HomeMy WebLinkAboutBHPCMinutes_2009_01_08 1
Brookings Historic Preservation Commission
January 8, 2009 (amended)
A meeting of the Brookings Historic Preservation Commission was held on Thursday,
January 8, 2009 at 4:00 p.m. in City Hall. Members present: Jerry McCollough, Janet
Gritzner, Dennis Willert, Pat Powers, Joanita Kant and Pam Merchant. Mary Bibby was
absent. Shari Thornes, City Clerk, was also present.
Chairperson McCollough called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m.
Janet Gritzner was welcomed to the Commission!
Adoption of agenda. A motion was made by Powers, seconded by Willert, to approve the
agenda. All present voted yes; motion carried.
Approval of minutes. A motion was made by Kant, seconded by Powers, to approve the
December minutes. All present voted yes; motion carried.
Schedule next monthly meeting. Thursday, February 5th at 4:00 p.m.
NEW BUSINESS:
Form Nominating Committee. Item tabled until February meeting.
(Merchant arrived @ 4:10 pm)
Planning Retreat Reports. The Commission reviewed the revised document with the
changes that were suggested at the December meeting. ACTION: A motion was made by
Willert, seconded by Powers, to adopt the 2008 Planning Retreat Final Report with revisions
noted. All present voted yes; motion carried.
Summary Report from the BHPC 2008 Goal Setting Retreat
Adopted 1/8/09
Measures of Success
• Community begins including historic preservation when considering public issues.
• City Planning cooperates
• Understand our legal parameters
• Improve our effectiveness
• Develop our image as a planning partner
• Improve on partnership with SDSU
• Defined Goals & Objectives for BHPC for the next 1, 2, to 3 years
• Develop materials to promote historic properties acquisition packet for home owners in historic
districts, SHPO, BHPC and realtors
Education Objectives
• Make it clear to city officials, staff, and public that there is a statutory mandate for our work
• Improve our image as pro‐community, and not an annoyance
• More effective education and communication will generate more positive press
• Designate a liaison to the County Commission
• Become more proactive
• Effectively communicate the message that historic preservation IS economic development and
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community development
• Celebrate successes
Partnerships Objectives
• Involve the commission in the work‐planning process for the new Community Development Director
position.
• Chair meets with the City Manager to discuss opportunities and roles
• Expand list of partners to include BEDC, DBI, SDSU, Preserve Brookings, etc (see list from retreat).
Administration Objectives
• Learn more about property acquisition as a possible mechanism for sustainable funding for the BHPC
for programs and projects.
• Build a calendar with agencies and partners, so we are aware of decision times
• Identify potential future members and maintain active recruitment to the BHPC
• Work better with the public to reduce staff time/needs
• Recruit partners in volunteer organizations
Program Objectives
• Develop the Revolving Loan Fund with the CDC to include residential historic properties.
• Hold Historic Preservation easements, or partner with Preserve South Dakota to have them
administer Brookings’ easements.
• Secure an “outside” legal opinion regarding SDSU’s relationship to all legal review proceedings
including life safety matters and the protection of historic structures (Check with National Trust
attorney)
Who are our Partners?
‐ National:
o Main Street Center
o National Trust for Historic
Preservation (NT)
o National Alliance of Preservation
Commissions (NAPC)
o American Society of Legal History
(ASLH)
o Urban Land Institute
o American Institute of Architects (AIA)
‐ Statewide:
o State Historical Preservation Office
(SHPO)
o Preserve South Dakota
o South Dakota Community Foundation
o State Historical Society
o DAR (Mary Chilton Fund)
o Certified Local Government (CLG)
Network
o Governor’s Office of Economic
Development
o Tourism Dept.
o Energy, Conservation Program
o Deadwood Fund
o South Dakota Municipal League
o State Genealogical Society
‐ Regional:
o Augustana Center for Western
Studies
o Westerners International
‐ Local:
o SDSU Foundation
o SDSU History Department
o SDSU Landscape Architects
o SDSU Briggs Library (Archives)
o SDSU Ag Heritage Museum
o SDSU Campus Master Planning
Council
o Preserve Brookings
o Downtown Brookings Inc.
o Chamber of Commerce
o Brookings Economic Development
(BEDC)
o Community Development
Corporation (CDC ‐ First Bank & Trust)
o Enterprise Center
o Larson Foundation
o Daktronics
o Board of Realtors
o Home Builders Association
o School District
o Larson Children’s & Science Museum
o Community Cultural Center
o Historic Property Owners
o County Historical Society
o County Museum
o Brookings County
o City:
Planning Dept.
Planning Commission
Parks & Recreation
City Manager
Community Development
Director
City Council
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What activities are effective in promoting our purpose? What’s not effective?
RED Items are Mandated
GREEN Items were identified by members as priorities
1. Effective Partnership within City Government
• Strategies:
o Community Development Director
o Outside speaker
o “Tea & Cakes”
o Elect President/Friendly Officials
• SDSU – Legal questions (Frank Gilbert Opinion)
• Chair meets regularly with City Manager
• Create local nomination form district
2. Plan for local neighborhoods (easements)
• Bring Historical Preservation Commission up to minimum of 7 mandated members
• Strategy for Courthouse
• Strategy for a relationship with SDSU
• Revisit publications re: quality president for downtown
• Improved website
• Show n’ tell of basement
• National Register Nominations
3. Recordation:
• Computer database (internship) ‐ identifies our “universe”
• Case report documentation
o 11.1 Review when mandated
• Photographic recordation
o Emergency
o Inventory
• Nominations – National Register
4. Education: Events – Programs for awareness building
• Mayor’s Award
• Workshop
• “Picture This” – shared
• Courthouse Tour
• Go to other groups to provide info
• Advocacy (endangered list) – home builders: special resources
• Celebrate successes
• Preservation Planning (Heritage Tourism Planning Board)
Education ‐ Implementation Challenges
• Distribution program for existing walking tours
• Involve elementary educators in heritage education
• Provide Children’s Museum with educational materials re: history and architecture of school
building
• Ag Museum Exhibit – photos captions
• Outreach statewide
• Speaker’s Bureau – canned presentations
• Home tours – FCCLA (Future Civic Community Leaders Association High School), Habitat
5. Technical & Funding Resources
• State Historic Preservation Office / Property Owners for tax assistance (in person)
• Consultants for targeted project
• Technical Arch President assistance (liability concerns)
• Responding to Realtors re: tax credits/local account (SHPO involvement)
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• Seminar for lending institutions/regional realtors association
• Dialogue in SHPO re: information paper packet
• SHPO partner (1,2,3 Pam writes)
6. Commission Development
• Attend national conferences
• Memberships
• Organization
o Calendar
o Duties
• Attend Annual Certified Local Government Conferences (History conference track)
• Certified Local Government Networking – Leadership
• Local designation process
• Annual meeting with SHPO staff
7. Projects
• Installation of downtown plaques
• Computer modeling for downtown (DBI)
• Preserve Brookings Newsletter
• Email newsletter (New! List‐serv)
• Berry House – Pioneer Park
• Phase II downtown survey
• Student / affordable housing – BEDC
o Pressure / criteria for loss
• 6th Street widening – Medary to Main
2009 Calendar. Staff prepared a BHPC ADVANCE Agenda that included a current list of
project and issues including the remaining grant projects. Commission members were
asked to review the list of projects and issues at least monthly to determine when items
should be scheduled on the agenda along with corresponding tasks and deadlines. This will
be a living document maintained by staff. The first draft of the issue/project list included
the following:
Projects/Issues
1. Elections
2. Annual Report – City
3. Annual Report – State
4. Annual Goal Setting
5. Updated Preservation Plan – Action Plan
6. Grant Application 09‐10 funding cycle
7. Grant Close‐out‐08‐09 funding cycle
8. Workshop (grant)
9. Preservation Leadership Training – Deadwood
(grant)
10. Local District Review Process (grant)
11. Mayor’s Award (grant)
12. Newsletter (grant)
13. Porch Tour 2009
14. Endangered Places Program
15. Plaque Installation
16. Courthouse Expansion
17. NR Listing – Berry House
18. Partner Networking
19. Website
20. National Trust Conference – Nashville
21. Meetings with City Manager
22. Realtor Workshop
23. University powers
Grant 08/09 Projects: (June 1, 2008 to May 31, 2009)
1. PLT – Portland – DONE
2. NT Conference – Tulsa – DONE
3. Local District Review Process
4. Mayors Award 2009
5. Newsletter 2009
6. PLT – Deadwood 2009
Grant 09/10 Projects: (June 1, 2009 to May 31, 2009)
1. National Trust Conference ‐ Nashville
2. National Alliance Conference 2010
National Trust Conference Report. Kant and Thornes attended the National Trust Conference in
Tulsa, OK, on October 21‐26, 2008. Kant submitted a written report regarding the conference that
will be submitted with the grant closeout. Thornes noted that the Trust now provides all the
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presentation handouts from all sessions online for anyone to obtain. The Trust’s website is
www.nthp.org.
OLD BUSINESS/UPDATES:
Staff Report:
Realtor Workshop. There was a discussion about how to make this project move forward in
2009. Thornes would like to see SHPO sponsor the event and cover any costs. Powers
recommended utilizing a real estate trainer out of Sioux Falls to coordinate the event. The
goal would be to have a free or low cost state accredited workshop. Powers suggested
holding the event every two years. Thornes noted that the BHPC would need to control the
program content and speakers and the focus would have to be preservation. Possible topics
could include federal tax credits and the state property tax moratorium. Powers will do
some follow‐up investigation on the process and report back in February.
Annual Reports to the City and the State. The City report is due February 15th and the State
report is due Jan. 31st. Thornes will prepare both reports.
Annual Grant Application. SHPO has notified the CLGs that applications for this year’s
funding cycle will not be sent out until March or April and actual funding release is uncertain
depending on appropriations from Congress. The funding priorities and amount of funds
available will not be known until application packets are received. Thornes recommended
the Commission prepare a list of potential grant projects for consideration at the March
meeting.
Downtown Façade Restoration Design. Willert and Thornes haven’t had a chance to meet
on this topic yet. Thornes said a final decision will need to be made by the February meeting
on if the BHPC would like to pursue this project and if DBI is willing to commit funds. Willert
said he would be attending a DBI meeting soon and would request half of the estimated
funds ($5,000) and report back to the Commission in February.
2009 Preservation Leadership Training – Deadwood. The BHPC is funded to send ONE
member to this year’s PLT training to be held in Deadwood, SD, from June 20‐20, 2009.
There’s an application involved and it’s a competitive process, so a final decision is needed by
the February meeting. Kant and Gritzner are the only members that may be able to attend
and each will check their schedules. SHPO has offered Park Service funding and will not
require CLG match to attend this training.
Schedule SHPO Presentation on Survey Findings. SHPO representatives will be invited to
attend the February 5th meeting.
Historic Districts and Properties.
Central Residential Historic District—National Register District
o Brookings County Courthouse Expansion Plans –The County Commission is reviewing
other locations for County administrative space. It was noted that the Commission
has a new chairperson and the membership has changed.
Block South of Library (500 Block of Third Street) ‐‐ Property owners of this
area submitted a petition to the County indicating their interest in selling.
This area is located in the National Register Central Residential Historic
District. All the structures are rentals. It was further noted that one of the
owners is rezoning the area.
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Block South of Courthouse (600 Block of Third Street) – This block seems less
endangered because the properties are all owner‐occupied. At least two
properties have restrictive covenants placed on the deed by the Community
Development Corporation of First Bank and Trust, which require single family
ownership.
Block East of Courthouse (600 Block of 4th Street) – This area seems the most
in danger of an encroachment into the district. An owner of two non‐historic
rentals has indicated a willing to sell to the County in the past. An intrusion
into this block would significantly impact the Central District.
600 Block of 6th Street Site – No historic structures would be impacted by this
location; however, there may be hazardous waste mitigation with this site.
The BHPC members discussed the following overall issues related to the courthouse:
a) the County Commission is, by State Law, required to be an advocate for historic
preservation, so should be coordinating their plans with those entities who deal with
that issue within the area affected;
b) all the uncertainties related to their decision could be resolved if Brookings had a
Downtown Plan as part of a long‐range (30‐50 year) Master Plan. Such a plan is a
mandated responsibility of local Planning Commissions in order to avoid situations
such as this.
c) such a plan is usually developed by the Planning Commission working with a
competent consultant to bring representatives of the City, County, business
community, and adjacent neighborhoods together to agree on a vision for the future,
and would include: traffic circulation, parking, pedestrian flows, greenspace,
government facility coordination, future areas for business expansion, and
integration and transitions between residential and other uses;
d) development of such a plan would allow for Capital Improvement planning so that
public expenses related to plan implementation could be set aside in an orderly
manner by both the City and County;
e) since Brookings has an important historic downtown and adjacent historic
neighborhoods, those characteristics would be important elements for consideration
in such a plan.
The BHPC recommended that the Chairman McCollough meet with Al Heuton from
BEDC on coordinated planning efforts.
Commercial District –National Register District
o DBI Report – Willert reported that DBI is in the process of hiring a new program
manager and hopes to have a person on board quickly. Investment letters will be
going out soon. DBI is interested coordinating in an overall snow removal plan for
downtown.
Announcements/Correspondence/Communications
Preservation Magazine, Jan/Feb 09
MainStreet News, Nov 08
National Main Street Conference, March 1‐4, Chicago
National Park Service 2008 Director’s Report
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Calendar
June 20‐27, 2009 DEADWOOD PLT
Oct. 13‐17, 2009 National Trust for Historic Preservation Annual Conf – Nashville, TN
Oct. 26‐30, 2010 National Trust for Historic Preservation Annual Conf – Austin, TX
Meeting adjourned at 5:10 p.m.
Shari Thornes, Brookings City Clerk