Historic Preservation Commission

IDAHO FALLS HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION Regular Meeting Thursday, January 4, 2018 12:00 p.m., Annex Conference Room Minutes Attending: Kim Smith-Chair, Hereschell Mynarcik, Graham Whipple, Julie Williams, Roxane Mitro, Renee Magee, Rachel McMurtrey Meeting called to order at 12:03 p.m. Minutes: Motion by Roxane was made to approve minutes from December 7, 2017 with corrections. Julie seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. Historic Preservation Plan-Public Outreach: Graham mentioned that the Commission left off last month deciding that it needed to be more outreach than education. Renee stated that she reached out to Abby Burn, who designed the citizen participation process for Idaho Falls for over 20 years. Renee asked Abby if she would be willing to help her. Abby aske d3 questions; what is the time line, what is the budget, and what are the goals? Renee noticed that a lot of the responses are hers with the exception of a couple. She asked the Commission to right down 2 important reasons for conducting the citizen participation program. Next, Renee asked the Commission to explain in writing what they want the program to accomplish. Renee explained that the questions that Abby asked years ago when she was organizing the citizen participation program for the City for the Comp Plan; what is the most effective program in citizen participation you have seen in Idaho Falls in the past, what are the most effective ways to reach citizens, what should be the roll of the Historic Preservation Commission members and what should be the roll of the staff? These were the questions Abby asked before the start of the design for the program. Renee asked the Commission to think about the questions. Renee collected the Commissions written comments to the questions to review and get back to Abby. She went on to explain that Brent applied for money from SHIPO for materials that the Commission would need and advertising. There was discussion regarding the amount of money needed from SHIPO and department budget if needed. Discussion of amount of money for supplies and advertising. There was also discussion regarding Abby’s roll and background. She is volunteering her services without pay. The amount is over $1,000 for supplies. Brad explained how the City’s website could be helpful with public outreach. There was other discussion regarding the utilization of Facebook and Twitter and how it may be used and help with public outreach. Renee is going to review the cards and come back and let the Commission know what they said. There was discussion regarding the timeline for the public outreach and utilizing the Farmers Market. June Walking Tour: Brent and Hereschell took pictures of some of the homes. They would like to narrow them down to 12 in the North Ridge District. Brent presented a slide show of the homes and a sheet of paper was passed out with the homes for the Commission to rank or vote on. It was determined that 205 S Ridge Ave was to be removed. Updates: The Commission discussed the Civic Auditorium and the Committee. Julie indicated that she attended their meeting on December 13th and offered to hold a position on the committee. She was told there were no vacancies on the committee, but she could apply and the next vacancy was the end of 2018. Brent and Julie did walk around with them and looked at some of the changes they would like to make. Julie feels it is disorganized and they need a master plan. The facility manager is running the project and in her opinion is not a good thing. If a plan is not put together it will be “piece milled” together, which is what is going on right now. The Committee does not seem interested in the HPC being involved. Brad encouraged the Commission to not give up with being involved. He explained that he had a meeting with Pam and talked about why it was important to preserve that building and the benefits of being on the Historic Register. Brad is under the impression that the Committee has a lot of misconceptions as to what they can do if HPC were involved or if the building was on the registry. Brad gave Pam some basic information and asked her to relay it to the committee. Julie stated that she went over the tax credits with them, but they did not seem like it was enough to be interested. There was some discussion regarding the HPC coming in late to phase one, but they would like to be involved in the rest of the phases going forward. The Commission discussed reaching out to the Idaho Heritage Trust to see if funding could be obtained to help with a points scan for the project. The Commission agreed that they were getting great shows in the theater. Also, the Commission feels there is a lack of communication within City agencies and commissions and Boards should refer projects to one another. Brad explained that the Historic Tax Credit passed legislation, but will be carried out over 5 years. 20% over the first year and the rest over the next four years. The building has to be on the registry to qualify. Brad also updated the Commission regarding the Bonneville project. They did not get a particular loan for the low income housing aspect of the project which was $600,000. Because they have invest so much time and money into this already they are going to move forward and will find a way to come up with the $600,000 somehow. In order to move forward they have to come up with it and it has to go towards the housing. They do have some ideas to come up with the money. They still want to close in April. There was no roundtable discussion. Kim adjourned the meeting at 1:29 p.m. Respectfully, Naysha Foster, Recording Secretary