Historic Preservation & Architectural Review Board Agendas and Minutes

MINUTES OF THE COHOES HISTORIC PRESERVATION AND ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW BOARD MEETING HELD WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 2022 AT 6:30PM MEMBERS PRESENT: Daniele Cherniak, Chairperson Barbara Hildreth, Vice Chair John Frainier Evan Lamb ALSO PRESENT: Joseph Seman-Graves, City Planner Sharon Butler, Administrative Assistant Josh Giller, Assistant Planner Chairperson Cherniak called the March meeting of the Historic Preservation and Architectural Review Board to order at 6:34PM. All members were present; Chair Cherniak, Vice Chair Hildreth, Member Lamb Member Frainier CONSIDERATION OF THE MARCH 15, 2022 MEETING MINUTES Chairperson Cherniak; first item on the agenda is consideration of the March 15th meeting minutes. Has everyone had a chance to look at the minutes? Do I have a motion to approve? Vice Chair Hildreth; I make the motion to accept 2nd by Member Frainer all in favor; AYE motion passed YES NO ABSTAIN Daniele Cherniak X Barbara Hildreth X Evan Lamb X John Frainier X CONSIDERATION OF SIGN AND LIGHT ADDITIONS AT 300 ONTARIO STREET Chairperson Cherniak; next item is 300 Ontario Street, the applicant is not here so this is a sign. Vice Chair Hildreth; is this sign JayAnn’s Printing sign, there’s a printing business going in there Josh Giller; yes and they have already passed through the planning board Vice Chair Hildreth; ok Joe Seman-Graves; she is a very passionate person for printing, she wants to open her own and branch out Vice Chair Hildreth; so the ice cream sign is coming out of the window? Joe Seman-Graves; I’m assuming Chairperson Cherniak; so where exactly is the sign going? Josh Giller; showed the placement on the picture in the packet – over the window there’s also 2 lights, one to the left and one to the right Chairperson Cherniak; are there any other questions about the application? Do I have a motion to approve the application? Member Lamb; I’ll make the motion 2nd by Vice Chair Hildreth all in favor motion carried YES NO ABSTAIN Daniele Cherniak X Barbara Hildreth X Evan Lamb X John Frainier X CONSIDERATION OF EXTERIOR RENOVATIONS TO 143 REMSEN STREET Chairperson Cherniak; next item on the agenda is 143 Remsen Street façade repair. The applicant was not present Joe Seman-Graves; explained to the board that the exterior is past renovation and Code issued a violation to fix it and they would like to re-do the entire thing so it will have a uniform look. There was more information that Josh forwarded to you yesterday from the general contractor. He will be doing the work, he tried to elaborate on what the replacement would be. Pretty much hardi back board to mirror that look and the colors picked will be as close to the current to get that look. Chairperson Cherniak; so it will overall have the same general appearance when it’s done Joe Seman-Graves; that is what they are proposing. There is some detail on there that to me seems to be a litter harder to mirror with hardi back but I’m not a skilled contractor or carpenter so they might be able to pull it off. Chairperson Cherniak; are they willing to do that? Joe Seman-Graves; they said they are going to mirror it. And we did talk to the person doing the work and he seemed very confident that he could. Chairperson Cherniak; the key is the person doing the work knows what they are doing Vice Chair Hildreth; are they going to replace the tiles that are missing? Joe Seman-Graves; no, so they are replacing – showed the board on the pictures in the packet. Vice Chair Hildreth; asked if other parts deteriorated were going to be replaced Joe Seman-Graves; no not as of right now. Chairperson Cherniak; maybe they will at some point, but we don’t know what their resources are and they can come back to us at that point. Joe Seman-Graves; I would just make it very clear that if the board does approve that it mirrors in kind look Chairperson Cherniak; yes definitely. Do I have a motion to approve the application for this repair and add that it has to be in kind and have the same appearance as it does now? Member Frainier; I’ll make the motion 2nd by Member Lamb all in favor motion carried YES NO ABSTAIN Daniele Cherniak X Barbara Hildreth X Evan Lamb X  John Frainier X Chairperson Cherniak; ok is there anything else the board needs to discuss Joe Seman-Graves; gave updates on projects; Community Builders project they are progressing, Remsen Street Phase III project, sidewalks, street scape construction will be starting in June and will be probably be a month and a half duration. Vice Chair Hildreth; asked how that would impact Eat in the Streets. Joe Seman-Graves; stated that people would not be eating on that portion of the streets. Vice Chair Hildreth; asked how it would impact traffic etc. Joe Seman-Graves; stated that they would have access so traffic shouldn’t be impeded. The workers get out early on Fridays so it wouldn’t be an issue with that. Steve and Deb talked specifically to Don and his businesses because they didn’t want it to be impacted over there, all the businesses will have access at all times, it wouldn’t recommended to use the street scapes especially because of the condition they will be in to set up tables. Hopefully it’s just a temporary inconvenience with long term benefit. We have grants already approved for White Street that will come before the board but we came way over budget with Remsen Street mainly because of all the price increases, so I think we might try to hold off on White until next spring and see if prices come back down. We’re almost at a fully funded Columbia Street project which if it happens will be 2 years out as it will be the whole length of Columbia. So both things with the street scapes and with this building the windows keeps getting pushed back, when I asked now it’s June when the 2 mock up windows are going to be installed then we will have State Historic come down and look at them and if everyone likes what they see we can then proceed not fully do the whole building but we need that approval in order to go after more funding. We have a walk through with NYSERDA next week, we have been really focusing on the HVAC on this building, we don’t want to ruin the historic nature of this building even on the inside so, a lot of the heating and cooling options add ventilation which is good in some aspects but in other aspects you’re adding 6 x 12 holes dug into your walls. We’re trying to do it as least intrusive as possible so NYSERDA is going to do the walk through with us and talk us through it. And then the library condition survey I think it’s in final draft mode, we are waiting for some things same as the music hall. Once those are completed hoping to have an overview for the board. I know we saw the numbers for the music hall façade and that was 2.1 million. When you get into it there’s a lot of deferred maintenance especially with the drainage off the roof, layer after layer you can see the rot so there’s a lot of work to do. We just had a meeting with Cohoes Hotel Phase II, Mr. Bonaquisti he’s looking to progress now. And I think a lot of things we’re seeing with our own projects and in the private sector too because people were putting things off because they are hoping the prices come back down. And there was discussion regarding the old Pole Barn which Joe isn’t as involved with, but will pass along any renderings and information when it comes in. Josh has been working with Daniele on the CLG program which makes us state certified historic board, we’re recognized by not certified. That really impacts us with funding opportunities more than anything else. The information has been sent into State historic and we’re waiting for them to get back to us. Once we get that we’ll share with the whole board, and we’ll have to go to the common council to formally adopt it and we can change it in the zoning. Chairperson Cherniak; if there isn’t anything else we can adjourn Meeting adjourned at 6:53PM