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

Historic Preservation Committee City of Superior Wednesday, December 8, 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 and by web and phone conference. ROLL CALL Members Present: Tim Meyer, Matt Osterlund, Tom Wondolkowski, Kathleen Laakso Member Absent: Brian Finstad Staff Present: Jeff Skrenes APPROVAL OF MINUTES MOTION to approve the October 13, 2021 minutes (Tim, Kathy) carried unanimously. MOTION to approve the November 10, 2021 minutes (Matt, Tim) carried unanimously. NEW BUSINESS Jeff Skrenes updated the committee on two New Business items. First that the committee should elect a chair for 2022, and on an annual basis moving forward. The chair would be responsible for conducting the meeting instead of staff, and would be physically present at meetings when possible. Second, that staff is in discussion with the Wisconsin Historical Society about specific areas where Superior needs to adjust guidelines or practices in order to qualify for Certified Local Government status. The goal is to have the WHS present to the Superior HPC at the January meeting. After that presentation, staff would like the HPC to work on steps to move towards CLG status or determine that such a status is not appropriate for the city of Superior. OTHER BUSINESS Jeff Skrenes updated the committee that two city-owned properties, the Fairlawn and Meteor museums, are on the National Register of Historic Places, and the language for those designations can be relatively easily converted to an application in order to add them to the Municipal Register. The old fire hall museum is not on the National Register, and the documents available at the state level do not contain as much information that can be easily transferred to a municipal designation form. The process is the same as the other locally designated properties, even though they are City-owned. Namely that the HPC would review an application, put out notice for a public hearing once the application is approved, and then after the public hearing the City Council would vote. The public hearing could be the next HPC meeting, a standalone hearing, or occur at the City Council meeting prior to their vote. Jeff Skrenes presented the final versions of the Certificate of Appropriateness process, guidelines, application, and supplemental documents. Kathleen began a discussion about when the CoA would apply vs. not, with windows being used as a baseline example. The key, in the city code and CoA documents is whether “alterations” are made. Another common and similar term would be “material change.” When repairs do not result in altering or changing the physical or architectural features, no CoA is needed. Staff can either sign off jointly – Building Inspections and Planning Department staff – on an application or refer it to the HPC. Tim brought up the prospect of contacting the state SHPO or other outside experts if a CoA application contains items too complex for us to rule on. Doing so may mean the HPC calls a second meeting before the next regularly-scheduled meeting because city code requires a decision within 30 days of the first time the HPC takes up the matter. But it is certainly allowable. MOTION to adopt the Certificate of Appropriateness guidelines, procedures, and application documents as presented (Tom, Tim) carried unanimously. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 6:08 p.m. Minutes prepared by Jeff Skrenes