Video Description:
Historic Preservation Commission – December 2023
Read along below:
Unknown Speaker 5:55
You
Unknown Speaker 6:20
we will go ahead and call to order the December 7 2023 meeting of the historic preservation commission. Welcome. Can we have the roll please?
Unknown Speaker 6:34
Here
Unknown Speaker 6:38
here, I don’t think my speakers on there.
Unknown Speaker 6:42
Commissioner Jacoby Here. Commissioner Barnett.
Unknown Speaker 6:46
Thank you. Thank you. We do have a quorum. First order of business is approval of the November 2 2023. Meeting Minutes. Do any commissioners have any comments or questions concerning those?
Unknown Speaker 7:02
minutes? If not, I would entertain a motion.
Unknown Speaker 7:09
Okay, I have a motion to approve the minutes from Commissioner fencer and a second from Commissioner Jacoby. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? None. The minutes are approved. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 7:21
Report from the chair. I don’t have anything specific to
Unknown Speaker 7:25
review. So we’ll pass that time to communications from HPC staff liaison. What do you have for us tonight, just a couple of things. And I think Glenn’s gonna tag on with a couple items after I’m finished. So first item is the 554 Call your street appeal, denial of certificate of appropriateness and certificate of hardship. I did send an email to the Commission out, it has been appealed. So we will be back at City Council
Unknown Speaker 8:00
to discuss this item without appeal at the December 19 meeting. So that is when that will be on the agenda. So we’re getting that package put together right now.
Unknown Speaker 8:11
And the other thing is really tagging on to a disk tagging on to one of our presentations tonight, just a sort of a setting the stage, the tower of compassion. We’re starting to talk we’re beginning discussion with our parks department staff, since it is their asset. As far as getting that process started, since it is has been determined to be eligible for landmarking. Ultimately, city council would have to recommend that and be the decision maker that we could pursue it.
Unknown Speaker 8:44
So we’re basically starting those internal discussions now. And then in terms of the survey plan, working with our on call consultant to finalize that particular scope. They have a historic preservation subcontractors I use so we are finalizing the scope of that. So we should be in good shape to get moving on that at the beginning of the year.
Unknown Speaker 9:08
Great.
Unknown Speaker 9:10
Mr. Chair and HPC members at the last meeting, there was a question about the southwest corner of Collier and Third Avenue that was there and then it wasn’t. So we did look into that. The applicant did go through the process that he was supposed to go through or he was asked to go through He submitted his application he paid his fees. He worked with utility companies on shutting off the utilities. He got his asbestos mitigation taken care of he went to planning staff to talk about the existing trees. But it did not proceed to the liaison and our council liaison to give it a look to see if it’s potentially landmark worthy. It was built in 1925
Unknown Speaker 10:00
I’ve,
Unknown Speaker 10:01
it’s been there on the corner, it’s been surrounded by industrial commercial type uses. And I think it was a miss and the staff missed it primarily because we have brand new people in the permit counter, and then some a few in the planning department. So when we figured out that it was a miss, the other issue we found out was we have a permit system, that is kind of our last stop to catch and make sure we do things. It’s geared for landmarks. If there’s a potential landmark, boom, red lights go off. But on the 50 years or older, it does not go off. So we’ve sat down with staff and explained to them. This is a particular area when you’re looking at the town site, not just the henna neighborhood, not the west side, but it extends further extends South Third Avenue and I think in staff’s mind, they think of the residential areas as the protection zone. So anyhow, we’ve Clara clarified, it was staff, and we’re working to put that stop gap into our Excel a permit system, anything within the original town site gets flagged, and it’s gonna fall in Jennifer’s lap, basically, to take a look at so. And then I mean, going forward after we get that fix. The survey plan is a big part of making sure we if there’s something that is landmark worthy, we identified, there is no surveys done on this property. We even checked the state, because it was a state highway.
Unknown Speaker 11:42
So I thought, well, potentially it got picked up there, but we don’t have any kind of report on it. So I do want to clarify that with you and let you know what happened. We did look into it. And we’re taking steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Unknown Speaker 11:58
I’d be happy to answer any questions, you know, the commissioners might have. Alright, thanks for that.
Unknown Speaker 12:05
Commissioners, any questions or comments? No. All right. Yep. Okay. Commissioner Jacoby.
Unknown Speaker 12:13
Commissioner Jacoby, have you go, Yeah, as far as the tower of compassion, I naively suggested making that as a landmark at our retreat. And in time for the historic preservation month, which was last May, are we going to be able to coordinate that you think by this May for the historic preservation month?
Unknown Speaker 12:35
I don’t know the answer to that question. But it’s a goal that you will hopefully have a better idea of where we are. So if it’s I mean, I don’t know that we could meet all the various
Unknown Speaker 12:49
public hearing and notice requirements at this point. However,
Unknown Speaker 12:54
we’ll certainly try. We can do.
Unknown Speaker 12:59
Because there are other departments involved and other moving parts, we just need to, I can’t I can’t commit to when we could have it done simply because so much of it’s out of my hands. Sure. There’s lots of priorities, probably more important than Historic Preservation month, but I think we should try to keep that in the back of our mind and try to get it shared by then if we can. It’s a good goal. All right. Thank you, even if it lands on council, by that time, if it’s not executed, just be very symbolic. Yeah. A couple other things, Mr. Chair.
Unknown Speaker 13:33
On Tuesday, we’re presenting for the first time Council your amended
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ordinance. So that’ll happen. And then we hopefully won’t get a whole lot of questions, a whole lot of changes. And we’ll proceed to put it on the agenda for adoption. And then you have a new council is on it will be Mayor Peck, going forward and 2024. So that was a committee change, just this week when they had their reorganization or their organization meeting.
Unknown Speaker 14:06
Okay, that’s it.
Unknown Speaker 14:09
Regarding the reserve reading, will that be at Council are in our study session, your presentation, it will be at the regular meeting, but it will be under general business. So it is not on the agenda for first or second reading. This is what we call zero. So we’ll present it we gave them the draft the redline draft, and I’ll go through it. And hopefully, and Jeremy will be there. And hopefully we can answer any questions. I’m like. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 14:36
Let’s see.
Unknown Speaker 14:38
Commissioner Jacoby had a question. Yeah. So with the updates on the code, is that going to include the recommendation we made previously about?
Unknown Speaker 14:51
Let’s see. What was it it was for waiving the fees for conservation overlays for designated neighborhood groups.
Unknown Speaker 15:00
that we discussed and we approved as a commission. Is that going to be on the list of updates that you’re going to present?
Unknown Speaker 15:08
No, it’s just what you’ve been reviewing for the last several months. Now, the amendments actually to the historic preservation code. There’s nothing about fees in there. I know you asked to amend the land development code, right at some point, but no, it’s not a part of it’s not part of the recommended amendments. No.
Unknown Speaker 15:30
And that’s because why? Well, I think when we talked about that, that’s it has to be a direction from Council and I think the council is on brings that forward to council and says, or we bring it forward when we get to the budget and say, it’s now on our work plan. But that direction comes from City Council as far as amendments to the code. So others the amendments that we reviewed, were already Yes. Viewed okay. Yes. For many years. Yeah, I’m sure yours. All right. Thank you. You bet.
Unknown Speaker 16:03
Okay, no other questions for staff, thank you for all of that information
Unknown Speaker 16:09
will now open up the public invited to be heard.
Unknown Speaker 16:15
We don’t have any public hearings. So I don’t have to tell you that it’s not for something that’s
Unknown Speaker 16:21
otherwise on the agenda. So I do have a list here. And if there’s anyone that’s not on the list we can accommodate at the end.
Unknown Speaker 16:29
The first speaker I have here is Bob McLaughlin. If you would come up, you please state your name and address and you’ll have three minutes to provide comment.
Unknown Speaker 16:55
Thank you
Unknown Speaker 17:02
members of this short Preservation Commission staff. My name is Bob Laughlin. I live at 620 Emory Street. I’m here to speak to you on behalf of historic Eastside Neighborhood Association, or henna. Let me first apologize for my speech impairment as a result of a stroke in the spring. I’m not sensitive about the issue. So please ask me to repeat myself. If you don’t understand something that I say and is committed to fostering a sense of community in our neighborhood. Eastside residents share connection through the architecture of our properties, and the development pattern in the neighborhood as a whole east side has the largest concentration of intact houses from long months early development period from the mid 1980s. Until the zoning change in 2018. The architecture of US side was protected by its unique ROV zoning designation, those protections disappeared in 2018. Creating a conservation overlay district merely recreates the protections that were part of the RFP zone, a co district allows more flexibility and kind of apply to a larger area than when qualify for a local historic district. At a pre application conference in April, Hanna asked for changes in three requirements of the CEO district. Number one, we’ve notification to property owners outside the proposed district creating us to district will have no effect on the properties outside its boundaries. Number two, since Henan is a registered neighborhood group in Longmont with payment of the more than $2,000 and administrative fees. And number three, make changes to the section on residential lot coverage. However, we have not found a suitable alternative to the left coverage language. So at this time, we do not ask for any change in the Life coverage section. The Conservation overlay district has been the land use code since the 1990s. But it never been used in long line. This is not an issue for a single neighborhood. We will use this tool now that it can be useful to several other older neighborhoods in the future. I’m here tonight to ask you to take the final action on changes to the language in the land development code related to the conservation overlay district. I also want to add something based on the last comment from the staff
Unknown Speaker 19:42
District Council on September 5. It was moved by John Peck and seconded by Sean McCoy to direct the staff to bring back the conservation overlay rezoning for the historic east side at a regular meeting after
Unknown Speaker 20:00
historic preservation commission made its ruling and it was reproved 700. Allow a few extra seconds. Okay. That’s really the end of my comments. But it was approved by all council members.
Unknown Speaker 20:17
So I feel that direction has been given to SAS to take on this project. I’ll thank you for for the opportunity to speak to you. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 20:34
Ms. Clark.
Unknown Speaker 20:38
No. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 20:41
Paula Fitzgerald?
Unknown Speaker 20:48
Commission. Pleasure to be here tonight. My name is Paula Fitzgerald and I live at 419 Emery Street in the henna neighborhood. First, thank you for
Unknown Speaker 20:59
sorry.
Unknown Speaker 21:03
Don’t use
Unknown Speaker 21:06
does that hurt?
Unknown Speaker 21:09
Only at city council?
Unknown Speaker 21:11
I’m good then.
Unknown Speaker 21:15
Okay, well, thank you. So I feel like I’m speaking to the choir, because I think we both have the same goals, which is historic preservation. For Hannah, as, as Bob has mentioned, we’ve had some protection, or we had some protections, starting in the 1980s, with the RLs zone. And then, when we were changed to residential single family that went away, we were insured by staff at that time, that they would come back and rectify that situation, which is network talking about five years, and still yet to be done. So we’re decided to move forward on our own. So asking for a waiver of fee and notification area, I think are
Unknown Speaker 22:03
are pretty, pretty easy asks, again, we’re not a development. So it’s not going to affect anything. We’re just asking for conservation and preservation of what we have right now. So it’s not like we’re asking for development review or plan review or any of that sort of thing. Then the notification area, as Bob mentioned, it’s not going to affect anybody outside of our neighborhood. I don’t know how that could possibly happen. So I think both of those are pretty simple requests. And hopefully you support that, in forwarding that information to council. So I asked that you recommend approval of these requests for waiver to city council, and we can move forward with this. The other thing I wanted to mention is that I worked for the city for 22 years in parks. And my last project before retired was the tariff compassion, the improvement there with the change of staff. And you know, just so many new people. There’s some historic information there. If anyone has any questions on that, I’m more than happy to help you with that. It’s a near and dear project to me, and I think it totally deserves historic designation. So I support you on that. Thanks so much. Thank you
Unknown Speaker 23:37
I didn’t get here in time to sign up. Sharon O’Leary 534 Emery Street.
Unknown Speaker 23:43
Historic Preservation your job description on the city website says consider matters relating to protecting and enhancing and preserving properties of historic geographic or architectural significant
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significance in the city. Historic buildings are tangible links to the past.
Unknown Speaker 24:04
Historic Eastside neighborhood is the oldest neighborhood in Longmont, small humble homes close to the railroad as people made their fortune or better fortune West Side larger homes. Our neighborhood is intact because of our old zoning. And on a promise and commitment with our neighborhood working together with the city we worked on zoning and the ball has been dropped. And it’s beginning to feel uncomfortable at this point. We went for a pre meeting and the way the need to have the fee waived is important. We’re not an HOA
Unknown Speaker 24:46
so I have done everything as co chair in the neighborhood by the books I’m in and GLA I applied for a grant I had to present my idea to all the other neighborhoods. They approved it. They gave us money to
Unknown Speaker 25:00
continue to do historical surveys. They gave us money to do the mailings to contact our neighborhood to inform them about a conservation overlay zone, and then another mailing to go ahead and do the voting. We also held our neighborhood picnic, and it was received with the overwhelming response, we want to preserve our neighborhood. So what we’re asking is that I agree with Bob, I think there was a discrepancy in information that was given out tonight, Mayor Peck made a motion to bring it back to HPC. And I think it was seconded by Aaron Rodriguez. So it’s just time to move forward, we need your help. So we can finish this process, spend the money we’ve been given by the city, because the citizens of the city thought it was a very good idea. So
Unknown Speaker 25:54
we can’t move ahead until the code is changed. We need to to have the combination accommodation of the fee waiver and the area that needs to be notified. And this isn’t just self centered. I think like a Paula, or Bob mentioned down the line other neighborhoods will want it and and GLA is is the liaison of city to neighborhood. And we’re playing everything by the rules. And we always have. And now I’m coming to the next leg of the ladder. And that’s historic preservation and the balls in your court. And you need to direct
Unknown Speaker 26:35
back to city council that you approve the changes. So I appreciate your time. But let’s really let’s carry on with preservation every year,
Unknown Speaker 26:45
we lose opportunities. So I think we’ve been really patient. And now we’re going to asking you to move forward. Thank you for your time. I really appreciate this Commission.
Unknown Speaker 26:58
Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 27:00
Okay, anyone else, I don’t see anybody else from here for public comments. So I’ll go ahead and close. The public invited to be heard. We do not have any items that are public hearings. So we’ll move on to next item of new business, which is our tower of compassion cultural resource survey.
Unknown Speaker 27:25
To the commission. So following direction from the Commission about
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looking into the possible landmarking of the tower of compassion, we commissioned comic Williams to conduct a cultural resources survey of this asset, and he is here tonight to share with you his findings about this particular property, this particular structure. So I thought you would be interested in hearing about this in terms of the process for where we are from the city. This is because this is a parks maintain, this is basically a parks asset, because it is in Kanemoto Park. We are having discussions internally with park staff to you know, as I mentioned in my staff report, determine a path forward for for preservation of this property. So with that I am going to invite Mr. McWilliams up to the podium to talk about his findings.
Unknown Speaker 28:35
Carl McWilliams with cultural resource historian said nice to be here. Thank you for having me. And thank you for giving me the opportunity to research and survey was one of the most interesting resources or projects I’ve ever really had the opportunity to do in my mind, I kind of have like a top five or 10 list of the many projects that I’ve done over the past several years. And I’m kind of happy to have moved some property out of that can move this in because it really is a special property. It has such a rich, rich history.
Unknown Speaker 29:05
I’m sure you’re probably all somewhat familiar with the history of the property, but I’ll maybe just give a quick overview. The story starts with a girl who kind of motto
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who emigrated from Japan in 1907. By way of Mexico. He was originally planning to go to Canada, but he got off the train at Denver’s Union Station, when he learned that there might be possibility for work on a railroad crew that had a Japanese foreman. And so that’s why he got off the train in Denver in 19 and 20. He or in 1910 he was actually working as a coal miner in northern New Mexico. But by
Unknown Speaker 29:47
the mid 1910s He’d come back to Colorado was in the Canfield area and south of Longmont here where he is working as a farm laborer.
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In 1916, his family in Japan arranged for
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A young Japanese woman to become his bride in an arranged marriage that gave birth to three children who later adopted the Anglo names of Jimmy faith and George.
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They farmed in the Canfield area and then moved somewhat closer to Longmont here near the sugar factory, by 1930. And the word tenant farmers during that time, and but in 1935, a group who died in a automobile accident leaving
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sets you know, and three, teenage children’s. And they persevered. They opened up a
Unknown Speaker 30:46
kind of I’ll kind of show you some of the family here. This is the family early 1920s. With Gurukula and Setsuna. In the in the three children, Jimmy’s on the left, George’s in the middle and faith is on the right.
Unknown Speaker 31:03
And
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this is their marriage certificate, which I thought was really neat. And in this, there’s so many layers to the story and and one of the words that keep coming back to me was courage, you know, courage of
Unknown Speaker 31:17
guru to come to America to begin with, as an immigrant, which was not all that uncommon. Many people do that that time. But Setsuna came at the age of 22, as a young woman boarded up a boat, a ship to come to a country that she’d never been to didn’t speak the language, didn’t know anybody to marry a man that she had never met. And that after her arrival, they were married in the Buddhist church in Seattle, he signed the marriage certificate in English and if you can see they’re in the middle of lower part she’s signed in in Japanese. And so just got the courage for her to come and do that is just, you know, just amazing I thought.
Unknown Speaker 31:58
And then after group passed away the open day,
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fresh way market on South
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Main Street in the south part of Longmont here where they sold vegetables that they that they grew themselves on the farm there. And they actually had the vegetable business there up until 1968, which was long after they had developed other interests.
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There’s the mark extended Kanemoto family in the early 1960s Setsuna. The matriarch is on the left.
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George is in the right on the right in the back there and Jimmy is on the left
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with their children.
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After their father died in 1935, the three siblings for time left school to help their mother work on the farm and things but they did eventually go back to school and finished their educations. The two brothers, Jimmy and George married sisters who are of Japanese Daughters of Japanese immigrants from
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Lafayette, whose names were China or child CO and Jane. So the two brothers married the two sisters, which I found interesting because my family my father and mother also had
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siblings who were
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that were the same. And so it was kind of that that that was kind of interesting. But the two couples really formed, you know, a partnership between the husbands and wives in between the two couples, they really forged a partnership together.
Unknown Speaker 33:43
And in kind of getting back to the term of courage, you know, in the 19, late 1940s, the family who had been tended farmers in the area south of Longmont here, were offered an opportunity to go into debt to purchase the land, or at least a portion of the land. And it was not an easy decision to make. But they did make that wise decision but that that took courage as well. And then the big part of the story relates to
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World War Two and the
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internment or detainment, incarceration of Japanese Americans that occurred at that time due to extreme xenophobia against Japanese people that occurred after World War Two. But in Colorado, you know,
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no persons of Japanese descent were actually incarcerated.
Unknown Speaker 34:37
Because of in large part, the attitude of Governor Ralph Carr who was very much opposed to that, and in Longmont area, the neighbors and community as a whole really supported the Kanemoto family. They understood that they were being persecuted they gave them support. And the Cambodia family really appreciated that and they
Unknown Speaker 35:00
I never forgot about it.
Unknown Speaker 35:02
So, you know, the other aspect of courage is the courage of people like Ralph Carr to stand up in the face of what they knew was wrong. And the courage of neighbors of the Kanemoto is to also to offer them the supportive of to do what was right and to be supportive of them at that time.
Unknown Speaker 35:21
So, you know, they bought the land in the 1940s, and continued to farm it until the 1960s. When at that time, things were starting to develop in Longmont, especially to the south IBM had come in on the diagonal, FAA facility had come in, many of the things were happening. And so the land recourse became very valuable and ripe for development. And they decided to develop it themselves. They also
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went into other enterprises, including the cane companies, they patented farming type of irrigation machinery.
Unknown Speaker 36:01
In the later years, as you can see in their advertising for the cane companies, which was located exactly the same location as where the fresh way market had been located that the family had done earlier. But they use the tower of compassion in their advertising. And this advertisement actually was in a Jewish, I’m sorry, the Japanese
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newspaper that was published in Denver that they advertised in frequently.
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So in early 1970s,
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Jimmy and his wife, Trejo went to Japan and visited
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pagodas there and kind of hit on the idea of building a pagoda
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in Kanemoto Park to honor their father but also as a gift to the city to acknowledge their as an expression of their compassion and appreciation for all the compassion they’ve been showing them over the years a bit, especially during World War Two.
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The Canada’s when they develop the land, and the neighborhood,
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they donated the land for Kinomoto Park, as well as the land for the Burlington School, which is adjacent there, and set that aside. And they did many other things in the community in terms of donating and helping, and became just really, really involved. As, you know,
Unknown Speaker 37:20
great community members. And the two brothers had such you could tell they had just such a special relationship between themselves, as well as between the two couples, Jimmy was always the more extroverted outgoing kind of the front person, George was the person who took care of all the details behind it. So it’s just kind of interesting to see there, how everything worked with the two families. And there’s the two brothers, probably the 1990s. Jimmy is on the left, George’s is on the right.
Unknown Speaker 37:48
And I guess that’s the last slide that it had just a few slides. So you know, in terms of the report, you know,
Unknown Speaker 37:55
great history,
Unknown Speaker 37:58
nice construction history, did some research on the people who are involved in building it, I kind of gathered that a lot of their time and effort was donated, or at reduced cost.
Unknown Speaker 38:09
Otherwise, I think, you know, the Kanemoto family just pretty much took care of everything. The Tower of compassion was constructed was started in May of 1973. And in September of that year, they had a dedication that was attended by
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the mayor, the city manager, as well as the governor of Colorado, many other dignitaries were there. And
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they just, you know, the two brothers just were very expressive of the appreciation that they had for the community back to the world war two days, and also about
Unknown Speaker 38:50
what the tower represented in terms of, of compassion. In terms of findings, you know, I don’t think there’s any question that, you know, I certainly evaluated as eligible for local landmark designation as well as eligible for the state and national register. We’ve had, you know, informal communication from the state, that they also leave, it’s eligible for the National Register. And,
Unknown Speaker 39:13
you know, I know you have internal discussions you need to have with parks and things. But if there’s interest on the city’s part,
Unknown Speaker 39:20
to move forward with that, you know, I’d certainly be open to becoming involved with helping that process through
Unknown Speaker 39:29
any questions.
Unknown Speaker 39:32
Yep, burps Could you explain a little bit about what that process entails to be
Unknown Speaker 39:38
a state and national labor?
Unknown Speaker 39:43
First of all, well, it requires the preparation and submittal of a state and or National Register nomination. Anything that’s listed on the National Registry is obvious is automatically also listed on the state register.
Unknown Speaker 39:59
By
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involves a report similar to what we’ve done here, with a little bit more detail, and
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maybe
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a little bit more research, maybe fleshing out a few things. One thing I, if I were to get involved, I would want to flesh out, I did quite a bit of research on immigration law in the US, especially as it applied to Asian Americans. And
Unknown Speaker 40:24
for a national issue level documentation, I’d want to delve into that a little bit deeper, or just flush that out a little bit more. So just, you know, some modifications or enhancements to the denomination just to add a little bit more detail. The nomination goes to staff there that reviews it and maybe interacts with the prepare the nomination, in terms of suggestions for edits or improvements. And then it goes before the state review board for consideration. At a meeting, the state review board, and the nomination prepare owners of the property or people from the city would be welcome to come and speak on behalf they do put out there is a formal process where there is a notice that goes out if anybody wants to object to the nomination. And at that meeting, the Board makes a recommendation to forward the nomination or not, or to return it for corrections or edits. But if they approve it, they prove it to us not to forward it to the
Unknown Speaker 41:29
I think it’s it’s the
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the board of History Colorado, which is part of the Department of Education. And that’s usually a formality. If the state review board approves the nomination, it’s pretty much guaranteed to go on. And then from there, it goes on to the to Washington the to the keeper of the national register, which is part of the national park service where they formally would list it in the National Register of Historic Places. The state review board meets three times a year, January, May and September. And then the there’s a deadline to have the nomination in for each nominee for each review board meeting that’s maybe about three months prior. So for example, if the city was interested in being on the May agenda, which might be pretty ambitious, I think the deadline for that would probably be sometime like coming up in January.
Unknown Speaker 42:21
I don’t have the exact dates, but it’s usually maybe around three months in advance.
Unknown Speaker 42:27
So that’s kind of the process.
Unknown Speaker 42:31
All right. Thank you. Any commissioners have any other questions or comments for Mr. McCoy. Commissioner Barnard, what’s the what about the historic preservation Commission’s role in all of this? Well, your commission as I understand it would be to I’m in an evaluation that it’s eligible for a local landmark designation and effectively have a document it’s an application for designation. So my understanding is that your role at some point and maybe you can listen to when that point would be to
Unknown Speaker 43:04
make a recommendation to council in that regard, whether or not you agree with that evaluation, or want to move forward
Unknown Speaker 43:13
with the designation. So your role would be at the local landmark level. And then just kind of getting back to this to state and national. This being listed on the state or national registry does not add any or entail any regulatory
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restrictions that are imposed any type of regulatory
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aspects to the to the property.
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All
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right, let’s come back to staff then, as far as with how they see this proceeding.
Unknown Speaker 43:49
At our level. So the first step, first of all, is continuing are basically
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ensuring that the parks department is on board. Ultimately, city council will have to basically direct staff to pursue landmark designation since it is a city owned asset. With that, if we get that direction, then it would come back before this commission for review and recommendation to city council who are the ultimate decision maker to dedicate or to designate the property.
Unknown Speaker 44:31
Thank you. So
Unknown Speaker 44:35
I’m just trying to understand if I were the mayor, city council person, how I’m going to give a direction without input from somebody.
Unknown Speaker 44:49
So we would basically present
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the report the report that Mr. McWilliams prepared
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you know, we would make a presentation to councils
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A staff recommends this do you wish to have? Do you wish to pursue this? And if so, we will prepare the formal application package and send it through the process as defined in chapter 2.56. So good. Our direction tonight be a motion to recommend this to counsel to know, in other words, to not wait around for them to decide to put this on an agenda, but like make a formal recommendation that they look at this. I think that would I don’t see why not? Oh,
Unknown Speaker 45:36
yeah, I don’t see why not. Okay. All right.
Unknown Speaker 45:40
Commissioner Fenster.
Unknown Speaker 45:44
I had essentially the same question. And that is, is there some action that we should be taking at this time? And does that need to be done in a formal motion? And if so, where? Where does that go next?
Unknown Speaker 46:02
Just so that we don’t have a lot of unnecessary delays?
Unknown Speaker 46:09
Mr. Chairman, commissioners,
Unknown Speaker 46:12
the example I’m aware of is the silo and that was brought forward by adjacent neighbor. So usually the first part of the application is you want to know, does the owner agree?
Unknown Speaker 46:24
Which is what I was thinking we would do just out of hand. But if you want to give us direction to do that,
Unknown Speaker 46:32
please, but it will come back before you because then you will make a recommendation on whether it’s a landmark, and then we’ll bring that ordinance back to council.
Unknown Speaker 46:43
So it’s, it’s gonna bounce back to you anyhow. Right. I mean, I feel like the commission is all on the same page here. I think we ought to finish this, this particular item with a motion to recommend moving forward to council with a request to make this a local landmark even if that means asking them to ask us.
Unknown Speaker 47:10
But
Unknown Speaker 47:11
yeah.
Unknown Speaker 47:15
You just said.
Unknown Speaker 47:20
Okay, we we have a motion on the floor to recommend that staff take this report to city council with the request that we start a local landmark designation for the Kanemoto. Tower of compassion,
Unknown Speaker 47:38
adequately restated.
Unknown Speaker 47:41
So we have a motion by Commissioner Barner and a second by Commissioner Jacoby. Any discussion? No. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? None. Motion carries. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Williams, for an excellent report. And it just really fascinating. All the additional background. It’s thank you all for the opportunity. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks.
Unknown Speaker 48:09
Okay.
Unknown Speaker 48:12
Second, second.
Unknown Speaker 48:18
Is there a prospect that this monument memorial will become a federal landmark at some point? And should that be encouraged or discouraged?
Unknown Speaker 48:36
I think it’s a fair question. You know, I think part of that is in Mr. Mark Williams report, he’s noted that it’s eligible, or in his his opinion, at least eligible for all three levels. I think that would be part of staffs feedback, you know, Introduction to council, right. Whether you’d want to take it, it makes sense to
Unknown Speaker 49:01
take it further. But yeah, that can be a council discussion, I guess as far as how far it goes. Right.
Unknown Speaker 49:10
Okay.
Unknown Speaker 49:12
Okay.
Unknown Speaker 49:15
Our 2024 Commission retreat. So we have a we have a tentative date for that. Correct?
Unknown Speaker 49:22
Correct. So we have a tentative date, subject to approval of this commission this evening of Saturday, February 10.
Unknown Speaker 49:33
Probably similar timeframe that we did the last time so one to four ish
Unknown Speaker 49:39
we have a room on hold at the Longmont museum for this date for their larger meeting rooms. So plenty of space to spread out.
Unknown Speaker 49:48
So Maria has been working on on finding a location so this is
Unknown Speaker 49:54
I would anticipate pay me obviously at our January meeting will establish
Unknown Speaker 50:00
Yeah, the meeting dates for 2024. I believe I noted last, at the last meeting, that the regular meeting date for February conflicts with the saving places conference, and I know quite a few of us will be at that. So it seems that the retreat might reasonably take the place of that meeting. But that is obviously something for this commission to,
Unknown Speaker 50:27
to make it to, to decide. So basically, what we’re proposing this evening, staff is proposing a date of February 10 for the 2024 Commission retreat to be held at the Longmont museum. And if we get that direction this evening, Maria will confirm the room and we’ll call it good and start preparing for it. Okay, great. Commissioners, any objections to that? Date? Okay.
Unknown Speaker 51:00
All right, then. I’d entertain a motion. Do we want a motion to move forward with that? Or is that just adequate direction to move? Alright, we’re will move to accept the date of February 14 for the February 10. For sorry for every time I’m looking at
Unknown Speaker 51:16
February 10. Thank you for the correction. This right. My bad. I’m looking at something else. While I was saying that February 10 2024 for the HPC retreat that’s moved by Commissioner Barner.
Unknown Speaker 51:32
Gonna give the second Commissioner Sibley since I was looking at direction, all those in favor? Aye. All right, there you have it.
Unknown Speaker 51:41
Okay.
Unknown Speaker 51:43
Now, on to our last item for this evening. The historic Eastside conservation overlay update.
Unknown Speaker 51:51
staff do. Jennifer do I want to? I’m gonna give this one to Glenn. Oh, okay. Well, I’m gonna give to Rick Jacoby, because he has to put this on the agenda. So as long as I get a chance to follow up.
Unknown Speaker 52:12
Okay, I’m just getting myself to that point. All right, Christmas colors, red and green here. So. Well, thank you. Yeah. So
Unknown Speaker 52:23
just to back up and give a little history.
Unknown Speaker 52:27
The neighborhood obviously has been pursuing the conservation overlay we’ve hit they have hit a road bump with regard to expenses. We have discussed as a commission before whether we think any neighborhood group should have to endure the expenses of the planning fee, in addition to everything else, and we agreed that that was not an issue. But
Unknown Speaker 52:51
when the neighborhood group went to City Council to request this, they bounce the recommendation out to us. So to open this, I would like to just make it a formal motion.
Unknown Speaker 53:08
I move that we recommend City Council direct planning to initiate the conservation overlay process for the historic Eastside neighborhood, while waiving the planning fee, and to support a waiver for the 1000 foot peripheral area notification requirement.
Unknown Speaker 53:28
We have motion on the floor by Commissioner Jacoby and a second by Commissioner of Barnet. I’d like to have discussion on the motion.
Unknown Speaker 53:37
So any commissioners have any comments or questions? No. Okay, I have only a question about where things are in the process. So I can understand all this information that we’ve been provided. So it’s Am I correct in stating that, that there has been an initial pre application conference?
Unknown Speaker 54:02
And what we’re talking about doing is, is applying the overlay district
Unknown Speaker 54:10
rules that are already in the land use code as they are written to the, to the Eastside neighborhood district. That’s was that what we’re what I want to understand exactly what it is that we’re talking about as well. So sort of, okay, so, really kind of where we are in the process is a
Unknown Speaker 54:33
pre application meeting has held we was held we’ve laid out a roadmap for what needs to happen.
Unknown Speaker 54:39
It’s not really as simple as this, these rules just this applies to the east side neighborhood and zone that way there’s quite a bit of research and analysis and standard development that needs to be done. So it’s you know, I’ll I’ll let Glen pipe in but it’s it’s it’s an undertaking
Unknown Speaker 55:00
And, you know, part of it, there is a lot of work that needs to be done before it gets to the level of going to council. I think the fee waivers and the notice the notice radius efforts, I’m going to turn it over to Glenn are probably the easy part.
Unknown Speaker 55:19
When I think just just a backup, we’ve been under the impression that an application is going to be made to us, and we’re going to evaluate it, we go to Planning and Zoning Commission, they make a recommendation, it goes to city council. So that’s when we did the pre app we did just like any other developer. And it might seem unfair, because here’s a group of neighbors that want to put a zoning overlay on their property.
Unknown Speaker 55:46
But we gave a couple of first steps. One is I think we told them, as far as notification from my standpoint, we’re good on that. Because it doesn’t really affect adjacent neighborhoods, like putting in a Walmart, for instance, all we know is there, I believe that they would like to change the coverage requirements. So we did a simple analysis for them. But really the first step even before they make an application would be the neighborhood meeting. And we talked through how that happens. Staff facilitates that. And then as what was pointed out, council said, bring it back to council. So they may direct staff to do all the work. And I think that’s the assumption of the folks behind me is that we’re working behind the scenes to put this forward and staff initiate it. So outside of that council directness, to do that, we are in the mode of waiting for an application that actually lays out what the new requirements, what they’d like them to be. There’s also a provision for a set of design guidelines. I don’t know if that’s part of their plan either. But one thing I just want to point out is it wouldn’t come to historic preservation, it would be a Planning and Zoning Commission and the city council decision. So it’s it’s a rezoning and you typically wouldn’t be part of the rezoning. Now, if they wanted to go forward with a historic district. That would be something that the HPC would be involved in.
Unknown Speaker 57:23
So and we talked about this back on April 1 At our last retreat, and we went through the differences between SEO and putting Historic District in place. And SEO is zoning, which means Planning and Zoning Commission makes recommendations, the City Council adopts it. It’s not necessarily historic preservation, I could see that it might lead up to it or it could be preserving certain characteristics. But it’s pretty clear in the code that it’s it’s not historic preservation.
Unknown Speaker 58:00
Okay, thanks. So basically, what’s being asked of us right now is just those simple two things. The the the waiver of fee for the application, and the waiver of the 1000 foot additional buffer, period. That’s it. That’s all that’s being asked of HPC to make a recommendation to council to say, your fellow commissioners asking you.
Unknown Speaker 58:29
Yeah, I understand this is
Unknown Speaker 58:33
under zoning. And so therefore, it goes to p and Z. But really, that the heart of a conservation overlay is preservation is preservation of a neighborhood context. And so I think this is even though officially according to code, the decision will be made through planning and zoning. I think it’s reasonable for us to review this and I think it’s reasonable for us to
Unknown Speaker 58:58
pursue this as the Preservation Commission. As I believe Glenn Hughes you suggested that they still want to consider development within the properties and as Bob mentioned, I think that was dropped. It’s certainly the the way the the the language is written in the the code, it is trying to make any additions to houses as far as size compatible with the rest of the neighborhood. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work well in our neighborhood. Filled lot sizes are so variable, that the largest lots with the largest homes. Because the homes are already larger than neighboring homes, they cannot add an accessory dwelling unit, even if they have a large lot in the smallest homes on the smallest lots
Unknown Speaker 59:54
would qualify from this standpoint, at least from the CEO guy
Unknown Speaker 1:00:00
guidelines. Now we, for an adu even though there’s almost no space on the lot for them, they would have to follow other code guidelines for that. But as you know, we’ve discussed before the home was at 426. Emory, you can fill a lot, quite a bit. And so the smallest slots would potentially get very filled, the largest slots would have empty spaces. This was a problem for the neighborhood. And we, when I was working with the neighborhood group on this, we discussed, you know, a certain percentage size of improvement footprint for each slot, doing it that way. And that came up against well, how do you measure it, and there were two different measurements, and it became a hornet’s nest. And we just said, Let’s drop that for now. Again, the point is, the neighborhood would like to just move forward with the process by recommending
Unknown Speaker 1:00:54
by agreeing to my motion, we are not saying that we want the conservation overlay, we are saying let the neighborhood go forward with a process, which includes neighborhood meetings, and feedback from neighbors that goes to city council and city council and planning and zoning and they can discuss it and pursue it with their judgment. But right now, we’re just trying to remove one roadblock so they can pursue that. Thank you. I appreciate the clarification. Any other questions or comments? No.
Unknown Speaker 1:01:28
In that absence, then we’ll call for a vote. All those in favor of the motion? As stated. please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? None. The Motion carries unanimously.
Unknown Speaker 1:01:40
Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:01:43
Okay.
Unknown Speaker 1:01:44
That concludes the business portion of our meeting.
Unknown Speaker 1:01:50
Any further comments from HPC commissioners?
Unknown Speaker 1:01:58
Commissioner Jacoby, one final comment since sunset has come Happy Hanukkah to everybody who celebrates.
Unknown Speaker 1:02:07
I have one very brief comment. But I wanted to put it on the record. I’ve been thinking a lot about this commission and are
Unknown Speaker 1:02:18
the requirements that we have visa vie landmarks, right, in light of some of these discussions this
Unknown Speaker 1:02:27
about saving historic materials. And I guess I wanted to
Unknown Speaker 1:02:33
it occurred to me that one of the reasons that we have this for this commission exists
Unknown Speaker 1:02:41
is that the state has this pool of money that is out can be allocated to citizens of the community that buy historic homes and want to preserve them, right. And the way that we allow the citizens of our community to access those funds, is by having this commission and upholding the rules that the state has set up for that process. So when someone it’s it’s even better really then and then an HOA right people buy property to restrict themselves in their neighbors voluntarily. If you buy a local landmark property, you’re restricting yourself voluntarily, but you’re also part of a community that is able to access resources that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to. And I think it’s really important to keep that in mind when we’re sitting here talking about these applications, and why why we’re even here or at least a specific to, you know, see your ways and that sort of thing. So I just wanted to throw that. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:03:51
All right.
Unknown Speaker 1:03:53
Seeing no.
Unknown Speaker 1:03:58
City council liaison, I will accept the motion to adjourn.
Unknown Speaker 1:04:03
All right. I got a motion from Commissioner Jacoby and seconded by Commissioner Barnet. All those in favor? Aye. We are adjourned. Thank you very much.
Unknown Speaker 1:04:21
wasn’t trying to draw it all out. But I really just wanted to
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