Historic Preservation & Architectural Review Board Agendas and Minutes

MINUTES OF THE COHOES HISTORIC PRESERVATION AND ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW BOARD MEETING HELD VIRTUALLY VIA ZOOM ON WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2021 AT 6:30PM MEMBERS PRESENT: Daniele Cherniak, Chairperson John Frainier Evan Lamb MEMBERS ABSENT: Vice Chair Hildreth Thomas Rifenberg ALSO PRESENT: Joseph Seman-Graves, City Planner Sharon Butler, Administrative Assistant Chairperson Cherniak called the November meeting of the Historic Preservation and Architectural Review Board to order at 6:30PM. CONSIDERATION OF THE NOVEMBER 16, 2021 MEETING MINUTES Chairperson Cherniak; first item on the agenda is consideration of the November 16th meeting minutes. Have board members had time to look at the minutes? Member Lamb; I’ll make the motion to approve Member Frainier; I’ll 2nd it All in favor; AYE motion carried to approve both meeting minutes YES NO ABSTAIN Daniele Cherniak X Barbara Hildreth ABSENT Thomas Rifenberg ABSENT Evan Lamb X John Frainier X CONSIDERATION OF A HANGING SIGN AND A BARBER POLE AT 184 REMSEN STREET Chairperson Cherniak; so our next item on the agenda is 184 Remsen Street, is the applicant here? Mr. Flowers; yes Chairperson Cherniak; ok can you tell us a little bit about what you’re planning to do? Mr. Flowers; I plan on opening up a barber shop at that location. At first it will just be myself. I already own a barber shop in Colonie, and I’m just looking to expand my business. I offer some private services that my clients feel a little uncomfortable in a large open shop with my other barbers. I have 7 other barbers that I work with so I’m looking to open up a smaller private studio area just for myself. Chairperson Cherniak; ok and you are putting up a barber pole and a sign is that correct: Mr. Flowers; yes, that is correct Chairperson Cherniak; question about the sign, is there an existing bracket for that sign? Mr. Flowers; ye, yes there is already one there Chairperson Cherniak; ok, are there any other questions from the members of the board? Being none are there any questions from any members of the public? Are there members of the public present? Joe Seman-Graves; there is no one on Chairperson Cherniak; ok if there are no further questions, do I have a motion to accept the proposal for the sign and the barber pole? Member Frainier; I make that motion Member Lamb; I’ll 2nd Chairperson Cherniak; all in favor; AYE motion carried YES NO ABSTAIN Daniele Cherniak X Barbara Hildreth ABSENT Thomas Rifenberg ABSENT Evan Lamb X John Frainier X CONSIDERATION OF INSTALLATION OF WINDOWS, PAINT ON BAY WINDOWS, INSTALLATION OF EXTERIOR DOORS, NEW RAILINGS AND VENEER BRICK ON REAR GARAGE AT 86 REMSEN STREET Chairperson Cherniak; our next item is 86 Remsen Street, are the applicants here? John Clay; yes Chairperson Cherniak; ok, could you tell us a little bit about your project? Mr. Clay; sure, we’re going to be, we would like to paint he front of the building, not the brick but the bay windows and the trim. We’ve sent a proposal with the color changes, we didn’t do the best job but we tried. We did it on the computer and the color is going to be a navy blue with, or rather a pale navy with Montgomery white, a door, some new windows, new French doors and then for the balconies on the front are not changing, the actual balconies but just the wrought iron railings, the slats. And then fixing the brick face on the building. Chairperson Cherniak; ok one question I have, why are you proposing to use grids on the windows as opposed to their present state without grids? Mr. Clay; we’ve seen some windows in Cohoes that we feel that it just looks clearly nicer on the building. We just sort of like the look and we feel it goes with the City. Chairperson Cherniak; but I mean, I question whether it goes with the building because it’s, their currently not grid windows. Mr. Clay; sure, we’ve just seen a number of building in Cohoes and we’ve seen a number of buildings I guess in the area, we just like that look with the grid and it goes with the brick. I guess it’s just a matter of opinion, we like it, I guess that’s where we’re at. The French doors have grids on them now and we want to match that. Chairperson Cherniak; but they are different, are they similar in dimensions? Mr. Clay; yes, we’re not changing the dimensions of the windows. Chairperson Cherniak; no, I’m talking about the grids you’re saying they’re complimenting the French doors but I…… Mr. Clay; yeah, they’re going to be very similar, we just want to maintain that look of the French doors. The French doors they look like they’re absolutely original on the building and we feel like that will match it. There is actually a building across the street from us that has that as well and we just think it’ll go well with the neighborhood Chairperson Cherniak; and I’m just wondering about the choice of white as the color in that, it seems like a lot of white. Mrs. Clay; Montgomery white because we had to pick from the historical colors, it look really, really white in the photo I picked one to match, but the Montgomery white is actually a little bit more of a creamy white, it’s not a blatant white. Unfortunately I couldn’t pick a color that quite matched the Montgomery white. Chairperson Cherniak; ok, so that is certainly is on the palette Mr. Clay; yea the navy blue that we chose it’s called a Hale Blue, we chose it out of the color palette that is on the website. Again we couldn’t match it, it looks more black in the picture, we just couldn’t get it exact. Chairperson Cherniak; ok, just the understanding that it’s not going to be a bright white Mr. Clay; no, no we don’t want bright white, it would look weird, it would look like a navy house or something. Mrs. Clay; absolutely understood, but the other color that we had as an option to kind of give a visual was a little bit like a dark cream and we didn’t want to give the wrong impression that it was going to be a dark cream color, but, it’s Montgomery white which as the name says, it is a white but it’s not that bright at all. Chairperson Cherniak; ok, I understand. Any other questions from members of the board: Member Frainier; are you going with replacement windows or restoration option? Mr. Clay; the restoration option we looked into, unfortunately I am not a rich man, I had a company in Massachusetts that we contacted and it’s, it would be great to do it, I can’t afford to put sixty thousand dollars in windows, I wouldn’t be able to do the paint job. So it would be nice to do that, we love the area, we love the building, we love living near the park, and we live here so we want to it to just be beautiful. It looks like it hasn’t had a good paint job and new windows in a very long time. We just want to make it look great. Member Frainier; ok, thank you for proving the contrast between restoration and replacement. Chairperson Cherniak; ok, any other questions from members of the board? Ok, if not, do I have a motion to approve the application? Member Frainier; I’ll make that motion Member Lamb; 2nd all in favor AYE motion carried. YES NO ABSTAIN Daniele Cherniak X Barbara Hildreth ABSENT Thomas Rifenberg ABSENT Evan Lamb X John Frainier X CONSIDERATION OF REPLACING A WOODEN SIGN WITH AN ALUMINUM SIGN AT 65 REMSEN STREET Chairperson Cherniak; ok we’ll move on to our next item on the agenda, which is 65 Remsen Street. Sarah could you talk a little bit about what you’re planning to do? Ms. Stevens; I’m basically going to replace the heavy wooden sign that came down in the high winds a couple of weeks ago with a much lighter weight aluminum sig that should not come down in the wind. It will be the exact same look to the sigh, it’s going to go in the same place. The only real change is from wood to aluminum. I’m going to use the arm that’s out there and hang it and Vital Signs is going to do the sign Chairperson Cherniak; ok are there any questions for the applicant? Ok, if not do I have a motion to approve the sign? Member Lamb; I’ll make the motion Member Frainier; I’ll 2nd All in favor; AYE motion carried YES NO ABSTAIN Daniele Cherniak X Barbara Hildreth ABSENT Thomas Rifenberg ABSENT Evan Lamb X John Frainier X Joe Seman-Graves; just one more thing for the board. The schedule for next year, you don’t necessarily have to take a vote on it, I just want to make sure everyone is ok with the schedule. Chairperson Cherniak; ok so we’re on for the third Tuesday of the month pretty much all year. Sharon; yes, there were no holidays for your meetings that I had to change any dates for. Chairperson Cherniak; hopefully we’ll be meeting in person sometime soon. Joe Seman-Graves; and I’ll probably, I know not all the boards are doing this at City Hall, but I might be more cautious than some because when my daughter gets a cold I’m out of work for a week. So I’m opting to go virtually for at least December and January and then see how we look in February. Chairperson Cherniak; and that’ll save us from going out on a cold January evening. Joe Seman-Graves; I can push that into February, March depending on the weather too. So for at least the next couple of months, so if everyone is ok with that schedule then we’ll work off this going forward. Chairperson Cherniak; ok if there are no other items for discussion, I’d like a motion to adjourn Member Lamb; I’ll make that motion All in favor AYE meeting adjourned at 6:45PM