Historic District / Board of Architectural Review

Board of Architectural Review Minutes Tuesday, June 6, 2017 Town Hall – Boardroom A Members Present: Staff Present: Phil Dixon, Chairman Meredith Detsch Jeff Bowers Board Secretary Rachel Burton Cecile Cothran Beth Huggins David Price Members Absent: John Kwist Items on the agenda: OLD BUSINESS: 1. 701 S. Magnolia St. - Fence screening. (R-1) NEW BUSINESS: 1. 209 E. Fourth South Street-Remove two front and side windows in addition (R-1) 2. 814 S. Main Street – Change exterior paint color (R-1) 3. Front of Short Central & Corner of W. Richardson and Little Main –Install information signs (B-3) 4. 423 Sumter Avenue- Addition to front of house (R-1) MISCELLANEOUS: 1. Discussion on expanding the Historic District 2. July Meeting Date ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Chairman Dixon opened the meeting at 6:00 PM and explained all applicants would be heard in submittal order and then asked for consideration of the minutes of the regularly scheduled meeting on May 2nd, 2017. Jeff Bowers made a motion to approve the minutes as submitted and Rachel Burton provided the second. The motion carried unanimously. Old Business: 701 S. Magnolia St.- Samantha Telken, homeowner, presented the application and described to the board that she would like to put back up the fence screening she was approved for a year ago. They still have plans to install a fence or possibly shrubbery but are waiting to install it at a later date due to other home projects they are working on. Samantha Telken described that with it currently being summer and their location as a corner lot and the visibility of the pool to the road made it so that they needed some type of temporary screening on their existing chain link fence until they could build a privacy fence. David Price made a motion to approve the application for the fence covering for a year and Jeff Bowers seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. New Business: 209 East Fourth South Street- Mike Kokolus, homeowner, presented the application where he wanted to convert the sunroom to a mudroom and remove some of the windows on the side and front and leave the center window. Rachel Burton asked the applicant what kind of material he would be using in place of the windows and the Mr. Kokolus responded that he would be using the existing material, Texture 1-11 –wood siding, that is currently on the house and paint it to match the existing color. Eventually they would like to add a porch and paint the brick but for the time being this is the project they are focusing on. Beth Huggins complimented their decision to remove the windows and made the motion to approve the application as presented. Cecile Cothran seconded the motion and it carried unanimously. 814 South Main Street- The homeowners Mr. and Mrs. Selinsky presented their application to paint the exterior of their home a different color. They presented the board with three different colors and are looking for recommendations for what the board would approve. The applicants explained that they would paint the wood siding the lighter color submitted and the scale accents on the house would be the darker color. The board and the applicants decided on BEHR Tanglewood for the scale accent and Toasty Grey for the house siding with white trim. Jeff Bowers made the motion to approve the color choices Tanglewood for the scale accent and Toasty Grey for the house siding with white trim and Cecile Cothran seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. Front of Short Central & Corner of W. Richardson and Little Main (Information Signs)-Michael Lisle with DREAM presented the application of installing two information signs in the downtown area. The locations chosen were in front of Short Central towards Cedar Street and beside the intersection of West Richardson and Little Main Street-next to Guerin’s Pharmacy. Hutchinson Square was the more desirable location for one of the signs but they couldn’t do it so they relocated that sign next to Guerin’s Pharmacy. Jeff Bowers asked about the information within the signs and Michael explained that the signs would have literature/brochures in them for tourists and residents to take and view. David Price asked how weather tight they were and Michael Lisle explained the lid on top and design. Michael Lisle explained he would like some input from the board for a logo or design on the other side of the sign that did not have information posted. Rachel Burton asked for color clarification and Michael described the many color choices it came in and how DREAM did not have preference at this time. Cecile Cothran preferred the green color and discussion ensued. Phil Dixon asked why the sign could not have information on both sides and Michael explained it was a cost constraint. The logo and design of the sign was discussed at length between the board members and Michael. Jeff Bowers asked if the signs would be illuminated and they would not be. Beth Huggins had concerns over setting precedence with allowing these signs as she was hoping for a more consistent look in the downtown area. She explained if the sign mimicked the next phase of Hutchinson square and could be seen better if it is in the square verses the side of the road. Rachel Burton voiced concerns over the safety of tourists and residents viewing the signs so close to the road (Richardson and Little Main location). Discussion ensued of signs in the downtown area. Beth Huggins and Rachel Burton talked with the applicant on how the signs could look more “Summerville” and maybe even combine the signs with some of the existing signs. David Price gave the board an overall of how Beaufort, SC did their historic district signs and tied how important uniformity is in the Downtown. The board overall liked the idea of the signage but wanted more research done by DREAM before approving a final design. The item was tabled until additional findings could be presented by Michael. Rachel Burton and Jeff Bowers recused themselves from the next item. 423 Sumter Avenue- Rachel Burton presented the application on behalf of the applicant. Rachel explained the need for this additional door as the house has challenges in access for daily life. The addition of the door in place of one the front windows would be almost unnoticeable from the street as the house has significant landscaping. The window would become an entry way with shutters and gable style roof that would extend to protect from the elements and was also a good building practice. Cecile Cothran had concerns over adding another door in the front and was curious why the homeowner couldn’t go through a back door instead. Rachel explained the layout of the house and how this was the least intrusive change that wouldn’t compromise the interior design or make it where the homeowners would need to reroute their layout. David Price spoke that this change could be easily reversed back at a later time. Beth Huggins asked about the railing and what it would look like in comparison to the existing front porch railings. Rachel Burton explained it had to come up to current building code and would be slightly different to meet today’s standards. David Price made the motion to approve the application as presented and Beth Huggins seconded the motion, the motion passed unanimously of the four members voting. Miscellaneous: Rachel Burton and Jeff Bowers returned back to the board. The board moved to discuss the second item under miscellaneous in case any board members had to leave. July’s Meeting Date-Next month’s meeting was on a holiday and with offices closed a different date needed to be chosen. David Price, Beth Huggins, and Jeff Bowers would be available on the 5 th of July, the day after the regularly scheduled meeting but the other board members would be out of town. The board members believed John Kwist could make that date and asked staff to verify that he could make it, if not to coordinate with the board members for another night. Discussion on expanding the Historic District- The board started the discussion on how expanding the historic district came about and in the past John Kwist had spearheaded the exploration of possible expansion. Phil Dixon explained how the historic district came about when he originally started working on it and created the district. When the district was created they did not include some homes as the boundaries were set by footage off the roadways. Rachel Burton spoke of how now we have even more historic homes as time has elapsed and homes that may not have been historic when the boundaries were created they are now over fifty years and could be considered historic and a new survey may be needed. Phil Dixon discussed how they looked to do a volunteer option for homeowners but that had not happened yet. Cecile and David spoke of areas and houses in town that should come in possibly. There was discussion that a sub-committee needs to be finalized and two board members could work on this. No action was made on this item. David Price made the motion to adjourn the meeting at 7:17 pm and Cecile Cothran seconded the motion. 2