Historic Preservation Commission

IDAHO FALLS HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION Regular Meeting Thursday, October 5, 2017 4:00 p.m., Annex Conference Room Minutes Attending: Kim Smith-Chair, Hereschell Mynarcik, Catherine Smith, Carrie Athay, Graham Whipple, Julie Williams Meeting called to order: Meeting was called to order at 4:04 p.m. and started with introductions. Minutes: Motion made by Julie to approve minutes from June 6, 2017, as corrected. Hereschell seconded the motion. Motion carried unanimously. North Ridge Tour: Hereschell handed out a list of the homes for the tour next year and explained that the list needs to be reduced to approximately 12 homes for the tour. The list brought up a discussion regarding district boundaries. It was determined that Stephanie’s house is in the district, but not contributing and the Tea house is in the district, but being foreclosed on. Betty Jo’s house (next to Stephanie’s) is in the district and is currently being remodeled. If the commission can get the list down to 12 Hereschell will start contacting property owners to see if they can get into the homes. The tour will be the 4th Saturday in June. The commission is asked to e-mail Hereschell regarding the list. Hereschell spoke with Ms. Staoddard she said she would love to have them. Several of the homes have history just through the resident. Would like to include a story of the history with the home. Very powerful to pull the stories in that explain why we have this road or park. With the churches, Hereschell did the same thing. He went over the architecture design, but mostly went over the history of the church. Brent said there would be a great opportunity to include Compass and have a student create an information board to have in the home instead of the handouts and provide some images. It was mentioned that Carrie is now on the commission and a lot of data can come from the museum. Brent feels if students are used to help with this project, the sooner the list is finalized the better so the students will have time. Also, the homeowners can prepare. Karen Baker said she would let commission in if she gets her remodeling done. 313 Home and 425 Ash, Richards’ house is also doing a major remodel. Façade Improvement Project (Idaho Federal Building): Brent stated that the old post office has a façade improvement application through Lisa, and would like to know if it is significant enough to even bother. Talking to Renee, there is a façade easement on that building and there cannot be significant changes. They are controlled a little bit as to what they can do. They are painting the windows, the same color as what they are, repainting flashing on the top and changing out the canvas on the northern entrance, also painting handrails from white to black. Handrails not in easement. Brent asked if the commission would like to do a review on the building or can they just move forward. Julie suggested that the commission follow procedure and review it. Graham feels it can be done in a regular meeting and not a special meeting. Keep the pattern even if it’s just painting, The Commission does not want to set a precedence and see “just painting” become a problem. Brent will do a staff report for the next meeting and will have it on the agenda. Graham stated as part of the application that a request for paint and material sample is included. Brent reassured the commission that is already included. Julie mentioned that there are downtown guidelines and that is what Brent uses to generate a staff report. The standards are on the website. Naysha and Brent will make some binders for the commission with the standards. Historic Preservation Plan Outreach Discussion: Brent explained that the commission needs to talk about time, because there are a lot of things going on. The Downtown Plan which is scheduled for a work session with the City Council on Tuesday and hoping to adopt that this fall. The entire Zoning Ordinance HPC 10-5-17 Minutes - draft Page 1 of 3 change will have some public outreach in January. That is when Brent was looking at doing the outreach for the Historic Preservation Plan. It is too hard to do public outreach during the holidays (November/December). It would be overwhelming for the community to do it the same time as the outreach for the zoning ordinance. This gives time to fine tune and get it ready to go. Initial time frame is out the window. Brent suggested that regular meeting be used to get things prepared. The Zoning ordinance is city wide. The form based code will go to public hearings and still considering how to move forward with outreach for that. Graham has concerns that there are portions of the preservation code that intertwine with the zoning and form based code for the traditional neighborhoods. He has concerns that the public outreach would be overwhelming to do at the same time. Brent explained that the new zoning ordinance will include traditional neighborhood zone which will include older neighborhoods and elements of the form based code would help to preserve those neighborhoods. It’s not true design review in the sense that this commission understands, but it is more than what is currently involved as far as the bulk and scale and size of structure and how it can be changed. The intent is to go into old neighborhoods and do a neighborhood plan, similar to the Downtown plan. Brent handed out an outline of questions and suggestions regarding outreach. He asked the commission to review it and asked if there were any other goals or suggestions, if so he asked that they be e-mailed to him. He asked what they would like to see for the goals and achieve from the outreach. The commission discussed educating the public and being careful about the language that is used. There is a lot of misconceptions about what preservation really is. The public doesn’t understand the terms, they hear the word district and think taxes. There needs to be definitions of basic words. Next the commission discussed goals. Brent went over some of the questions and comments under number two. What does the public consider as historic neighborhoods? What do residents like or dislike about historic neighborhoods? Brent moved on to number three on the handout. He explained that Renee gave him some booklets that have ideas for public outreach. He has an electronic copy of both booklets and will e-mail them out to the commission. There are examples of things that have worked for other outreach projects. Renee also suggested a map with major streets and posted notes and the public can make notes as to what they consider historic and why and then put the posted notes on the map for that area. They identify specific buildings or areas. This is a good tool, because they can explain why instead of just putting a dot on the map. Renee also suggested having a mural of historic neighborhoods and ask people to write down how they feel about those things. Brent would like more feedback regarding how to present that information, because if it’s too much it becomes overwhelming. He would also like to have old photos of buildings at the locations with stories about those buildings, sites or people as an education portion to the outreach. Julie told a story about a gentleman that bought a couple of houses and was going to tear one of them down, but when the two of them started talking about the lots and the neighborhood she explained to him that he would be taking one of the teeth out of the smile. She went on to explain that there are not just buildings there, but that they were developed in a certain way and that should be included as part of the education portion. Brent suggested that there be some before and after pictures of neighborhoods and ask people what they like and dislike about the before and after images. People will notice the changes and realize how it changes the feel of the neighborhood. Carrie feels it is important to tell stories to the younger generations and explain to them why these things are worth preserving. It creates more of an investment of a place and gives an emotional / personal element to a place. Graham explained that the smaller lots generated a relationship with neighbors. Need to talk about the form and structure, but also tell stories. Brent stated that the room could be set up in the way of a timeline and help people to understand the history of the city and show how it evolved. Then mix in some of the other elements of preservation. Set the stage, show the change. There is a lot that can be done in the meetings, but don’t overwhelm. Brent would like to have an online element as well, where people can put a pin on a map and say why or tell stories about that place. It could also be on site, but it would be nice to have it up ahead of time. Brent explained how the city did that with the downtown plan. He will speak with the IT department. Graham thinks it would be good to get online as soon as possible. Brent feels it would be great to eventually have a story board. Carrie explained that the museum is working on an oral history board with the expansion. HPC 10-5-17 Minutes - draft Page 2 of 3 Brent would like everyone to give more thought to the outreach, how the commission would like it structured and things to be included. Start writing ideas down. He also asked the commission to think about where to have the public outreach. It could be done at a couple different historic locations. The Civic Auditorium was mentioned. Roundtable Discussion: There was also discussion regarding the renovations going on at the Civic Auditorium and at what point the construction is at. There will be limited seating once finished. There was question as to what could be done about this. Brent suggested that they write something up that he could give to Pam. The commission would like to do something to influence the decisions regarding the old seats, the community doesn’t know about what is going on there. The commission talked about what the school auditorium will be used for. Kim said he would help out if the commission would like to put a letter together. Meeting adjourned at 5:06. Respectfully Submitted, Naysha Foster, Recording Secretary HPC 10-5-17 Minutes - draft Page 3 of 3