Historic District Commission

CITY OF LACONIA HISTORIC DISTRICT COMMISSION 6:30 PM City Hall - Armand A. Bolduc City Council Chamber Accepted February 23, 2021 1/26/2021 - Minutes 1. Call to order Chair Tara Shore called the meeting to order at 6:31 PM 2. Roll call Members present: Mark Haynes, Laurel Briere, Karl Reitz, Sonya Misiaszek, Tara Shore, Charlie St. Clair (via telephone) Absent: Hillary Martin 3. Recording secretary Kalena Graham 4. Staff in attendance Planning Director Dean Trefethen 5. Acceptance of Minutes from previous meeting 5.I. Acceptance of Minutes from December 29 Motion to accept the minutes made by K. Reitz, M. Haynes seconded. The minutes were accepted as submitted. 6. Public comment 7. New business 7.I. Form-based Code presentation Assistant Planner Rob Mora introduced himself. After discussions with Planning Director D. Trefethen and the goals of the Historic District Commission, he thought of another approach the city could take which is form based code. He explained the form-based codes and how they could work to create the feel of the community in conjunction with the HOD. He compared Laconia to Dover and Portsmouth, which use a form of the code and went over the handout. He mentioned that in 2014 the previous Planning Director attempted this as an over lay and data was gathered and a report was made from the findings. This would be an additional tool that could be used as a starting point if the City wanted to move forward. C. St. Clair noted he will reserve any comment until he sees the handouts that Assistant Planner R. Mora had been referring to. 7.II. Presentation preparation on the expansion of the Historic Overlay District Chair T. Shore and S. Misiaszek have been working on the presentation fort the Planning Board. She is still working on one last section and asked if the presentation could be pushed off for a month. The Commission agreed. Motion to move the presentation to the Planning Board to March 2 made by S. Misiaszek, M Haynes seconded. Chair T. Shore will send out a draft to the Commission in two weeks. She discussed how  Chair T. Shore and S. Misiaszek have been working on the presentation fort the Planning Board. She is still working on one last section and asked if the presentation could be pushed off for a month. The Commission agreed. Motion to move the presentation to the Planning Board to March 2 made by S. Misiaszek, M Haynes seconded. Chair T. Shore will send out a draft to the Commission in two weeks. She discussed how the presentation was broken out: who, what and why. All voted in favor. 8. Other business 8.I. Rules and procedures Planning Director D. Trefethen’s only real concern is section VIII the permit/application. He would like to work more on that beginning part. K. Reitz thinks realtors should be brought in as well for a first contact. Planning Director D. Trefethen noted that the education pamphlet will be good for distribution and explained a phone conversation he recently had with a local branch. He then explained the process of amending the ordinance. K. Reitz mentioned that he received a calendar from his granddaughter for Christmas that had hand sketches of buildings/landmarks in this community. It is similar to what he was explaining the Commission should look into for locally illustrated handouts. M. Haynes added that the demolition permit for 76 Weirs got Council’s attention. They Mayor brought up that the City has spent a substantial money on updating the Weirs and there was a healthy discussion on it. Chair T. Shore is glad to hear that Council is discussing that. She is terrified with some of the buildings that are for sale and what could happen to them. 8.II. Review map of draft extension of district 8.III. Update on education plan 9. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 7:23 PM. Respectfully, K. Graham