Historic Preservation Committee (Meets 4th Wednesday of each month at 5:30 p.m.)

Historic Preservation Committee City of Superior Wednesday, November 10, 2021 5:30 p.m. The HPC meeting for the city of Superior was called to order by Jeff Skrenes at 5:34 p.m. The meeting was held at City Hall in room 270. ROLL CALL Members Present: Tim Meyer, Matt Osterlund Member Absent: Tom Wondolkowski, Brian Finstad, Kathleen Laakso Staff Present: Jeff Skrenes APPROVAL OF MINUTES With no quorum present, the Committee elected to vote on motions at the December meeting. NEW BUSINESS Jeff Skrenes described the process for Certificate of Appropriateness (CoA) applications. City code requires these when exterior alterations are made to a property on the Municipal Register of Historic Places. Code is a bit vague compared to other Wisconsin cities with active Historic Preservation Committees, and could be construed as requiring a CoA for even routine maintenance. Since a stringent interpretation would be detrimental to historic designations, staff recommends focusing on the term “alterations” in city code to require a CoA only when there are material changes to an exterior (or, per code, in rare circumstances where significant interior work may change an exterior feature). Staff used application samples from Wisconsin cities that are already listed as Certified Local Governments through the Wisconsin Historical Society, on the assumption that their forms and processes are consistent with Wisconsin law and CLG status, so that CLG approval of the City of Superior may be easier when other criteria are met. He asked for HPC input on two items, the extent to which we ought to require material samples and if there were differences in certain terminology for “duplicate” vs. “replicate” on certain features. The committee felt that requiring actual material samples would be beyond the scope of all but the most major or extensive projects. Further, city code does give the Committee 30 days to reach a decision. Anything that could not be decided upon at one meeting might be deferred until the next meeting or an emergency meeting while the Committee seeks expert advice or further information from an applicant. It was also determined that the committee would view “duplicate” as an exact recreation of a feature including materials, and “replicate” as inexact mimicking of a style with different materials. Since there was no quorum, the Committee could not vote on the guidelines and forms. Staff will finish formatting the documents and provide them to Building Inspections for internal use. Once fully approved, the application and guidelines will be made available to the public on the City website and at the Planning Department front desk.  OTHER BUSINESS Jeff Skrenes informed the committee that City-owned properties such as the Fairlawn and Meteor, could be nominated for designation by either City staff or the HPC. The nomination form would still need to be fully and adequately completed even if it is acknowledged that such places almost certainly deserve designation and placement on the Municipal Register. Staff will work on the nominations as time permits, and welcomes coordination from HPC members and Museum staff. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 6:07 p.m. Minutes prepared by Jeff Skrenes