Heritage Commission

ACCEPTED MINUTES – SEPTEMBER 4, 2024 MEETING 1. CALL TO ORDER Acting Chair Scott Ringer called the meeting to order at 4:06 PM. 2. SALUTE TO THE FLAG Acting Chair Scott Ringer led the Pledge of Allegiance. 3. ROLL CALL Members present: Scott Ringer, Jane Whitehead, Mark Haynes Members absent: Marjory Wilkinson, Lois Kessin 4. RECORDING SECRETARY Jennifer Place 5. STAFF IN ATTENDANCE Joseph Gray, Rob Mora, Tyler Carmichael 6. ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES FROM PREVIOUS MEETING Acting Chair Scott Ringer asked for a motion to accept the July 23, 2024 minutes. Jane Whitehead made the motion. Mark Haynes seconded the motion. All members voted in favor. 7. CITY COUNCIL LIAISON REPORT Mark Haynes stated he didn’t have anything to report on. Most of the Council’s time has been taken up by accepting grants or public hearings that have nothing to do with this Commission. Mark stated he was disappointed in the state school property. Acting Chair Scott Ringer said he thought the State had a buyer. Mark Haynes said the buyer has two years to decide what they want to do and after two years, they can walk away. Two more years is down the tubes. Jane Whitehead asked if there was a down payment. Mark Haynes stated the developer put in a retainer, but they can still walk away. 8. PLANNING BOARD UPDATE Planning Director Rob Mora said the City Council approved an amendment for ADU’s last month. They are now permitted by right. The Planning Department just found a contractor who will be doing an impact fee study them. They are working on the contract right now. They’re also working on zoning amendment changes, one being for performance zoning. They’re looking at updating the junkyard ordinance and the requirements for unregistered and unlicensed vehicles. Legal is reviewing those amendments and then it will go back to the Planning Board where they’ll have an opportunity to review the amendment. Jane Whitehead asked what “ADU” stands for. Rob said it stands for accessory dwelling unit. It’s another word for in-law apartment. It’s a small additional living unit inside a single- family home. 9. NEW BUSINESS 9.1. 42 CENTENARY AVENUE DEMO PERMIT APPLICATION Acting Chair Scott Ringer asked who was representing the property. The contractor Mark Lawrence and the owner Brian Beaupre were in attendance. Mark dropped off binders for all members earlier in the week. Mark stated the home was not square or plumb at all. The water wasn’t shut off over the winter and it destroyed the house. Jane Whitehead asked if the water was a recent problem. Mark said yes and directed members to look at the cover letter in the binder.  Brian Beaupre said most of the house had to be gutted due to water damage. Jane Whitehead stated she drove by the home today so she could see what it looked like from the outside. She wasn’t given any pictures of the home as far as its architectural style or its presence in the landscape, which she likes to evaluate as well. From the outside you can’t tell that a mess on the inside exists. Jane’s impression from what she could see was that this home was not of any architectural significance. Mark Lawrence directed the members to look at page 64 in the binder. All the photos are labeled. Page 64 shows part of the floor structure that collapsed and everything was destroyed. Page 66 shows the floors are pushed out. Page 67 shows underneath the floor where there’s an 18”-20” crawl space and you can see the building is falling apart. All the pipes and heating system were crushed by whatever ice had formed and there’s no structure to the floor anymore. All the timbers on page 71 are crushed. Page 72 shows parts of the floor that are falling into the crawl space. The back 2 corners of the house on the Margin Avenue side are flared out and there’s no support. Page 78 shows how far it’s pushed out. Page 78 shows how far the porch is pushed off the house. When you go to the second floor, the knee walls are only 30”-42” in some spots. Mark stated he used a level on the knee wall and it’s out 3 ½”-4”. The entire home is pushing out and the roof is now bowing. It’s very scary because the house could potentially collapse at some point, even if it was left as is. Mark said the home was built on stilts and most of them fell over into the crawl space. There’s not much holding the structure up. It would not be cost effective to attempt to fix the existing home. You would need to jack up the roof, then the second floor, fix the first floor and jack that up before pouring a new foundation. It would cost more to repair than to take it down and build a new structure. Jane Whitehead asked if there were footprints on the ceiling on page 9. Mark Lawrence stated that’s the main beam that’s holding up the area on page 2. Jane Whitehead asked if the ice did all that damage in one year. Mark Lawrence stated it wouldn’t take more than a week if you have water continuously feeding an ice dam that just gets bigger and bigger. It has the power of a bulldozer and pushes everything out. Acting Chair Scott Ringer asked if anything was salvageable. Mark Lawrence stated there was nothing in the building and directed members to look through the binder of photos showing the both the interior and exterior of the home. Jane Whitehead asked if they planned to put a new house on that piece of property. Mark Lawrence stated yes, they want to build a new home in the same footprint. It will pretty much be the same thing but new with a foundation. Mark asked the members if they had any questions. Code Enforcement Director Joe Gray asked what contractor was doing the demolition and how they planned to secure the other buildings surrounding this home. The area down there is tight, and the homes are very close together. Mark Lawrence stated he would be doing the demolition. He plans to take 90% of the home down by hand. He will brace the building with cross bracing inside on the first and second floor and then cut out parts of the roof. There will be at least 3 areas of cross bracing. There’s no room for a machine to come in and take the home down. They will be working on both sides of the home on Centenary and Margin Avenues. Mark stated it will be tight when they go to dig the foundation. Acting Chair Scott Ringer asked for a motion. Jane made a motion to approve the demolition permit. Mark Haynes seconded. All members voted in favor. Jane Whitehead asked that we keep 1 binder for the file at City Hall. 9.1.1. 354 WEIRS BOULEVARD UNIT 1 DEMO PERMIT APPLICATION Acting Chair Scott Ringer asked who was representing the property. No one came to the podium. Acting Chair Scott Ringer asked recording secretary Jennifer Place if she had any photos. Jennifer said she had spoken to the contractor Wes and gave him the date and time of the meeting.  Acting Chair Scott Ringer noticed the year built on the tax card was listed as 1985, which makes the building 49 years old. Recording secretary Jennifer Place said she didn’t think they needed to go before the Heritage Commission for this structure. Jennifer stated she will double check the file. Code Enforcement Director Joe Gray stated it did not. Acting Chair Scott Ringer tabled the demolition permit for this property. 9.1.1.1.228 LEIGHTON AVENUE NORTH DEMO PERMIT APPLICATION Acting Chair Scott Ringer asked who was representing the property. Allan Gilbert from Allan Gilbert Builders stated he was representing his customers Ryan and Jodi Stewart. Acting Chair Scott Ringer stated the home was built in 1950. Allan Gilbert said he wasn’t sure where that date came from. Recording secretary Jennifer Place said she had the tax card, and the year built listed is 1950. Allan stated they want to tear the house down and handed several photos to the Commission. Allan said it was a conventional framed home with vinyl siding, 2”x6” construction, a partial basement under some of the home and a block foundation under the rest. Jane Whitehead asked what the square footage of the home was. Recording secretary Jennifer Place stated it was 3,200 square feet based on the tax card. Jane Whitehead said the home looked to be in pretty good condition and she didn’t think it was of any remarkable architecture. Allan Gilbert stated it was nothing different than any other camp that was built back in the day. He said the basement is partial crawl space and it’s salvageable. Acting Chair Scott Ringer asked if there was anything original to the home. Allan Gilbert stated maybe the kitchen cabinets could be used in a garage. Jane Whitehead asked if the new building will follow the same footprint. Allan Gilbert stated the new building will mostly be in the same footprint, but some of it will be different. Allan stated Dubois and King were the surveyors and they’ll be coming to the property shortly to do the plotting. A new septic and well will be installed and the property owners already have a shoreline permit in place. Acting Chair Scott Ringer asked for a motion. Jane Whitehead moved to approve the demolition permit. Mark Haynes seconded. All members voted in favor. 10. OLD BUSINESS 10.1. RULES OF PROCEDURE FOR THE HERITAGE COMMISSION – THIRD DRAFT Acting Chair Scott Ringer moved to table this agenda item until next meeting. The Commission would like all members to be present before discussing. 11. PUBLIC COMMENT Acting Chair Scott Ringer asked if there were any comments from the public. Charlie St. Clair came to the podium and said he remembered Council members talking about combining the Heritage Commission with the Historical District Overlay. He said he could see that being advantageous for different reasons, but what put the fear of God in him was if the Heritage Commission rules supersede the rules of Historical District Overlay. Charlie said he used to sit on this Commission and found it frustrating that they would deny a demo permit and it would end up being demolished anyway. It was basically a “thank you for your opinion” situation. The Historical District has more teeth to protecting within the overlay and that’s his concern moving forward. Planning Director Rob Mora stated if the two commissions were combined, they would be delegating the power of the Heritage Commission to the Historic District Commission. Charlie St. Clair asked what that meant. Rob Mora said the Historic District Commission would have the same function as the Heritage Commission along with the powers of the Historic District Commission. It would be one commission doing both functions. Charlie St. Clair asked which Rules of Procedure would apply if they were combined. Rob Mora said the Rules of Procedure for running the board would be of the Historic District Commission and the ordinance that governs both of those would be the zoning ordinance and the building code ordinance. Charlie St. Clair stated he wants to make sure that the Historic District Overlay is not affected by limitations. Rob Mora stated if they were combined, the Historical District Commission is more stringent when it comes to demolition permits only within the Historic District. The powers would remain the same. The combined commission would have the same power to review demolition permits for buildings in all districts. Historical District. Charlie St. Clair stated the issue he has is, for example, the Hathaway House. They tried to save it and had plenty of public support. But when it came down to brass tacks, they did what they wanted to and the moved on with the project anyway. Charlie said that’s what he worries about. Rob Mora stated that if the Historical District was enlarged to incorporate other structures, then those structures would fall into the larger area of protection. Charlie St. Clair stated that the Heritage Commission went around and took an inventory about 5-7 years ago. Jane Whitehead stated Mae Williams did the inventory. Charlie St. Clair stated it was quite an inventory. Rob Mora stated he’s had several discussions with the Government Ordinance Subcommittee regarding the powers of the Historical District Commission and the rewrite of that ordinance. Charlie St. Clair asked if some of those buildings could be added to that area. Rob Mora stated he thinks the ultimate goal is to expand, but the power of the Historical District Commission and what you’re governing needs to be curtailed so the City isn’t overly regulating things like building paint, doorknobs, etc. Jane Whitehead asked what if the Hathaway House and other areas that include Victorian homes and farmhouses, could be zoned as a designated historic district in order to save them. Rob Mora said you can’t pick and choose which homes you want to designate as being in the Historic District. Once a property falls into that higher designation, it would be subject to the same rules. Any building within that area would have to follow those rules and any redevelopment would have to follow those rules as well. If a building was demolished that was not historic, any redevelopment, because of how the Historic District is written, would have to go back through the board for approval because of what it would look like. Sometimes when you overregulate some of those things, it becomes prohibitive to redevelop and there’s also a cost associated with the Historic District Commission. Rob stated that Tyler Carmichael could speak more on that because he has a history of working in the insurance industry. Tyler Carmichael stated once you establish a Historic District Commission, depending on how rigid you are, companies might refuse to insure a building because it becomes cost prohibitive for them. If there’s an emergency situation where it gets damaged and you have to rebuild, some of the materials might not be available and some might not meet current code. Charlie St. Clair said that’s getting back into the color of the paint and that was not the intent. Rob Mora stated that you must be cognizant of that. Tyler Carmichael said having worked in the insurance industry, they don’t necessarily look at the building itself. The question that will be asked is, it in a historic district and if so, some companies are not going to insure the building regardless of whether or not it was built to normal standards. Be aware that there are costs associated with that. Charlie St. Clair stated some insurance companies aren’t insuring half a state now due to weather. Mark Haynes asked if a building is demolished and rebuilt, would it be subject to the Historic District. Rob Mora said yes. Mark Haynes said it would be subject to the rules and regulations that the district sets forward. Rob Mora stated the way the Historic District was adopted, there are no guidelines for what that is, so the board has unlimited power to control everything about the redevelopment, even what it will look like. There are no guidelines for the developer to go by. A developer could do a complete project and the board can tell them they don’t like that and they could deny it. Charlie St. Clair said that was addressed in the rewrite that we still haven’t seen yet. Rob Mora stated, as it’s written now, that’s how it is. Rob knows about the rewrite, but it hasn’t been adopted yet. Mark Haynes stated this is why he’s been pushing to expand the Historic District. Charlie St. Clair stated the Weirs needs to be included in that district. Mark Haynes stated Lakeport and Pleasant should be included.  Jane Whitehead asked if the area of the Hathaway House was made to be a Historic District, a lot of the buildings near that property have no historical significance. If the Friendly’s building is demolished, the Historic District would have different rules to preserve the character of an area. Rob Mora stated that Jane Whitehead was not describing a historic district, but rather form-based code. Form-based code is a way of preserving the character of a neighborhood to make sure that buildings appear in a very specific way and an architectural style. Jane Whitehead stated that’s not what she meant. Jane stated she was talking about keeping certain characteristics for a specific area. Tyler Carmichael stated a good example of form-based code is the Bank of NH. Mark Haynes agreed. Tyler stated the new building currently being built looks like it’s in an old industrial center. It has brick and stone and fits the character of downtown. The old building that’s going to demolished does not fit the character of downtown. That’s where form-based code comes into play. If we had something like that, we could require developers to follow similar standards. They don’t have to be built the same way every time, but they won’t necessarily have to use same materials. They can be given list of materials to select from. If a developer was going to build in a specific area, a list of materials and designs could be provided to the developer. Form-based code is used to preserve the look of a neighborhood. Rob Mora stated it creates a community with the characteristics you want to achieve. For example, you could turn Lakeport into a village district. You might need to have clapboard siding, large windows, a certain streetscape or a certain roof type to create a Lakeport “style.” Form-based code allows the developer to choose from a list of approved designs. Jane Whitehead stated she thought that was too restrictive for most people. Rob Mora said it’s what developers want because it gives them a standard of what they’re going to build and there’s no question as to what’s allowed and what’s not. There are no surprises. Acting Chair Scott Ringer said the Commission has had challenges with vacancies. Currently there are 5 vacancies including alternates. The Heritage Commission looked at joining the Historic District Commission because they have similar functionality, and it would help with member numbers. Jane Whitehead said we should talk about it more. Mark Haynes said one of the reasons the Historic District Commission has remained non-active is because they couldn’t get the Council to move on anything. They wanted to expand the Historic District downtown. Charlie St. Clair said developers are eyeing everything. Developers from far away, who don’t care about the city per se, just care about the money and that’s what they live for. But at what cost to us? Mark Haynes said he’s concerned that something will be demolished, and someone will come back to the City and say “you should have saved that.” 12. OTHER BUSINESS Acting Chair Scott Ringer said Tara Shore was going to give a presentation, but she did not come because two members aren’t here. Jane Whitehead said Tara sent her something to read at the meeting. “I am thrilled to announce the launch of the Legacy of Laconia—Heritage Preservation Campaign on behalf of the Laconia Historical & Museum Society. We are inviting you to join our efforts in preserving the rich historical collections of Laconia. As part of this campaign, we are initiating the Protect the Collections fundraiser with a goal of raising at least $75,000 by May 1, 2025. These funds will be used to repair and replace the roof of our building located at 65 Water Street, which houses Laconia's historical collections. The urgency of this maintenance requirement demands that the new roof be installed by next fall. The mission of LHMS is to protect, preserve, and share the rich history of Laconia. Your support is crucial to the success of this campaign and our ability to engage the larger community. To kickstart the campaign, we have planned a compelling series of radio and print Public Service Announcements (PSAs). These PSAs will generate awareness about Laconia's eclectic and significant historic collections and their impact on the city. We sincerely ask for your valuable time and participation in this crucial initiative. By lending your voice to answer a single question and permitting us to utilize it across various mediums such as print, social media, or radio, you will significantly contribute to emphasizing the importance of our mission to the Laconia community.  Please respond to one of the following questions in writing or video/audio message* by emailing tshore0211@gmail.com. Also, let me know if you want to share your answer via radio. Your input is valuable, and we appreciate your dedication to Laconia's heritage. 1. Why is protecting, preserving, and sharing Laconia’s history important to you? 2. What do you worry would be lost should Laconia’s historic collections be damaged or destroyed? 3. What do you think is the significance of historical societies to their city or town? With your support, we are confident in capturing the attention and backing of our larger community. We genuinely appreciate your dedication and eagerly anticipate your involvement in this vital project.” Sincerely, Tara Shore President, LHMS Jane Whitehead stated she thinks this is something the Commission should participate in. Members can answer these questions which could be used on a radio program or put in flyers. Jane asked if it was possible to use some of the monies in the Heritage Commission’s account to donate to this campaign, as both boards share goals. Acting Chair Scott Ringer stated he thought it would be appropriate to donate and asked if a motion would need to be made. He requested this issue appear on the agenda next month. Acting Chair Scott Ringer asked what Tara is looking for in the answers to her questions. Jane Whitehead said perhaps their answers could be used in public service announcements and if they provided Tara with a write-up, it could end up in a newspaper article or various other media. Acting Chair Scott Ringer asked when the PSA’s are due to Tara. Mark Haynes stated he thought they want the information sooner than later. Acting Chair Scott Ringer asked if members thought they would need a sub-session to discuss the answers because they need to be well thought out. Acting Chair Scott Ringer asked Jane Whitehead if she would like to answer the questions because of her background. Jane Whitehead stated she would write up something and the Commission can look it over and discuss it at the next meeting. Acting Chair Scott Ringer stated he noticed the website had been changed to reflect the current members and thanked recording secretary Jennifer Place for updating it. 13. ADJOURNMENT Acting Chair Scott Ringer stated according to Roberts Rules, you do not need to make a motion to adjourn a meeting and asked for a motion to adjourn. Jane Whitehead motioned. All members voted in favor. The meeting was adjourned at 4:59PM.