Downtown Advisory Board Community Character

CITY OF HENDERSONVILLE DOWNTOWN ADVISORY BOARD COMMUNITY CHARACTER City Operations Center - 305 Williams Street - Hendersonville NC 28792 Tuesday, February 07, 2023 – 9:00 AM MINUTES 1. CALL TO ORDER – in attendance: Downtown Community Character Team Members: Caroline Gunther, Matthew Hickman, Michele Sparks, Gayle Cinke, Phil Wilmot, Linda DiPaola Historic Preservation Commission Members: Jim Welter, Ralph Hammond-Green, Cheryl Jones, Jane Branigan, Chris Batista Staff present: Jamie Carpenter, Alex Hunt, Terrye Jacobs, Dakota Parker NEW BUSINESS: 1. HPC/Community Character Discussion – The purpose of this meeting was to review joint projects and areas of work that impact both the community character subcommittee of the downtown advisory board and the Historic Preservation Commission: a. Façade Grants – The Downtown Advisory Board and Community Character Subcommittee have had several discussions regarding the intended purpose of façade grants and many requests for financial assistance on deferred maintenance. The overall consensus of the group is that we should consider completely changing the program, what it funds, amount of funds, and mission of the grant program. b. 7th Avenue District Overlay or Designation – There was some discussion on how to have a design overlay in one form or another for 7th Avenue. This would be used to have some ability to manage new construction and substantial design changes. There was discussion on the level of requirements for COA and/or staff approvals. 2. Next Steps: 4 major areas came of this meeting: a. GRANT PROGRAM – HIIP – historic improvement incentive program i. Identifying program needs ii. Identifying locations that need help – what would help them b. DESIGNATION/OVERLAY i. To be reviewed as a part of downtown master plan c. PROMOTION/EXAMPLES i. May – Historic Preservation Month ii. Promotion of Rudi’s project and how it was accomplished. iii. Promotion of historic areas (interpretive signs, website information, walking tours, etc) d. BLIGHT / CODE ENFORCEMENT - i. Code Enforcement/Planning Staff will continue to work through the processes of blight and 6. OTHER BUSINESS – We will meet again March 7 at same time. 7. ADJOURNMENT DOWNTOWN ADVISORY BOARD COMMUNITY CHARACTER – February 07, 2023 Page | 1