Heritage Commission

CITY OF LACONIA HERITAGE COMMISSION 5:00 PM City Hall - Armand A. Bolduc City Council Chamber Accepted January 11, 2023 10/12/2022 - Minutes 1. Call to order Chair Jane Whitehead called the meeting to order at 5:00 PM 2. Salute to the flag Chair J. Whitehead led the pledge of allegiance 3. Roll call Members present: Mark Haynes, Marjorie Wilkinson, Scott Ringer, Jane Whitehead Absent: Lois Kessin, Catherine Tokarz 4. Recording secretary 4.I. Recording Secretary Yanis Banks Code Secretary 5. Staff in attendance 5.I. Staff and Attendance Dean Trefethen Director of Planning & Development 6. Acceptance of Minutes from previous meeting 6.I. Acceptance of Minutes September 14 Acceptance of September 14 Minutes 7. City Council Liaison Report Nothing to report. However, Mark Haynes stated he received correspondence regarding Gold St. Mark brough up concerns from citizen Joyce Donohue about the property. Jane mentioned Joyce decided not to proceed further after communication with Tara Shore. Scott Everette received a letter from Tara, and he responded back to her. He was aware of the historic importance of the property and he would investigate further but he was traveling at the time. Mark Haynes also mentioned he was briefed last night about the State School as well as the rest of the board members. Jane Whitehead referred to the email she received from Director of Planning &  communication with Tara Shore. Scott Everette received a letter from Tara, and he responded back to her. He was aware of the historic importance of the property and he would investigate further but he was traveling at the time. Mark Haynes also mentioned he was briefed last night about the State School as well as the rest of the board members. Jane Whitehead referred to the email she received from Director of Planning & Development Dean Trefethen which it read that there will be a meeting held on Wednesday at 7:00 PM here at City Hall. 7.I. New City Manager Kirk Beattie assumed his new position on October 3rd. 7.II. New Laconia Fire Chief Timothy Joubert will start on October 24th. 8. Planning Board update Dean Trefethen discussed things are busy we have some projects underway that have been approved and will start construction soon. The Gardens at Endicott is underway. A check was received today from Brady Sullivan as first part of their payment for the Langley Cove Project. It is estimated to start this fall more realistically spring. Dean Trefethen mentioned a lot of activity in the City, Planning Team is busy. 9. New business 191 Wentworth Cove Rd Building A 191 Wentworth Cove Rd Building B 249 Court St 263 Court St 267 Court St 9.I. 191 Wentworth Cove Rd Building A Contractor Jason Bean clarified there are two cottages. Cottage A is closest to the water and Cottage B is behind it. Both cottages are very similar in appearance, and he also stated an asbestos inspection was conducted. One of the buildings is from the 1950’s and the other one from 1932. Both cottages are in rough shape they aren’t winterized and are rotten. Cottage A had no asbestos found however Cottage B had little in the window sashes and a small section under the roof. The intent is to build a single- family home. Scott Ringer started the motion to approve demo permit for 191 Wentworth Cove Rd Buildings A & B. Marjorie Wilkinson seconded. All voted in favor. 9.II. 191 Wentworth Cove Rd Building B 9.III. Demo Applications Brandon Boyer introduced himself as representative for Belknap County Community Rentals. 249 Court St is not habitable and there is a bad homelessness problem. In fact there has been one for the past 3 years and they go into the property and destroy it. Building holds no historical value, rough shape inside he suggested most people would be scared to go in. There is paper all over the place, feces on the walls and many more vandalism. Police has been called to the property multiple times and they have asked if the building can be demolished sooner. 263 Court St is currently a multifamily, asbestos shingles on it, vinyl siding, the building it’s what used to be Bobs Lock & Key. Jane Whitehead asked for the age of the buildings. Brandon Boyer stated 249 Court St is from 1900, 263 Court St is early 1838 and 267 Court St is 1900. Mark Haynes asked Dean Trefethen if there was a demo application permit last year for one of the buildings. Dean Trefethen responded it was for 249 Court St submitted by a different contractor and demo application was never approved. This demo applications presented are by a different applicant/owner. Dean Trefethen presented Jane Whitehead with copies of the plans which included the lot with all three buildings. Jane  263 Court St is currently a multifamily, asbestos shingles on it, vinyl siding, the building it’s what used to be Bobs Lock & Key. Jane Whitehead asked for the age of the buildings. Brandon Boyer stated 249 Court St is from 1900, 263 Court St is early 1838 and 267 Court St is 1900. Mark Haynes asked Dean Trefethen if there was a demo application permit last year for one of the buildings. Dean Trefethen responded it was for 249 Court St submitted by a different contractor and demo application was never approved. This demo applications presented are by a different applicant/owner. Dean Trefethen presented Jane Whitehead with copies of the plans which included the lot with all three buildings. Jane Whitehead asked the Representative if this is what he is proposing to put up. He responded yes, that is the first round regular. Marjorie asked what type of building it will be and he responded mixed used. Two Commercial spaces at the bottom and 44 units on the top. We have applied for the Work Force Housing grant that was recently passed. Our goal is to use some of these units as apartments that are rent locked to incentivize the workforce housing in the area. Mark Haynes raised concerns about the soil, he asked Dean Trefethen if there had been a soil test performed. He responded not at this time, but something may need to be done. The concern is that the soil may have been contaminated because its adjacent to were Rips Auto used to be and Stafford Oil did their expansion last year. Mark Haynes asked if they had gone to the Planning Board yet. Dean responded they had for the conceptual but waiting for the actual site plans. He mentioned they are in the works as they have also applied for various state programs for the affordable housing and the demolition assistance and some other. Brandon Boyer dove right in after Dean and stated one of those programs would benefit the City as it pays out $10,000 per unit from what profit they bring in. Mr. Boyer said they are still working through several details and noting is set in stone at this time. Jane Whitehead discussed that her concerns are whether there is any historical significance that the Heritage Commission would want to preserve since that is what they are there for. Brandon mentioned there are some beams that look like they may have historical value however he is unsure. They could just have been added for aesthetics purposes as they do look very nice, if that is the case he spoke about having them repurposed inside the building. Jane requested if he could take pictures of those details inside the building that holds historical value so we could store them into our records drive. Marjorie made a motion to accept the demo applications for 249 Court St, 263 Court St & 267 Court St. Scott Ringer seconded. All voted in favor. 10. Old business 10.I. Introduction of Andrew Cushing, Field Representative of the NH Preservation Alliance 10.II. Election of Officers Jane Whitehead asked for it to be moved to the next meeting. Dean Trefethen affirmed to move it to next month’s meeting. 11. Public comment 12. Other business Jane reminded everyone of the NH Preservation Alliance’s Seven to Save event coming up on the 18. Andrew Cushing Community Preservation Services Manager asked for us to sign up online so they can keep an accurate head count. Andrew also submitted a letter to Jane with some information regarding funding for the Heritage Commission. Jane has asked for it to be added to next meeting Agenda. Catherine Tokarz had asked for updates on the Goss Reading Room at previous meeting. There are no new updates on it currently. Scott Ringer mentioned he didn’t know that it had been closed and he would love to go inside of it at some point. Jane said there are no new updates on the Folsom-Batchelder House. Scot Ringer said it is gone and Marjorie confirmed it. Jane Whitehead mentioned there was no regard for its historical value since the building is gone and hopefully the owner can add a plaque to preserve that history for our City. Mark Haynes asked Dean Trefethen if there is a way to prevent future old buildings that hold historical significance from been demolished. Dean responded that at this time the city ordinance has steps you go through, but the reality is there is not much we can do if the owner decides not to cooperative. He also stated he has reached out to the City’s Legal Council to see if we can strengthen our ordinance. Dean said he will follow up with the Legal Team.  Marjorie confirmed it. Jane Whitehead mentioned there was no regard for its historical value since the building is gone and hopefully the owner can add a plaque to preserve that history for our City. Mark Haynes asked Dean Trefethen if there is a way to prevent future old buildings that hold historical significance from been demolished. Dean responded that at this time the city ordinance has steps you go through, but the reality is there is not much we can do if the owner decides not to cooperative. He also stated he has reached out to the City’s Legal Council to see if we can strengthen our ordinance. Dean said he will follow up with the Legal Team. Marjorie asked if there was anything happening at Water St. She read an article in the paper. Dean mentioned that the Water Street Café has been approved for their project. Owner is targeting to start next year he is unsure if he will wait until end of summer. Restaurant building will be torn down to replace it with a new one. He intends to move the restaurant to another location from what he had heard. 12.I. The NH Preservation Alliance’s Seven to Save event, which will be held in the Belknap Mill on the 18th 12.II. Goss reading room, update on who closed it. 12.III. Update on the Folsom-Batchelder house. 13. Adjournment Scott Ringer made a motion to adjourn and Marjorie seconded. All voted in favor.