Historic Zoning Commission

COOKEVILLE HISTORIC ZONING COMMISSION MINUTES MAY 10, 2016 5:00 P.M. The Cookeville Historic Zoning Commission met on Tuesday, May 10, 2016, at 5:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers, 45 East Broad Street, Cookeville, TN 38501. MEMBERS PRESENT: Alma Anderson, Cathy Lamb, Greg Stamps, Chris Wakefield, and Julia Woodford. MEMBERS ABSENT: Lee Carney and Calvin Dickinson. STAFF PRESENT: James Mills, Jayne Barns, and Ken Young. OTHERS PRESENT: Carolyn Leslie, Eldon Leslie, and Lindsay McReynolds. ELECTION OF CHAIRMAN AND VICE CHAIRMAN. Greg Stamps made the motion to elect Calvin Dickinson as Chairman. Alma Anderson seconded the motion and the motion carried unanimously. CALVIN DICKINSON ELECTED AS CHAIRMAN. Julia Woodford made the motion to elect Greg Stamps as Vice Chairman. Alma Anderson seconded the motion and the motion carried unanimously. GREG STAMPS ELECTED AS VICE CHAIRMAN. CONSIDER FOR APPROVAL THE MINUTES OF JANUARY 12, 2016. Alma Anderson made the motion to approve the minutes of January 12, 2016. Chris Wakefield seconded the motion and the motion carried unanimously. APPROVED. STAFF REPORT ON THE RESULTS OF THE SURVEY OF PROPERTY OWNERS IN HISTORIC DISTRICTS RELATIVE TO PURSUING NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES DESIGNATION. Ken Young stated that as requested by the Historic Zoning Commission at the January 12, 2016 meeting, staff has surveyed the property owners in all three (3) of the Historic Overlay Zoning Districts to establish the level of interest in pursuing National Historic Register Designation. Under the provisions of the National Historic Regulations a simple majority of the property owners in an area proposed for National Historic Registry designation must favor such designation before an application will be considered. There are 13 properties within the Cream City District, 30 properties in the East Broad/Freeze Street District and 57 properties within the North Dixie Historic District. The Planning Department has contacted all the property owners in the area by mail. The mailers included a cover letter, a brochure prepared by the Tennessee Historical Commission and a self-addressed stamped post card for the owners to indicate whether they favored or opposed pursuing possible designation in the National Register of HISTORIC ZONING COMMISSION 2 MAY 10, 2016 Historic Places or needed additional information. The recipients were asked to respond by April 25th. As of May 1st, the responses of six (6) of the 13 owners of property in the Cream City District have been received. All of the six (6) responses were in the affirmative which represents 46% of the district. The responses of 14 of the 30 owners of property in the East Broad/Freeze Street District have been received. 13 responses were in the affirmative which represents 43.3% of the district. There was one (1) owner opposed. The responses of 19 of the 57 owners of property in the North Dixie Avenue District have been received. 15 responses were in the affirmative which represents 26.3% of the district. There was one (1) owner opposed and three (3) owners requesting additional information. As of this date no district has a simple majority of owners in favor of pursing National Register of Historic Places designation. Staff recommended that the Board consider several possible alternatives, including but not limited to: 1. Have representatives from each district personally contact property owners in their districts to elicit a response, 2. Have Planning Staff mail a second request to unresponsive property owners, 3. Ask the media to run a PSA encouraging property owners to respond, and 4. Discontinue efforts to pursue the designation at the present time. Ken Young stated that he had one more yes response today for the Cream City District which gives a total of seven (7) of the 13 property owners, which is 51%. The Board members agreed that it was too soon to give up. Cathy Lamb stated that at our last meeting that a resident on North Dixie Avenue agreed that they would be in favor of the National Register, if they could get underground electric, and Mrs. Lamb wanted to know if there were grants available for that. James Mills stated that there were no grants for underground electric and that the Council has looked at this in the past and it was going to be very costly for the residents and the City to pursue this endeavor. Alma Anderson suggested that each Historic District representative be given a list of those that have not responded, so that they can contact each property owners. All the Board members agreed. Alma Anderson made the motion that the Planning staff mail each Historic District representative a list of those property owners that have not responded, so that they can contract each property owner. Cathy Lamb seconded the motion and the motion carried unanimously. Greg Stamps asked Mr. Mills if it would be possible to replace the signs in the Cream City District that have been damaged and to see if they can have dedicated brackets for those signs. HISTORIC ZONING COMMISSION 3 MAY 10, 2016 Julia Woodford asked if they could also change the color of the signs in Cream City and East Broad Street/Freeze Street Historic District and also have dedicated brackets in the East Broad Street/Freeze Street Historic District. Mrs. Woodford added that the signs do not look good being attached to the telephone poles. Mr. Mills stated that he would talk to the City Manager to look at replacing the signs and getting dedicated brackets for those signs also. ADJOURNMENT: 5:15 P.M. SUBMITTED FOR APPROVAL SUBMITTED FOR RECORDING ___________________________ __________________________________ JAYNE BARNS CPS GREG STAMPS, ACTING CHAIRMAN PLANNING ASSISTANT COOKEVILLE HISTORIC ZONING