Historic Preservation & Architectural Review Board Agendas and Minutes

MINUTES OF THE COHOES HISTORIC PRESERVATION AND ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW BOARD HELD MEETING VIRTUALLY VIA THE ZOOM APPLICATION ON TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2020 AT 6:30 PM MEMBERS PRESENT: Daniele Cherniak, Chairperson Barbara Hildreth, Vice Chairperson Evan Lamb John Frainier MEMBERS ABSENT: Thomas Rifenberg ALSO PRESENT: Joseph Seman-Graves, City Planner Chairperson Cherniak called the meeting to order at 6:31 PM. CONSIDERATION OF THE MINUTES FROM THE SEPTEMBER 22, 2020 MEETING Chairperson Cherniak: Our first item on the agenda is the consideration of the September 22nd meeting minutes. Has everyone had a chance to review, are there any questions or comments from the board? With no questions or comments Vice Chairperson Hildreth made a motion to accept the minutes as presented. Evan Lamb seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. YES NO ABSTAIN Daniele Cherniak X Barbara Hildreth X Thomas Rifenberg ABSENT Evan Lamb X John Frainier X CONSIDERATION OF A NEW SIGN AT 130 REMSEN STREET Chairperson Cherniak: The next item on the agenda is consideration of a new sign at 130 Remsen Street. Ok, so the applicant is here then? Kelsey Knutsen; I am, hello. Chairperson Cherniak; can you tell us a little bit on what you’re planning to do? Ms. Knutsen; I’m looking to install a sign, it’s a main sign with the company’s logo that says Haven Home Décor, then underneath the 3 chains there’s going to be more descriptive signs that are smaller saying; Home Accents, Gifts and Workshops. When the city redid the sidewalks a tree was built right in front of where the sign for the Old Mercantile was. You can’t actually see the sign now because of that tree placement. That’s why I’m looking to move the installation of the sign to that red metal header above the window. We did talk to the National Historic Board and they were ok with that change. Chairperson Cherniak; I’m not sure who the Nations Historic Board is. Ms. Knutsen; it’s another entity that have to get approval from Chairperson Cherniak; I mean is that the State Historic…. Ms. Knutsen; yes that’s SHPO Chairperson Cherniak; that would be the State Office of Historic Preservation, which will be working with the Secretary of Interior guidelines for historic preservation. Ms. Knutsen; yes Vice Chair Hildreth; this sign is going to be almost 4’ tall. I just measured this, the 32”, 32” 32” and 24” so, oh it’s 8” I’m sorry 8”, 8” 8” and 24” is 48” so yeah this is a long sign. Ms. Knutsen; yes, it’s not really as big as some of the other signs on Remsen St. It’s definitely bigger than the one I have at the Local, but it’s still hanging above the door so it doesn’t take up the entire store front. Vice Chair Hildreth; ok Chairperson Cherniak; so, Joe does that meet code standards for signage? Joe Seman-Graves; yeah, so the sign themselves, I was looking at this, there fine, if you count the empty space in the middle it is to long, but I personally don’t think that is part of the sign necessarily the way the code is written. So I’m fine with the size and if you’re hanging it over the window I think it would be out of pedestrians, in that red spot no one would be hitting it Chairperson Cherniak; yeah it is fairly high. So are there any other questions from members of the board? Member Frainier; will this sign be lit on the outside? Ms. Knutsen; I don’t believe so. Currently there are 2 lights that were hanging off the rail for the old sign, so I can talk to them about moving those over, but the electrical way that they installed those was a little shoddy. It was just a hold through the brick, so I don’t think I’d like to do that. Chairperson Cherniak; but if you did do that you’d have to come before us just to clear the way you’d be doing it. But if you’re not going to do it then we’ll just approve the sign as is. Any other questions from the board members? Any questions from members of the public? Joe Seman-Graves; no one is raising their hand. Chairperson Cherniak; ok, so if there’s no other questions or comments, do I have a motion to approve the application? Vice Chair Hildreth; I’ll make that motion 2nd by Member Frainier Motion carried unanimously YES NO ABSTAIN Daniele Cherniak X Barbara Hildreth X Thomas Rifenberg ABSENT Evan Lamb X John Frainier X Joe Seman-Graves; Kelsey did you have an email correspondence with SHPO? Ms. Knutsen; I did not, it would be the landlord that was going back and forth with them Joe Seman-Graves; ok I’ll contact them. Thank you Ms. Knutsen; thank you guys, have a good night CONSIDERATION OF A FAÇADE REPAIRS AND REHABILITATION AT 233 REMSEN STREET: Chairperson Cherniak: ok, so is Rizzo present or not yet? Ok, so next item is consideration of façade repairs and rehabilitation at 233 Remsen St. Ok, so could you outline a little bit on what you plan to do? Mr. Rizzo; sure, basically the front got pretty singed from the fire a few years ago, so we’re going to keep the, we have to scrape and repaint all the mahogany boards and that’s going to be the same color. We are going to change the trim around the windows and at the cornices at the top to a burgundy, which is a historic color. And basically the sides had a little damage to the cornices, so we’re going to repair them. So basically everything is just going to be a fix, we’re trying to repair and fix everything. The only color is going to be from the green to the burgundy, color change. Chairperson Cherniak; ok, so questions from member of the board? Any questions from the public? Ok, if there are no other questions or comments then we’ll vote on the application. Do I have a motion to approve? Member Frainier; I’ll make the motion Chairperson Cherniak; do I have a 2nd? Vice Chair Hildreth; I’ll 2nd it. Motion carried unanimously YES NO ABSTAIN Daniele Cherniak X Barbara Hildreth X Thomas Rifenberg ABSENT Evan Lamb X John Frainier X Mr. Rizzo; thank you Joe Seman-Graves; Mr. Rizzo, did you submit your building permit application yet? Mr. Rizzo; yes I did Joe Seman-Graves; ok, so if you want to come in tomorrow, we’ll have that ready for you Mr. Rizzo; ok awesome. CONSIDERATION OF FAÇADE REPAIRS AND REHABILITATION AT 122 MOHAWK STREET: Chairperson Cherniak: Ok, next item is consideration of façade repairs and rehab at 122 Mohawk St. Is the applicant here? Manuel Santos; yeah Chairperson Cherniak; ok, could you tell us a little bit about what you’re planning to do? Mr. Santos; sure, I’m Manny Santos. I recently purchased 122 Mohawk and essentially what I’m trying to do is make a modification to the columns and the top part of the building, in addition there might be some painting that we’ll do, where the bay window, where the window bays are currently. The railings are blue we want to go to a white and we want to change the columns to a no maintenance Aztec material. Currently what’s there now is a cedar shake, which at some point was added to the existing wooden columns that we’re there previously. There’s a broken piece of the cedar shake that I was able to look inside and it was just a piece of lumber there, it went up to the top nothing special about it. So the previous owner added cedar shakes to the columns as well as well as the top of the façade, at the top of the building which is not the roof, it’s actually the face of the building. What we’d like to do is starting at the top, we’d like to change that to a scallop siding, which is no maintenance. There’s a building across the street that has kind of a scallop design. This particular color is because it’s siding, they don’t come exactly with a Benjamin Moore color, but it’s very close to a color that is on the Benjamin Moore list. Siding is limited in terms of colors, so I went with as close as I could there. And then the columns you see, they’re currently cedar shake, they could be more of a very simple column and then over where the bay windows are we’d use a grey from the historic Benjamin Moore historic colors to paint that. And currently the, everything is in need of painting. It’s very weathered and hasn’t been updated in quite a long time. The doors are currently a kind of a brown color, I think, it’s very weathered so it kind of, it looks like it’s a brown, so we’re suggesting going with a darker color, more of a black. Essentially that’s it. What you see there is what we’re aiming for in terms of the overall look. Chairperson Cherniak; so you’d be repainting the doors then? Mr. Santos; yes, repainting the doors. Chairperson Cherniak; ok. Any questions from the members of the board? Vice Chair Hildreth; I think it’ll be a real great improvement, wow. Chairperson Cherniak; yeah, that building has had extensive so of misguided alterations in the past, so this is definitely an improvement over that, the state of it now. Joe Seman-Graves; Mr. Santos do you want to bring up the window at this point or do you want to wait on those? Mr. Santos; well the window, I don’t think you would see much of a difference on the outside. What you would see, currently there’s a storm window there, so we would probably keep the storm, we would keep the storm windows and if we change the windows it would be on the inside and not visible to the outside at all. Currently there is old window, they are functional, we’re not sure if we’re going to change them. I’m actually leaning towards not changing them, but I wanted to submit it in case we had an opportunity and there was, and there was an opportunity to change them. Currently this property has 38 windows and 24 windows are oversized, so we’re trying to figure out from a budgetary stand point whether it’s worthwhile to change the window at this point. We are considering changing some, but again if we change the windows in the front it wouldn’t change what you see right now. The outside is that the, it look like a black window but it’s actually a black storm window. Chairperson Cherniak; ok, are there any other question from the board members? Any questions from members of the public? Ok, if not do I have a motion to approve this project? Vice Chair Hildreth; I make a motion to approve the project. Member Frainier 2nd motion carried unanimously YES NO ABSTAIN Daniele Cherniak X Barbara Hildreth X Thomas Rifenberg ABSENT Evan Lamb X John Frainier X Chairperson Cherniak; ok thank you Mr. Santos; thank you very much. I appreciate you all volunteering for the historic board and continuing to help to make progress in Cohoes. Thank you so much. Joe Seman-Graves; Mr. Santos you’re building permit should be ready by close of business tomorrow. Mr. Santos; thank you Joe CONSIDERATION OF EMERGENCY PORCH REPAIRS AT 1 VAN SCHAICK AVENUE Chairperson Cherniak; next item on the agenda is consideration of porch repairs at 1 Van Schaick Mansion. Is the applicant here? Sandy Zerrillo; yes I’m here Daniele Chairperson Cherniak; hi Sandy, could you tell us a little bit about what your work in progress is? Ms. Zerrillo; yes. What had happened is we discovered in March, after the winter, we were inspecting things, we realized that the porch in the front, the beam, the head beam on the right side as you’re looking at the mansion had actually, the roof collapsed about 4” down onto that board so it was starting to pull away from the brick façade and when our contractor, who is Tim Butler, I think you know him Daniele, when he started looking at this, the entire thing was rotted. So I have a lot of photos that show the rot, as you can see up in this corner, that whole area sank, right there in that corner in the middle picture (pictures on screen), and then the bottom part there was all of this rot, that was going to have to be replaced, so what we wanted to do, we had Tim who is a historic construction person, so he is very adamant about trying to keep everything as historically correct as we can and at least looking that way, if it can’t be back to the 18th century. So we came up with this, it’s called timber tech and there’s a photo of it somewhere and it actually look identical to a piece, here it is on this right hand side, you’ll see it. Looking down at that you wouldn’t know that isn’t wood. And so that’s what we’re replacing the deck with and we’re, everything else will go back, this will not, it’s already grey and doesn’t have to be painted. And the painting that does have to be done, because there was extensive damage to those support beams, they will be repainted in the historic salmon color that is already on the mansion, it will just match. As you can see up above the dormer it’s going to match that. And in the meantime, looking at this view in the middle where you can look in and see the stringers, Tim actually realized that the porch was only existing with the 3 stringers, it’s almost 8’ wide, and so he has added additional stringers for strength. Chairperson Cherniak; ok, thank you. Any questions from the board on this project? Member Frainier; yes. Will the treks be used on the steps also or just the porch decking? Ms. Zerrillo; it will be used on the steps as well, so it will be nice and secure. And this treks deck, the decking is tongue and groove so there won’t be any spacing in between those. So the weather won’t go through and it’s just a solid step at that point. Member Frainier; ok thank you Chairperson Cherniak; any other questions? Any comments from members of the public? Ok, if we have no further questions or comments, do I have a motion to approve the work? Member Frainier; so moved Chairperson Cherniak; ok do I have a 2nd? Member Lamb; I’ll 2nd motion carried unanimously YES NO ABSTAIN Daniele Cherniak X Barbara Hildreth X Thomas Rifenberg ABSENT Evan Lamb X John Frainier X Joe Seman-Graves; Sandy, the building permit, yours will be ready most likely in 2 days, I just haven’t processed it yet. But I can follow up with you tomorrow and just give you the go ahead to keep working so not one is being delayed. Ms. Zerrillo; ok. Is it ok for Time to start tomorrow Joe? Joe Seman-Graves; let me talk to code, if you can wait until 8AM Ms. Zerrillo; sure, he won’t be there at 8AM, that’s too early for him Joe Seman-Graves; ok, I’ll give you a call, I don’t think code has a problem, I just want to double check with them so I’m not stepping on any toes Mr. Zerrillo; ok thank you very much Chairperson Cherniak; ok weren’t we going to talk a little bit about some ideas for preservation or is that sort of….. Joe Seman-Graves; yup, so I wanted to start off with, we have an impact grant for the Erie Canal, Heritage Corridor that we’re applying for. Friday is when the application is due and Daniele we walked the path, and Theresa and I originally had the vision of just the path as we walked it, however part of the process that we want to go through and identifying, in this grant application process is identifying all the past work that has been done and we are discovering stuff prior to the 70’s during, a lot during the 70’s and into Ed Trembley time in office or in Economic Development, so there’s a lot of these little plans, there is engineering documents, there’s studies, the goal for us is and I’m sorry I don’t have the visuals up here, if you’re looking at lots 9-18 and you’re walking from Alexander St, we want to be able to have a well-lit route that someone who is not capable of waling, so someone in a wheelchair, if they so feel inclined they could go from lots 9-18 so from Alexander St. to Harmony Mills. And then the next step would be to connect it to the bike path and then connect over to the island and just make a huge loop, which is part of the plans that have already been identified in the past, it’s just they won’t, they just fell apart or little pieces done here or there. So I, that‘s something I think I’d like to work on as a board, but I wanted to see what ideas, interests you guys had because this is something that I really think is a good opportunity, like a home run kind of project, but I would like to be more active as a board so I’d take any interest you guys had, any ideas and see if we can make something happen with those. So I’ll leave the floor to you guys right now. Evan Lamb; yeah that idea is good because I think it will add to increase connections to the city and be a better way to use our historical assets to promote the city, it does sound good. Joe Seman-Graves; it definitely is an economic driver if it’s done right and definitely quality of life. Chairperson Cherniak; yea, it would be great to have more connectivity with all these trails and routes because we do have the bike path and there’s also that Heritage trail that does go to the island, but it’s part on road and part on path and connecting everything up with additions signage, have some more interpreter signage to tell the story of the canal and possibly even some kind of recreations. Maybe recreate a lock gate or recreate a canal boat. People would have a better connection and understanding of what went on. Joe Seman-Graves; yea I mean some of the fund ideas we want to explore is even the schools, they study locks. Schools come in from around the area to study the locks. Why for instance couldn’t our school, there’s 9 locks, why can’t each grade take one, own it and then move to the next grade and learn about the next lock and then kind of own it that year. I think it could be fun and bring the community together and it just makes sense from so many levels with where the state priorities are, but like you said Daniel, connectivity historic preservation, access to recreation. It has a lot of goals so we’re definitely interested are there any other besides the canal beds, kind of priorities you guys would like to see done because as a board and you don’t have to give me an answer today, but just think about it, because as a board that is the next step rather than saying yes this sign look nice here, you can designate historic areas in the city. Chairperson Cherniak; I would like to see an extension of the downtown historic district, a little bit to the west to encompass St. Joseph’s church, the armory, the Peglia house, perhaps those, that row houses on Hart, the row houses on upper White, there’s lots of historic structures that weren’t really incorporated in the current district and it might be worth thinking about that, trying to get national register listing or get local landmarks listing and then move on to state and national register for that. Joe Seman-Graves; absolutely, the local is as easy as, not as easy, but you as a board kind of guide me or the sense of Daniele what you just said these are the areas you would like to see and then it’s, I put something together for the common council and we just go from there. It’s as simple as a zoning change, so it’s not by any means impossible. You see a value Daniele, in possibly making the locks, the trail part of the historic district? Chairperson Cherniak; well, they already are, they’re actually, it was 2003 I think, 2003 they were named local landmarks and then we went on and go state and national registry listing. So there is an enlarged Erie site historic district on the national register. Joe Seman-Graves; is it just the individual locks or the connectivity between the locks? Chairperson Cherniak; well, it’s all the features, so it’s when there connected on city land then they would, that’s another thing we might want to think about is trying to acquire that lock 11 property Joe Seman-Graves; yup Chairperson Cherniak; yea, all the lock areas and associated structures and features that are owned by the city are in the, are part of the national register listing. Joe Seman-Graves; part of this grant, we would be getting a survey hopefully for lock 11, so we will know exactly where the property is and what would have to be purchased. So that’s something we’re looking at with this current grant application Vice Chair Hildreth; where is lock 11? Chairperson Cherniak; behind St. Regis, former St. Regis church. Vice Chair Hildreth; yes I do remember that yes it’s there. Member Lamb; the armory was mentioned earlier, is the armory a historical site? Chairperson Cherniak; not it is not Member Lamb; and it’s outside the district? Chairperson Cherniak; yea, I mean it definitely would qualify for nations register listing if the property owner was more interested. But it could also be incorporated as part of the extension of the historic district and all the contributing structures in a historic district, by virtue of that, have national register listing Joe Seman-Graves; Daniele do you know the owners? Chairperson Cherniak; no I do not Joe Seman-Graves; I talked to them for the DRI process, they were actually one of our projects we were going to put forward. They’re doing some great work in there, however it’s just 2 people doing it and a mountain of money they need behind them to finish it off. Vice Chair Hildreth; by looking at the outside, you can’t tell anything was done Joe Seman-Graves; well that’s the part they need the money for. The roof is the most, and the repointing of a lot of the brick work is what they were asking for help on. If you go into the inside, they’ve actually, they have an interesting back story. There’s a gentleman, an ex scientist/comedian and the woman worked in Circus Soleil, so they have a very rich history and their kind of into the circus arts if you will. But they’re just trying to put a performance are together, a community kind of space. So the inside they’ve done a lot of work, they live in there, but the outside they’re looking for help on right now. I can tell you just looking at prices that we’re getting for windows and roof repairs at City Hall, it is not cheap by means. Member Lamb; how would we be able to help if that area was added to the historic district? Joe Seman-Graves; in my opinion it would open them up to more funding, especially that building specifically. But that’s where I would kind of fall back to Daniele’s opinion and advice. The local historic district, I don’t think opens as much money up as getting it on the state or national correct? Chairperson Cherniak; right Joe Seman-Graves; so we would, the 1st step would be to just locally have it registered then keep progressing with that. And I can reach out to them, I know they would definitely be interested. The other side of that is, it might make it more expensive to do some of those repairs because now there would be a state designated building and historic building Chairperson Cherniak; but only if, yea that would depend on where they were getting the money from Joe Seman-Graves; there’s always a catch Chairperson Cherniak; yea, I mean if they are, would get state or federal funding then there would be restrictions on what, how the process and what they do to do the rehab. There’s other sources of funding that might not be those kind of restraints Joe Seman-Graves; I can certainly reach out to them and I think once, especially once we get this grant application in on Friday, I want to start. I’ll share at the next meeting where we are with that grant for the canal and just you know, were going to have a budget and time line, so when we get awarded, I’m pretty confident we will, what the next steps will be going forward. And speaking of the canal, there’s another really interesting project with the Matson Shipyard happening. We are currently looking into the possibility of combining, I’m not sure if you guys are aware of what’s happening over at the shipyard. The national heritage corridor is putting in a lot of time, resources and money to bring that site back to life with remediation and restoring the old building. Hopefully one days having one of the original or maybe not original but a canal boat there. So we are partnering with them because we have a park down the road that we’re looking into doing behind the new construction at 70 Delaware. Now we’re looking at the possibility of a joint application to the state and showing waterfront connectivity so they’ll both have kayak launches. We’ll have a waterfront trail hopefully if we get the right ok’s from the right people and then also bring that loop down to the black bridge and through Green Island. So, all about connectivity, we’re connecting everyone here, because that is what the state wants and I think that’s what’s really, from a planning side of things I love being able to just walk and not stop, it just makes me happy you can go through different neighborhoods and there’s not impediments, there’s nothing stopping you and to do it safely, you don’t get a lot of that in upstate New York and I think we have a lot of opportunity in this city, especially with how small it is, to just have a tone of trails, a ton of options for walking, a ton of ADA accessible options, so pretty exciting stuff I could go on for days but my daughter probably doesn’t want that so…. I would say to keep thinking, I’m going to look into, and definitely reach out to the guys from the armory but if we want to extend the historic district next meeting, I can put together a couple of maps, talk to you Daniele and just see what we’re feeling like and then if everyone thinks it’s a good ideas to move forward, I can at the following council meeting, can bring it up for discussion Chairperson Cherniak; ok sounds good Joe Seman-Graves; in the meantime if there’s anything you see while walking down the street let me know, cause now you guys are on the board, so if there’s work being done and you haven’t approved it.. Chairperson Cherniak; there’s always work being done at that house on the corner of Vliet and Garner, the one on the northeast side, the one with the mansard roof Vice Chair Hildreth; the one across from the laundromat? Chairperson Cherniak; diagonally across from it Vice Chair Hildreth; yes they’ve been doing a lot of construction there Chairperson Cherniak; we never had an application come before us for that place Vice Chair Hildreth; it’s a lot with the interior Chairperson Cherniak; but there’s been exterior work done to and like I said they’ve never come before us with any kind of application Joe Seman-Graves; ok and so the new board members know, one of the big issues we have is work being done without it getting approved, not only through this board but with building permits in general. So one of the things I’m doing with all the boards now is none of the building permits gets issued unless I stamp off on it. Which then takes it out of the code enforcement hands to the historic preservationist, zoning experts and planning experts which are not their jobs. They should just be looking at NYS building codes and there also really good social service workers if you know what their actual job requirements are. But, so now I look at all the stuff, it actually has stopped a lot of work that would have got through without otherwise being checked. But there are still projects that don’t even have building permits sometimes so we just have to get out there, put the stop work order on and bring them in. Then eventually one of them, they’re not going to get the answer they like at one of these meeting and it’s going to be a little contentious, I know that’s going to happen, but it’s going to have to because you just can’t do work in the city without getting approvals. It’s not fair, it’s not equitable and it puts us in a compromising position when their neighbor say I want to do the same thing and won’t get approved. Vice Chair Hildreth; part of the problem is, people buy property and don’t realize they are in the historic zone and their committed to a certain thing, that’s very difficult on them. Joe Seman-Graves; yeah, so I think our website needs a complete overhaul, I’ve thought that since I started here. We were actually going to get it done this year, unfortunately our budget is what it is with COVID, so a lot of things got put til next year. But as part of that a lot of municipalities that I admire are because of their web portal, you go on there it’s just very clear and laid out. Are you a new homeowner, are you trying to build something, yes, you click on it, ok what’s your property address, yes, you click on it and it brings up all the information, what you need to do for X,Y and Z. You have to make it very clear otherwise it’s not fair to the applicant, because they don’t always know there’s a historic board, they don’t know they need to apply for, to put or patch up siding, so that’s where my job is, to kind of mediate these situations, to the best of my ability because if they’re not fully aware, it’s hard to make them fully on the hook for not knowing, if that makes sense. So we’re working on it. But now with everyone on the LDC you’ll know if there’s any money going out for façade improvements, it has to go through here, so that’s another checks and balance. But not to keep everyone to long, keep an open mind, think about things in the community you’d like to see and then let’s make it happen Chairperson Cherniak; sounds great Joe Seman-Graves; ok hopefully the meetings go this quick from now one. Daniele do you want to officially end the meeting? Chairperson Cherniak; the meeting is adjourned Meeting ended at 7:15PM