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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHPC Packet 6.15.17 MINUTES PRELIMINARY HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION MAY 11, 2017 EMMA J. HARVAT HALL MEMBERS PRESENT: Thomas Agran, Esther Baker, Kevin Boyd, Zach Builta, Gosia Clore, Andrew Litton, Pam Michaud, Ginalie Swaim, Frank Wagner MEMBERS ABSENT: Sharon DeGraw, Cecile Kuenzli STAFF PRESENT: Jessica Bristow, Bob Miklo OTHERS PRESENT: Kate Corcoran, Dan Lammers RECOMMENDATIONS TO COUNCIL: (become effective only after separate Council action) CALL TO ORDER: Chairperson Swaim called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. PUBLIC DISCUSSION OF ANYTHING NOT ON THE AGENDA: Swaim stated that Friends of Historic Preservation is having a second garage sale. She said it will be May 19, 20, and 21 at the Houser-Metzger House. Corcoran from Friends of Historic Preservation said they are welcoming any items that people would like to donate. She added that the Parade of Historic Homes will be held on May 28 from 12 to 4. CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS: 812 South Summit Street. Bristow said this property is the Deluxe Bakery on the south side of the Summit Street Historic District. She said the property began as a single-family home, and the grocer who lived there had his grocery in the home. Bristow said the storefront was then built on the side, and the grocery was moved there. Bristow said that many things have happened with this property. She said that there was a fiber arts store in this location, and it is now a bakery. Bristow said that the current project is to move the circulation between floors to the exterior of the building, making it easier, safer, and providing a little more room inside the kitchen. She said this might involve the removal of the window on the back. Bristow said that the window on the back will be located inside a cooler. She said that just blocking it off on the inside and then using spandrel glass has been discussed, but she thinks the possibility of removing this window in the application is a good call, just because this could end up with condensation and other issues. Bristow stated that the window is not really part of any kind of alignment or arrangement of windows. She said it would not make much difference to the back of the house to just remove it. HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION May 11, 2017 Page 2 of 8 Bristow said that the little porch that is around the side also is not original. She said that is the entry to the apartment on the second floor. Bristow said the proposal includes removing the porch and the door that is there. Bristow showed a photograph of the porch and door. She said the new addition will be coming out of the building in roughly the area of the dashed lines (near the center of the north side). Bristow showed the windows that will be removed and moved to the exterior of the new addition. Bristow said the entry to the apartment will no longer be on the back of the building but will be on the front of the addition. She said it will give the apartment kind of a street presence. Bristow showed the plans and showed a drawing of the new addition on the side. She showed the stairs coming in, the open porch, and where the tenant will go up to the second floor. Bristow showed the area where some remodeling will be done, because of the fact that the basement stairs are in the vicinity and need work. She said that a lot of the impetus for the project has to do with the safety and ease of transporting products needed for the bakery. Bristow showed where the coolers go and where the second floor entry is. She showed the stairs going up that will be removed. Bristow showed how the basement under the bakery would be accessed. Bristow showed the view from the north. She said that only the next door neighbor will actually ever be able to see this view, because of the proximity of the houses. Bristow said they have worked on coming up with a T-shaped plan. She said the addition is just another gable end that will be projecting off of the north. Bristow said it has been kept under the ridge of the main house, because it looked too overpowering when it was the same height. She said that changes the slope of the roof on the new addition, and that is acceptable because it is a subordinate addition to the house. Bristow said this would have the same lap siding that is found on the rest of the house. She showed the two windows that will be moved out. Bristow said there will be some kind of shed roof over the new apartment entry. Bristow said the addition will be about 18 inches shorter than the main house. She said it will have matching roof material. Bristow said that because of the stair arrangement, the door is off to the side a little bit. She said this is acceptable in such a small projection. Bristow said the materials should all match the existing. She said there is a change that the owners might do some siding repair and fixing things on the main building as they go along. Bristow said the recommended motion for this includes approval of the door product information by staff and chair, as well as the design of the entry canopy roof at the new apartment entry. She said they would not want to have something where the sloped gable end is flat and flush with the fascia on the roof side. Bristow said that they could project it beyond a little bit, and they are also looking at an example where it actually is open in the triangular area. She said that working out exactly what the roofline does at this entry canpoy is something that could be reviewed by staff and chair. Michaud asked how many away feet away from the lot line the proposed stair tower would be. Bristow said they have to maintain the three-foot setback. She asked Lammers if there would have to be a minor modification approved for this. HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION May 11, 2017 Page 3 of 8 Lammers stated that he works for Lammers Construction. He responded that this has to remain at the five-foot offset from the property line. Lammers said that right now that allows them to have approximately an eight-foot wide addition. He said he would like to pull it up as close as possible so that there is adequate room inside. As far as the setback from Summit Street, Lammers said that will kind of depend on where one can enter the second floor and also where it goes down into the basement. He said those stairs have to be set up, and it won't be centered on the north side but will be moved back toward the east, probably about three feet off center. Corcoran said she lives near this house in the same neighborhood. She said this request by the owner was part of another request that was made to the Planning and Zoning Commission to zone this commercial. Corcoran said she believes this use was grandfathered in long ago. She said it was a grocery store in the 50s and has always had a commercial use. Corcoran said the owner recently requested that the property have a full zoning change to commercial so that she could put in an accessible entrance. She said that overall the owner wants to improve the building. Corcoran said it is really a neighborhood center for those who live in the area. MOTION: Baker moved to approve a certificate of appropriateness for the project at 812 South Summit Street as presented in the application with the following conditions: door product information for the addition to be approved by staff and chair and roof design for the apartment entry to be approved by staff and chair. Clore seconded the motion. The motion carried on a vote of 9-0 (DeGraw and Kuenzli absent). 8 Bella Vista Place. Bristow showed a photograph of the house with some of the recent front work done. She said this application is for work on the back. Bristow showed a sketch of the plan. Bristow said that in 2004, the Commission approved an alteration for this house that was looked at when the Commission approved the work for the front. She said that included a low brick wall and more extensive patio. Bristow said that some of that work will occur now, after many years of delay. Bristow said the current application is to remove the existing garage, which is on and possibly over the property line to the south, and replace it with a two-car garage with a breezeway connection to the house at the kitchen door. She said the application includes plans to reinstall and rebuild the entry canopy over the central back door that goes down into the basement and put a porch roof over the raised porch that is in the back. Bristow showed a photograph of the garage as seen from the front of the house. She said the garage was built about five years after the house. Bristow said it is an historic garage but does not have much character and has been altered. She said the garage is very small and very boxy. Bristow said the garage bricks do not match the house, and the garage roof overhang and slope do not match the house. She said it does not share any combination of characteristics that would make it work with the house. Bristow said the garage exists, but it could be improved. HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION May 11, 2017 Page 4 of 8 Bristow showed a photograph of the back of the house. She showed where the breezeway would connect to the back kitchen door. Bristow showed where the new entry canopy over the back door would be re-installed. She showed a roofline on the back of the house that delineates where at one time there was a screen porch on the back of the house. Bristow said the proposal is to put a roof back over the porch. Bristow stated that the bricks would clad the concrete at the back porch. She said the design will also include columns that would work with the design of the second floor porch columns so that they are tied together. Bristow showed a side view from the north, as one is looking back toward the garage and the house. She said the new garage will be moved seven feet closer, and it will also be larger with the breezeway connection. Bristow showed a drawing of what is basically the same view but also showing the side of the house. She said there is now a brick that was found when the front work was done that is a pretty good match for the brick on the house. Bristow said on the garage there will be brick with a stone band and stucco in roughly the same proportion as on the house. Bristow said the breezeway would have a door to the north. She said it will be mostly open windows and glass, following the language of some of the other windows on the house. Bristow pointed out the columns on the porch again, which will be designed to kind of match the columns on the second floor. Bristow showed a view from the back, which shows the small garage and the garage clearly going over the property line. She said the new garage will be moved a full seven feet off of the property line, which will also be good for the neighboring property owners. Bristow pointed out the new garage with some kind of painted wood, carriage-style paneled door, but not paneled as modern doors would be. She said it is not yet known what the door would be, so that would be one of the conditions - approval of the door and window product information. Bristow said the applicant has talked about using Jeld-Wen Windows, which would be appropriate here. Bristow showed the railing and columns to be on the back porch, with the brick around the bottom of the concrete slab. Bristow said the conditions she would add to this include approval of the window and the door product material. She said staff has been discussing the configuration of the canopy over the rear entry. Bristow said that how the roofline is designed should also be approved by staff and chair. Agran said there have been discussions about people asking to remove garages in Goose Town and in the North Side area. He said that it has been very difficult if not impossible for them to remove those garages. Male said this project sounds great and he agrees that this would be a nicer garage, but when people approach Commission members about trying to build something nicer, there is a precedence of having to retain the garage somewhere else on the property. He said this case sets up an interesting precedent. Miklo stated that, over a longer period of time, the Commission has approved similar situations where a one-car garage has been removed for a two-car garage. He said that for one particular HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION May 11, 2017 Page 5 of 8 case in Goose Town, the owners wanted to remove their garage and not replace it. Miklo said the distinction there is that garages often add to the value of a property and make it more attractive to owners as well as renters. He said that in some situations, garages kind of form a demarcation and help divide properties, almost like a privacy fence. Miklo said that approving this would not be a precedent. He said that in the long term, the Commission has approved similar applications. Miklo said that some of the other garages the Commission has looked at have had some unique or special characteristics, whereas this one does not. Agran said that is what he thought was important in this situation. He said that this garage did not originally look this way and that the brick cladding happened much later. Agran said the Commission usually discusses whether a structure is contributing so that rather than saying he does not think this garage is all that great, it is important to use language to describe this based on the kinds of determinations the Commission makes. He said that because of alterations to the garage, it is not as much of a contributing structure, and the original, historic integrity of the building is no longer intact so that this replacement seems like a logical change. Michaud said she understands maintaining the proportion of stucco to brick on the garage addition. She said, however, that the garage will be about the height of the brick on the main house so that it might look more unified to have the brick all the way up. Michaud said it might look more substantial. Swaim said she disagreed in that she sees the stucco and the brick as a defining characteristic of this house. She said it seems that the garage as proposed would have a similar proportion of the brick and the stucco as the house. Agran said he thinks that by connecting the buildings with the breezeway, it really puts them much more in conversation with each other rather than having the garage be an independent, subservient structure. He said he agrees with Swaim that it puts the garage in more of an architectural conversation with the building. Boyd asked Bristow to review what would be proposed for staff and chair review. Bristow suggested that it would include doors, including the garage door, and windows; and the roofline at the entry canopy. Miklo said there would likely be two motions: one to allow the demolition of the garage and the second to approve the proposed work. MOTION: Agran moved to approve the demolition of the garage at 8 Bella Vista Place. Baker seconded the motion. The motion carried on a vote of 8-0 (DeGraw and Kuenzli absent, Wagner abstaining). Wagner stated that the brick used for the repair work on the front is actually reclaimed brick from a school house near Dubuque, Iowa. MOTION: Boyd moved to approve a certificate of appropriateness for the project at 8 Bella Vista Place, as presented in the application, with the following conditions: all windows and doors, including the garage doors; and the roofline at the entry canopy to have staff and chair approval. Baker seconded the motion. The motion carried on a vote of 8-0 (DeGraw and Kuenzli absent, Wagner abstaining). HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION May 11, 2017 Page 6 of 8 619 North Johnson Street. Bristow stated that this house is almost at the south end of the Brown Street Historic District on Johnson Street. She said this was probably a Queen Anne house with that entry porch original. Bristow said the house has been purchased by the University Partnership and will have some work done on it. Bristow said that as part of the current work, some windows will be replaced. She said the sashes are not that bad, but the stud pocket between the two windows where the weights go is so rotten that the City thinks it might go to the first floor. Bristow said that another window is so far out of square that the sash, once the window is opened, requires a hammer to move it back down. She said she therefore finds the replacement of this pair of windows to be completely acceptable. Bristow showed a location on the second floor where there is a window that also should be replaced. She stated that the sill in the frame of the window is rotten. Bristow said that all of the windows seem to be original and some will remain. Bristow said that some of the railing is missing, so that will all be replaced. She said staff has suggested using just square spindles so that they look a little more substantial. Bristow said that the house has vinyl siding, which is going to remain at this point. She said that on the north side, where there is a narrow driveway, it is possible that the applicants may want to replace the window so that they can have something with a higher sill for a kitchen counter to go under the window. Bristow said that work might not happen, but the applicants would like approval for that, if possible. Bristow stated that in the back of the house, there is a door, stair, and canopy that would go in and go to a stair that goes up to the second floor. She said that this is completely unnecessary now, so the proposal is to completely remove it. Bristow showed an entry that goes to the basement and said that it will remain for now. She showed the other entry to the back of the house. Bristow said the applicants are surveying the property to find out exactly where the property line is. She said there is a retaining wall here that is degraded and also a problem with the fence. Bristow said that once the property line is determined, the retaining wall and the fence will be rebuilt. Bristow said she believes window materials should be approved by staff. Swaim asked to see the image of the back of the property with the deck-like structure and asked if it will remain. Bristow said that it will remain for now. She added that the back yard is paved with paver stones; there is no grass. Swaim asked about the deck near the fence on the far left and if that also needs to stay. Bristow said the deck wraps all the way around. She said that currently, all of that is going to remain. Swaim said it is interesting that the fish scale is still there. Bristow agreed and said that there is gable on all four sides with fish scale in that. Swaim asked if the shutters will remain. Bristow said she suggested to the applicants that the shutters should be removed, since they are only on two windows. HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION May 11, 2017 Page 7 of 8 MOTION: Boyd moved to approve a certificate of appropriateness for the project at 619 North Johnson Street as presented in the application with the following conditions: door product information to be approved by staff and window product information to be approved by staff. Clore seconded the motion. The motion carried on a vote of 9-0 (DeGraw and Kuenzli absent). REPORTS ON CERTIFICATES ISSUED BY CHAIR AND STAFF: Certificate of No Material Effect - Chair and Staff Review. 1132 East Burlington Street. Bristow said that this project moved from minor review status to certificate of no material effect, because windows planned for replacement will now just be repaired. Minor Review - Staff Review. 640 South Lucas Street. Bristow said the project involves a long railing and stair. She said the owner has a pre-cast concrete stair with no landing. Bristow said there will be a wood stair with a wood railing, and the lower railing will be replaced with black-painted aluminum railing that has a lot of the same feel as a typical wood railing. CONSIDERATION OF MINUTES FOR APRIL 13, 2017: MOTION: Baker moved to approve the minutes of the Historic Preservation Commission's April 13, 2017 meeting, as written. Michaud seconded the motion. The motion carried on a vote of 9-0 (DeGraw and Kuenzli absent). COMMISSION INFORMATION AND DISCUSSION: Preservation Summit - Fort Dodge, IA - June 8-10, 2017. Bristow asked any Commission members interested in attending to let her know. Unitarian Universalist Church and the Augusta Place Development. Bristow referred to the Press-Citizen article on the Unitarian Church. She showed a rendering of the development with the church in place and another further down Iowa Avenue looking straight at the townhouse. Swaim said the article notes that the building will be called Augusta Place, named after Augusta Chapin, a pioneer woman minister in the United States. Bristow said that the first thing the developer has to do is to make this a local landmark, which will come before the Commission at some point. Bristow said that June 15 is a date change for the June meeting because of the Preservation Summit. She said that the meeting will be in the Helling Conference Room. ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at 6:08 p.m. Minutes submitted by Anne Schulte HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSIONATTENDANCE RECORD2016-2017KEY: X = PresentO = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused--- = Not a Member NAMETERM EXP.5/12 6/9 7/14 8/11 9/8 10/13 11/10 12/8 1/12 2/9 3/9 4/13 5/11AGRAN, THOMAS7/1/17 X X O/E O/E X X X X X X O/E X XBAKER, ESTHER7/1/18 X X X X X X O/E X X X O/E X XBOYD, KEVIN7/1/17 --- --- --- --- X X X O/E X X X X XBUILTA, ZACH7/1/19XXXXXXXXO/EXXO/EXCLORE, GOSIA7/1/17 X O/E X X X O/E X X X O/E X X XDEGRAW, SHARON7/1/19XXXO/EXO/EXXXXXXKUENZLI, CECILE7/1/19 O/E X X X X X X X O/E X X O/ELITTON, ANDREW7/1/17 O/E O/E X O/E X X O/E O/E X X X O/E XMICHAUD, PAM7/1/18XXXO/E XXXXXXXXXSWAIM, GINALIE7/1/18 X X X X X X X O/E O/E X X X XWAGNER, FRANK7/1/18XXXXXO/EXXXXXXX