workshop in April and having letters sent out in February to the community. Ms. Hovis asked if a subcommittee needed to be put together to generate the letter. Mr. Anderson stated if they were to have a subcommittee then they would need to advertise the date and time of the meetings. They may be allowed to have a work group as a subcommittee of the Commission. Ms. Hanna stated they will send out an email thread through Mr. Anderson to get a list of recommended participants and ask them to attend the January Commission meeting and then they will hold work group meetings later in January. It was recommended to speak with some people personally and ask them to attend. Mr. Anderson noted that he will check to see if they have to advertise the meetings or not as they have to comply with the Iowa Open Meetings Law. It was asked how many Commission members could be in the work group and it was thought that there could only be three as any more would be a quorum, which requires a notice to be published. Ms. Hanna asked about having a working group for the action goals and action steps with the Historic Preservation Plan or would that need to be done during Commission meetings. Mr. Anderson stated that a work group can meet to put together recommendations for the Commission. Ms. Hanna wanted to know if it would work to set up a working group and have their recommendations brought to the February 2018 meeting. Mr. Hallock stated that the Commission shouldn’t be afraid to have more than three people in a work group as they can do this but would just need to advertise the meeting. Ms. Hanna mentioned that might be beneficial because then anyone that was on the Commission back in 2009 when the Historic Preservation Plan was worked on could attend and be a part of the discussion. Mr. Dietzenbach wanted to know who they key people were in 2009 and if they would be interested in coming to the Commission meeting in January. Mr. Anderson stated he would need to look back through the files to see who it was. Ms. Hanna recommended having prioritizing the goals and objectives at the January meeting, sending the letter out in February, and having the workshop in April. ____________________________________________________________________________ COMMISSION COMMENTS: None ____________________________________________________________________________ STAFF COMMENTS: Mr. Anderson stated he wanted to remind the Commission that they are invited to attend the reception on Friday, December 15 at the library that will be honoring Ma yor Ann Campbell and Council Member, Peter Ozarem for their years of service to the citizens of Ames. __________________________________________________________________________ 4 MOTION TO ADJOURN: MOTION: (Diezenbach/Grevstad-Nordbrock to adjourn the meeting. MOTION PASSED: (6-0) The meeting adjourned at 6:50 PM. _________________________________ ____________________________________ Kim Hanna, Chairperson Amy L. Colwell, Recording Secretary Historic Preservation Commission Department of Planning & Housing S:\Planning.Dep\PLAN_SHR\Council Boards Commissions\HPC\Minutes\2017 Minutes\HPC Minutes 12-11-17.docx