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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHPC Packet 2.9.17 MINUTES PRELIMINARY HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION JANUARY 12, 2017 EMMA J. HARVAT HALL MEMBERS PRESENT: Thomas Agran, Esther Baker, Kevin Boyd, Gosia Clore, Sharon DeGraw, Andrew Litton, Pam Michaud, Frank Wagner MEMBERS ABSENT: Zach Builta, Cecile Kuenzli, Ginalie Swaim STAFF PRESENT: Jessica Bristow, Bob Miklo OTHERS PRESENT: Zach Evans, Royce Chestnut RECOMMENDATIONS TO COUNCIL: (become effective only after separate Council action) CALL TO ORDER: Vice Chairperson Baker called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. PUBLIC DISCUSSION OF ANYTHING NOT ON THE AGENDA: There was none. CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS: 1190 East Court Street. Bristow said this Queen Anne house on an alley is in the Longfellow Historic District. She said the house is pretty much exactly the way it was, in that it does not have any additions at this point. Bristow said the porch was rebuilt using original spindles. Bristow said the owners want to put an addition on the back of the house to enable them to have some accessible bathroom/bedroom space on the first floor. She showed a top view of the back of the house as well as the east elevation. Bristow showed a 3D model of the addition. Bristow said this project has gone through several iterations, and many of the issues have been worked through. She said that what staff found to be really important was for the horizontal lines such as the soffit line to match up with the porch horizontal lines and that the roof itself would fit in so that nothing would have to be done to disturb, remove, or resize the rear window. She said it is in an interior corridor that the owners would like to maintain. Bristow showed the plan view, showing the planned bedroom and bath. She said the plan is to incorporate a bump out that is similar to the projections on the main house. Bristow stated that otherwise it is simple, more like would be seen with a one-story kitchen or porch addition on a Queen Anne house. Bristow showed the east view. She showed where there is matching in with the wall that currently exists, instead of setting it back, just to kind of simplify how the addition meets the house. Bristow said that on the other side, it does protrude six feet. She said that while the guidelines discuss keeping an addition behind the house and behind the front facade, this is on the alley side. Bristow said there is currently a privacy fence along that side. She said staff HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION January 12, 2017 Page 2 of 9 feels that having a bump out on this side, since the house also has a bump out on this side, would allow the owners to get the space they need and still keep the addition to the back. Bristow said this will be matching all the siding, all of the corner boards, the fascia, and soffit on the main house. She said the owner wants to put some of the decorative trim, like that found on the house, on the addition. Bristow said that additions are usually simplified, and by having the low, hipped roof, the addition is already simplified. She said staff feels it would be okay to have some of the fish scale in the gable over the bump out so the owners can get a little bit of the decorative quality they want. Bristow said the model shows the addition with asphalt shingles, but it will not have asphalt shingles. She said the roof slope is low enough that the owners will have to do some kind of membrane roof. Bristow said staff felt this roof slope really works for this addition and trying to make it fit in with the main house and that having a membrane roof would be appropriate in this location. Bristow said she would work with the contractor to approve window product information so that there is something that works well with all of the original windows that are still on the house. She added that the owners are interested in having a limestone foundation that would match the limestone foundation on the house. Clore asked if the addition would have a full basement underneath it. Bristow did not know. Michaud asked if the back door would remain. Bristow confirmed this, saying that the back door and back porch would all stay as they are now. Litton asked if there should be shutters on the windows. Miklo said there should probably not be, given this character of house. He said they were added by the applicants some time ago, before there was a district here. Bristow said the shutters on the house seem to be kind of sporadic. She said that to minimize this, there should probably not be more shutters. MOTION: Wagner moved to approve a certificate of appropriateness for the project at 1190 East Court Street as presented in the staff report with the following condition: window product information to be approved by staff. Litton seconded the motion. The motion carried on a vote of 8-0 (Builta, Kuenzli, and Swaim absent). 728 Grant Street. Bristow stated that this is a small cottage that has had significant changes. She said that while it was at one point considered at least marginally contributing, staff really feels that because of some of the changes that have occurred over the last 50 years, it is no longer contributing. Bristow said there is a chance that this house could become contributing, but it has asbestos siding and all the windows that have been changed to smaller windows are set at an unnaturally low position. She said there is also, from the south side view, kind of a break in the foundation where the rear portion and the porch were added at some point in time. Bristow said she assumes that, at least in the front room, it originally had a double hung window like the front double hung window. HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION January 12, 2017 Page 3 of 9 Bristow said the applicant is proposing to rearrange some of the windows. She said that originally, the owner was going to move the gang of three windows on the south side to get more light in and raise all three sets of windows up higher to a natural head height. Bristow said she went to the site and had discussions with the owner about the house. Bristow said that a lot of it is kind of down to the studs, and the spaces inside have been rearranged. She said that having the head height, even with the front window, which is probably in its original position, would be the most logical place to put it. Bristow said it seems that, since there was a double hung window in the front room, actually replacing that front window with a double hung window would allow more light and be one step toward bringing this house back to the way it originally was. Bristow said the proposal is now slightly different from what was in the packet. Bristow said that the proposal is now to put a double hung window in the location at the higher head height and then use the existing square window to replace the gang of three windows in the back. She said that then its head height and the middle window's head height would be raised so that all of those would be equal, but the gang of three windows would go away. Bristow said she will work with the applicant to get product information on the window to make sure it is something that works well with the front window. She said she believes it looks like a replacement window in the original location. Bristow said the siding is asbestos siding that the contractor would like to reuse and not have to reside the whole house. She said staff will work with the contractor to match if needed or come up with a solution or bring this back before the Commission. Litton asked, if it turns out the siding is too brittle to be salvaged and reused, is the Commission able to expedite things for the applicant by approving an alternative such as lap siding, rather than having to come back for approval. Bristow said she does not know what the owner would want to do, although lap siding would be the most logical way to go overall for this house. She said that this could end up being in a transition period where one wall is lap siding for years, and she did not know how the Commission would view that. Chestnut, the contractor, said that the back of the house has very minimal siding on it. He said there is a composite-like product that kind of mimics this. Chestnut thought that if he had to, he could use the material from the back, which faces the creek, until the siding is replaced. Miklo asked if the original wood, lap siding is still underneath this. Chestnut said it is not. He said it is just planks underneath this. Bristow said the idea would be to make sure there is not an area that looks patched in. She said that if the siding is taken from the back and moved up, then maybe the back side would need to be resided. Bristow said the Commission might feel that a lap siding for the back would be the best way to go, because that would be the direction it should eventually go. MOTION: Agran moved to approve a certificate of appropriateness for the project at 728 Grant as presented in the staff report with the following conditions: window product information to be approved by staff, and any siding issues in which the siding needs to be borrowed from other parts of the building to be approved by staff and the chair. Clore HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION January 12, 2017 Page 4 of 9 seconded the motion. The motion carried on a vote of 8-0 (Builta, Kuenzli, and Swaim absent). 411 Davenport Street. Bristow said this house is in the Goose Town/Horace Mann Conservation District. She stated that in July 2015, the Commission approved adding an egress window. Bristow showed where the egress window was intended to go on a portion of the slab. She said it was actually installed on the side of the house in a more traditional location for an egress window and window well. Bristow showed the original plan for the window, including the window, the planned view looking down, and a section with the window well and steel grate. Bristow stated that the applicant is currently proposing to have a roof canopy approved. She said that it is currently installed and is constructed of shingles to match the house and a trim that is painted to match the house. Bristow said the applicant's proposal states that this is to keep water from going into the window well, to prevent people who walk through this area from falling into the window well, and to prevent leaf clutter and other debris. Bristow said that staff did research to determine if there is any precedent for historically putting a roof canopy like this over a window well but could not find anything. She said there is not evidence of a change in elevation adding to some need for a low cover like this. Bristow said staff's thought was that the proposed metal grate that was originally approved for this would prevent people from falling in. She said that typically the window well itself is constructed with rock and drainage in the bottom so that the water can drain away, and debris would be removed as part of maintenance. Bristow showed images of two other successful window wells. She showed one with a wood frame and screening to keep debris out. Bristow said it does have drainage. Bristow showed another window well for which the contractor made his own mold so that he could make a cap to the block to make the top of the block match the rough texture of the side to match the foundation. The contractor should be commended for going to such lengths to match the foundation with the window well. This window well does not have a cover either. Bristow said staff finds that having a roof canopy is not something that would fit with the guidelines and would do more to degrade the historic character of the home than it would do to protect from water and debris. She said that a metal grate would work to keep anyone from falling in. Evans, the owner of the house, said that when he put the canopy on, he had already made a grate and had done everything the way he planned on doing it. He said that after a couple of weeks there were a couple of heavy rains and some situations with tenants, so it just was not working out. Evans said that to him this was the best option. He said he was not trying to sneak anything by without a permit but was just trying to make it look the same. Evans said he looked at the rest of the neighborhood for ideas and actually found a lot of other properties that had canopy coverings and some with multiple coverings. He said he did that, because it seemed the best way. HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION January 12, 2017 Page 5 of 9 Evans said there is a scenario on that side of the house in that it is really exposed to west. He said that when it rains from the north and the west, the wind and leaves just pummel that area. Evans said the window well has drainage. He said there has not been a water problem inside the structure, but it is more a situation of a constant problem to deal with if it is not covered. Evans said, regarding the staff comments, he did not understand about the guidelines recommending the material of the foundation but do not include any guidance to allow a roof canopy. He said he did not know if something like this is possible if there are no rules to follow. Evans said that if the canopy cannot stay there, he would like something at least close to it that would achieve the same results to protect the house and the window. Michaud asked if water has seeped into the window or into the floor in the basement. Evans said he has not had any water in there, but this is more of a proactive thing. He said that when it does rain, there becomes like a drift of leaves in there. Evans said that with an inch of rain, it is three inches from the window, and he is just trying to prevent something that could happen in the future. He said the grate just was not doing what it needs to do, besides keeping people out of it. Miklo said the applicant pointed out there are others of these roof canopies in the neighborhood. He said that is why this is a conservation district - to prevent these kinds of solutions. Miklo said the goal is that when there is investment in these buildings, it be done in an appropriate way, similar to the examples that were shown. He said this just announces that this is a rental property, bedrooms are being put in the basement, and there is not a good solution, so we're coming up with these unconventional additions to the house. Miklo stated that, in a conservation district, it is important not to carry on this sort of solution. Clore asked if there is a non-permanent way to cover that with a plastic, see-through type of rain protection, to keep rain from going into the window well. Evans replied that there are lots of things he could do that would be flat or would cover the top of it. Miklo said he believes that screening and periodically cleaning out the window well is the solution. He said it doesn't sound like there is a drainage problem, but if there is, it would be a matter of just digging a little bit deeper and putting more gravel in the bottom. Miklo said these are seen all over town, and they function and do not call attention to themselves like this one does. Wagner asked about the awning image and if that actually still allows for the 5.7 square feet of egress for the window. Evans stated that it does, and it meets the building code. He said he does not want to have an issue with any of the properties he owns. Evans said he personally does not find anything wrong with the aesthetic look of this. He said that in an hour of driving around, he found lots of properties, over 28, that had these covers. Evans said he does not know for sure if they are all rental properties, but he could probably find out. Evans said there are lots of these that are not even close to as nicely built as this one is, as it matches the house. He said that they are built out of rough metal and have gutters on them. Evans said they are all in historic districts and conservation districts. He said he doesn't want to make this look like something that shouldn't be there, but he also wants to protect the house in a legitimate way that is going to work. HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION January 12, 2017 Page 6 of 9 Michaud asked if it would work to put Plexiglas here instead of the roof material. Bristow said there is an egress window cover that can be custom made that includes a structure and some kind of Plexiglas that would fit flush with the top of the window well or as low profile as the original grate. Evans said a four by eight sheet of rigid plastic is made that he could put over the grate. He said then there is the issue of flow off of it, because the grate is not sloped, and attaching it somehow to the grate and to the top of the window well itself. Evans said he can see something happening in the future and is trying to be proactive. He said that without babysitting it every single day, any other option at one time or another may work for a period of time, but this would work forever. Litton said it is his feeling on this that the Commission approved the grate and there are not drainage issues right now. He said that it sounds like the biggest issue is keeping out debris and things blowing in. Litton said there are solutions to keep things out that are also found all over town. He said the awning also has open sides, so things could maybe blow in just as easily even with the awning. Evans said that it has made a big difference. He said the only other way he could keep stuff out would be with some type of screen, like the earlier example. Evans said that is problematic, because it could be taken off, moved, or destroyed; it is just problematic for the property. Litton said he does not exactly see it that way. He said that another clear covering or screen, like in the examples shown, would allow light into the living space, and that also seems like a positive thing. Litton said he would be in favor of approving something less substantial than this. Clore said she does not think this would have ever passed. She said the Commission should view this as if it was not already here. Clore said there are other ways of dealing with the issue that do not look like this. Bristow stated that the proposals for this roof could be approved with changes or could be not approved. She said that if it was not approved and the applicant wanted to work on some kind of low-profile method that was not attached to the house, it would not need Commission approval at all. Miklo said that the original approval had the screen on it. He said the Commission could deny this and leave it at that. Miklo said that for putting in screen or Plexiglas, the applicant will not have to come back. Bristow stated that she has seen something that is actually manufactured. She said that might be another solution that would solve some of the issues. Bristow said it would allow light in, because it wouldn't actually have the roofing material. Michaud asked if it would work if the roofing material was detached and Plexiglas was put on that same angle. Miklo said he did not believe so. He said it would have to be something that is not visible. HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION January 12, 2017 Page 7 of 9 MOTION: Boyd moved to deny a certificate of appropriateness for the project at 411 East Davenport Street as presented in the application. DeGraw seconded the motion. The motion carried on a vote of 7-1 (Michaud voting no; Builta, Kuenzli, and Swaim absent). REPORTS ON CERTIFICATES ISSUED BY CHAIR AND STAFF: Certificate of No Material Effect - Chair and Staff Review. 431 North Van Buren. Bristow said that for this house, originally the owner wanted to take out a window and try to sandwich in a manufactured window unit to save the stained glass. She said that instead, the owner made a storm window to put over it, which was all the owner needed to do. Minor Review - Staff Review. 728 Grant Street. Bristow said this application came up before the window reconfiguration. She presented a photograph that showed that it was in process. Bristow stated that this house had a wheelchair access ramp that was really extensive and deteriorated. She said the owner wanted to remove that and put the porch back on. Bristow said that there are interesting columns here that were added when the shutters and siding were done. She said the owner wanted to repeat that motif on the railing, because it is kind of unusual. Bristow said it is basically just two spindles with a little cut out piece in between each one. Bristow said it was a little unusual, because this whole thing was added at one point. She said that the roof was not original, and there was a little bit of foundation on the front step that was probably a little bit smaller than this. Bristow said staff found this to be okay. CONSIDERATION OF MINUTES FOR DECEMBER 8, 2016: MOTION: Wagner moved to approve the minutes of the Historic Preservation Commission's December 8, 2016 meeting, as written. Agran seconded the motion. The motion carried on a vote of 8-0 (Builta, Kuenzli, and Swaim absent). ANNUAL HISTORIC PRESERVATION AWARDS: Bristow reminded the Commission that the awards would be held Thursday, January 19, at 5:30 p.m. in Meeting Room A of the Library. She added that there will be refreshments available starting at 5:00. Bristow stated that 19 properties will be receiving awards. COMMISSION INFORMATION AND DISCUSSION: HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION January 12, 2017 Page 8 of 9 Miklo announced that the City has received a grant from the National Park Service to list the Iowa Women's Federation Home on Iowa Avenue and to list Tate Arms on the National Register and to develop interpretive material such as a sign in front of each building and web material and pamphlets to highlight the history of these two properties. He said these properties were the answer to an issue brought forward by the African American community, as the University allowed African American students as early as possibly the 1870s but did not provide dormitory space when dormitories started to be constructed in 1919. Miklo said their solution was to provide their own housing. Miklo said that both of these buildings are still standing. He said the building on Iowa Avenue is pretty much the same as the day it was built, with a few minor changes. Miklo said that Tate Arms was modernized sometime in the 1940s or 1950s, presumably by the Tates. Miklo stated that there were 39 of these grants issued nationally. He said this was the only one issued in Iowa and one of only three or four in the Midwest. Miklo said there will be more to come as this program is developed. Bristow distributed a schedule for upcoming meetings. She said that the June meeting was changed, because it conflicted with the Preservation Summit to be held in Fort Dodge. Bristow asked Commission members for their opinions on the start time for the meeting. The consensus of the Commission was to leave the starting time at 5:30. ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at 6:15 p.m. Minutes submitted by Anne Schulte HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION ATTENDANCE RECORD 2016-2017 KEY: X = Present O = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused --- = Not a Member NAME TERM EXP. 2/11 2/25 3/12 4/14 5/12 6/9 7/14 8/11 9/8 10/13 11/10 12/8 1/12 AGRAN , THOMAS 3/29/17 O/E X X O/E X X O/E O/E X X X X X BAKER, ESTHER 3/29/18 X X X X X X X X X X O/E X X BOYD, KEVIN 3/29/17 --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- X X X O/E X BUILTA, ZACH 3/29/19 --- --- --- X X X X X X X X X O CLORE, GOSIA 3/29/17 X O/E X X X O/E X X X O/E X X X DEGRAW, SHARON 3/29/19 --- --- --- X X X X O/E X O/E X X X KUENZLI, CECILE 3/29/19 --- --- --- O/E O/E X X X X X X X O/E LITTON, ANDREW 3/29/17 X X X X O/E O/E X O/E X X O/E O/E X MICHAUD, PAM 3/29/18 X X X X X X X O/E X X X X X SANDELL, BEN 3/29/17 X X X X X X X --- --- -- -- -- -- SWAIM, GINALIE 3/29/18 X X X X X X X X X X O/E O/E WAGNER, FRANK 3/29/18 X X X X X X X X X O/E X X X