Historic Zoning Commission

HISTORIC ZONING COMMISSION Regular Meeting February 19, 2019 MEMBERS PRESENT: ABSENT: David Becker, Vice-Chair Jim Thompson, Chairman Marimae White Rick Cantrell Gib Backlund Bill Jakes Linda Anderson Jennifer Garland Debra Belcher STAFF PRESENT: Dianna Tomlin, Principal Planner Brenda Davis, Recording Assistant David Ives, Assistant Attorney Vice-Chair Becker called the meeting to order at 3:30 p.m. Mr. Jakes made a motion to approve the December 18, 2018 minutes. The motion was seconded by Ms. Garland and carried unanimously in favor. Ms. Anderson made a motion to approve the January 15, 2019 minutes. The motion was seconded by Ms. Garland and carried unanimously in favor. New Business: H-19-002 – 320 East College Street, Silas McRae for Steve Polesky was requesting to install solar panels on the roof, in the rear of the structure. Ms. Tomlin reviewed the application and the Staff comments contained in the HZC agenda package. The applicant and homeowner were present to answer any questions. Mr. Steve Polesky, the homeowner came to the podium. He introduced Mr. Silas McRae as the contractor for Light Wave Solar. Mr. McRae passed out photos of the solar panels to the Commission. Mr. Backlund asked if the house was constructed circa 1855 as indicated in the Staff comments. HZC Minutes February 19, 2019 Mr. Polesky said that is not correct and think it was constructed in 1913. Mr. Backlund said the Arts and Crafts style architecture did not exist in 1855. Mr. Polesky said he and his wife thought about this when they were planning their dream home. A lot of the updates that were talked about last time around the things they needed to do to the house to take it from its current state to a livable house for the foreseeable future that is energy efficient and sustainability produced. He said they were excited to take the opportunity to add solar and geothermal on other things they are doing at the house. Mr. Polesky said they were doing the solar panels in a way that would not detract from the historical character of the house and would add to the neighborhood. Vice-Chair Becker asked the height of the solar panels. Mr. McRae said approximately 6-inches. Ms. Anderson asked the estimated time to re-coop the investment of solar panels. Mr. McRae said Mr. Polesky’s solar panels will be for electricity only and they estimate a 9 – 11-year payback. Vice-Chair Becker commented the solar panels could be seen from Main Street. Mr. Backland asked if the solar panels would be located on the roof or vertical portion of the house. Mr. McRae said the solar panels would be located on the roof. Vice-Chair Becker said he was incorrect as he thought the solar panels would be located on the vertical portion of the house. He said if the solar panels are located on the roof, they would not be visible from Main Street. Ms. Anderson made a motion to approve the installation of solar panels on the roof in the rear of the structure located at 320 East College Street. The motion was seconded by Ms. Belcher and carried unanimously in favor. Staff Reports and Other Business 1) Ms. Tomlin said she has been in contact with the State of Tennessee about training for the Commission Members. She is hoping to bring some ideas for the Commission to choose from next month. 2 HZC Minutes February 19, 2019 2) Ms. Tomlin said as she is researching and finding out more about what the Historic Zoning Commission does, she has looked at a lot of other Guidelines. She said our Guidelines look to be all text. Looking at other Guidelines, she noticed they are using a lot of visuals. She said the visuals help to understand things like when an addition is set apart and how it goes. Ms. Tomlin said she will print out samples for the Commission Members to show how the text and has some visuals that explains a) what something is, b) when it is visible, and c) when it is not. She said the Commission might want to do an update. Vice-Chair Becker said the visuals would be a good move. Ms. Tomlin said there may be other areas that need to be looked at, as well. Mr. Backlund suggested a web-site: nps.gov/clg He said the clg stands for Certified Local Government which is what this Historic Zoning Commission falls under. He said that is a prevision permitted under the National Historic Preservation Act which was passed in 1966. He said all this Historic Preservation National Register information flows from that law and it has great visuals on the website. Ms. Tomlin said the City must certify every year to be able to be a part of the Certified Local Government and she just went thru this process about 6 weeks ago. Mr. Backlund said each state has a State Historic Preservation Officer. The position is housed in the Tennessee Historical Commission but varies in other states. Mr. Backlund made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Ms. Belcher seconded the motion and carried unanimously in favor. The meeting adjourned at 3:50 P.M. _____________________________________ ____________________________________ CHAIRMAN SECRETARY 3