Historic Zoning Commission

CITY OF MURFREESBORO HISTORIC ZONING COMMISSION Regular Meeting October 21, 2014 3:30 PM, Council Chambers, City Hall I. Call to Order and determination of a quorum II. Approve Minutes of the Regular Meeting on September 16, 2014 III. New Business • 443 E. College Street, Dana Richardson – Requesting to add a railing to the side porch of the house • Proposed Amendments to the Rules of Procedure and Design Guidelines, Planning staff Legal Department applicants IV. Staff Reports and other Business V. Adjourn City of Murfreesboro Historic Zoning Commission Staff Comments Regular Meeting October 21, 2014 III. New Business: 443 E. College Street, Dana Richardson – Requesting to add a railing to the side porch of the house This house is located on the north side of E. College Street three houses from Highland Avenue. According to the National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, which was completed in 1984, the house was constructed circa 1910 in a Vernacular style of architecture with a classical wraparound porch, shed dormer, steep gabled porch, 1 ½ stories and clapboard exterior covering. The house is a contributing structure in the North Maney Avenue Historic District of the National Register of Historic Places. The applicant was notified by his insurance agent that his rates would increase because the height of his porch is above what is allowed without a railing. He is planning on raising the level of his yard by adding dirt in the front yard so the front of the porch will be compliant with that requirement. The west side of the house will not allow that to happen so he plans on installing a railing along the west side of the porch in order to bring it in to compliance. Mr. Richardson has submitted a color photograph that depicts the railings and the posts he wishes to use on the west side of his porch. The railings and posts will be vinyl in order to be more weather resistant than wood. The applicant will be coming before the Commission not for approval at this time but to get some guidance about his proposal. He will also be available at the meeting in order to answer any questions you may have. Included in the agenda package is a photograph of the materials he proposes to use. III. New Business: Proposed Amendments to the Rules of Procedure and Design Guidelines, Planning staff Legal Department applicants Commission members may remember the lengthy review and subsequent changes to the Rules of Procedure and East Main Historic Zone Design Guidelines which began in 2011. The Commission formed a subcommittee to study and recommend changes to both documents and ultimately the Commission held a public hearing and recommended those amendments to the City Council. In the due course of making final edits to those documents the Legal Department suggested additional corrections and submitted the documents back to the Planning staff who made the changes to the documents. At times during this review and correction procedure the documents got set aside and were neglected for periods of time. There have been a number of wording changes to both the Rules of Procedure and the Design Guidelines that the Commission has not seen. Although staff believes that there have been no substantive changes we ask that the Commission review them again before they are submitted to the City Council for final approval. Staff has included in the agenda materials work copies of each document with changes marked through the text as well as the final copies of each document. The additional changes to the Rules of Procedure have to do with the introduction and T.C.A. which will be better explained by the Assistant City Attorney at the meeting. Staff would like to apologize for the timeframe it is taking to get these amendments to the City Council for approval.