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HDC_02 10 2005City of Little Rock Department of Planning and Development Historic 723 West Markham Street District Little Rock, Arkansas 72201-1334 Phone: (501) 371-4790 Fax: (501) 399-3435 Commission LITTLE ROCK HISTORIC DISTRICT COMMISSION MINUTE RECORD Thursday, February 10, 2005 I. Roll Call and Finding a Quorum A Quorum was present being three (3) in number II. Members Present: Wesley Walls Marshall Peters Wyatt Weems Members Absent: Terrance Bolden City Attorney: Deborah Weldon Staff Present: Tony Bozynski Brian Minyard III. Approval of the Minutes of the December 2, 2004 and the January 6, 2005 minutes of the Little Rock Historic District Commission. The minutes were approved as presented. Commissioner Wesley Walls made a motion to approve both sets of minutes and Commissioner Wyatt Weems seconded. The motion was approved with a vote of 3 ayes, 0 noes, 1 absent and 1 vacant position. IV. Finding of compliance with notice requirements of all subjects The applicant for 504 East Sixth Street was asked to produce the mail receipts by Staff. The applicant then made a phone call to have the certificates delivered. V. New Certificates of Appropriateness A motion was made to amend the agenda by Commissioner Weems to vote on 420 East Ninth Street before hearing 504 East Sixth Street. Commissioner Walls seconded. The motion was approved with a vote of 3 ayes, 0 noes, 1 absent and 1 vacant position. Item V b: 420 East Ninth Street A motion was made by Commissioner Walls to withdraw the application without prejudice and was seconded by Commissioner Weems. The motion was approved with a vote of 3 ayes, 0 noes, 1 absent and 1 vacant position. Commissioner Marshall Peters asked about the rental sign being up on the property. He stated that it was permanently affixed. Tony Bozynski, Planning and Development Director, stated that Staff would check into it, both guidelines and sign ordinance and if it was a violation, a notice would be issued. A recess of ten minutes was taken to allow time for the 504 East 6th Street notices to arrive. At this time, the certificates for 504 East Sixth Street were not available for inspection. Another motion was made to amend the agenda by Commissioner Weems to move the hearing of 504 East Sixth Street to the end of the agenda. Commissioner Walls seconded. The motion was approved with a vote of 3 ayes, 0 noes, 1 absent and 1 vacant position. VII. Other Matters Item VII a. Multiple Commission Meeting Boyd Maher of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program made the presentation that summarized the events of the meeting as stated in the agenda package. Brian Minyard, City Staff, stated that there was a meeting set up with Myra Jones, liaison of the Little Rock Realtors Association, for next week as part of the implementation of the meeting. Also, checking on the Realtor.com website was under way. Commissioner Peters was concerned that the AREC (Arkansas Real Estate Commission) should be a key player in the education of realtors in their continuing education process for selling properties in a historic district. ItemVII b: Revised Design Guideline Book Mr. Minyard stated that he had received a bibliography for the guideline book from Carolyn Newbern. It was also noted that the Commission would need to vote on the final draft of the guidelines when finished and content approved by the commission. The commissioners were concerned that the latest changes would be included in the draft. Commissioner Walls stated that he had the photographic images on his laptop and would show the commissioners the progress of the photos after the meeting. Commissioner Walls stated that the goal was to have the photography complete by the end of the month for staff coordination to insert into the guidelines book. Carolyn Newbern asked if Staff had the graphics for the "column" to be placed on the cover. (The column design is the logo used for the Little Rock Historic District signage.) Mr. Minyard said that Staff did have the original and that it could be scanned and placed on the cover. Carolyn Newbern wanted the article titled Historic Commission Realigns with Planning Department that was in the February 2005 issue of the Chronicle to be included in the minutes. She also handed out membership applications to commission members and staff that were not current members of the Quapaw Quarter Association. Item V b: 504 East Sixth Street Ms. Deborah Weldon, of the City Attorney's office stated that the notices were complete. Commissioner Peters advised the applicant that with three commissioners present, that they could ask for a deferral if they wished. The motion would require all three of the commissioners present in order to pass. The applicant stated that they would like to proceed with the item. Commissioner Peters made a disclosure that he been in real estate transactions with the applicant prior to this. He stated that he has no financial interest in the property at this time. Mr. Minyard, Staff, made a brief presentation of the item. He stated the original application is different than the application before the commissioners today. The original application included replacing the windows, removing shutters, painting the exterior of the building, construction of a parking lot in the rear with landscaping and a six foot fence surrounding the property with a security gate. He stated the staff recommendation of denial as filed but elaborated on the six conditions that would have to be met in order for staff to approve the COA. When covering the six conditions, the applicant's architect, John Jarrard, stated that the windows will not be replaced, they will be repaired. The shutters will be removed and Frita Tirado, owner of the property, stated that her crew would repoint the brick if necessary to repair after the shutters are removed. Mr. Jarrard stated the parking lot would be of concrete and landscaped to city code. He stated that he would check with Bob Brown of the City to verify the requirements. Mr. Minyard stated the fence that was shown on the plans that the commission received at the hearing was different than the application. After questions and discussion, the following was disclosed to the commission: The fence at the south east corner of the building that is approximately seven and one -half feet long will be a 6' tall dog -ear picket to be stained or painted to match the proposed fence at the Rainwater Flats development. It will have a gate in the fence. Rainwater Flats Development will fence the eastern and northern boundary of the site. The wood fence at the northeast corner of the building will be offset 3' from the building edge and also be 6' in height dog-ear wood fence. The existing short brick wall will be left undisturbed. The western property line will have the same 6' fence from the northwest corner of the property to the corner of the adjacent structure to the west. (The wood fence would be offset from the brick wall of Trapnall Hall.) At that point, an iron fence will be placed on the property line and extend approximately three quarters of the way toward the front of the building. Mr. Jarrard said that the gate was placed at the point in order to allow the gate to swing in, the placement of the windows, and clearance of the porch area. The gate is twelve feet wide and swings against the building. Mr. Bozynski asked if you could stack a car in the area before the gate opens. The answer was yes. Commissioner Walls stated that he understood the gate placement. Commissioner Peters asked if he was going to raise the sidewalk. Mr. Jarrard stated that at this time there had not been a grading study of the site and the he did not know at this time. Mr. Jarrard further stated that the fence did screen the air conditioning units from the street. The trash cans will be placed in the rear of the building. The side porch is the entry for three of the units, with the front door only serving one residence. Commissioner Peters asked about the elevational difference with the sidewalk and the drive on the west side of the building. He continued to ask if the concrete was going to be raised and the potential for accidents. Mr. Minyard asked for details of the side entry porch. Mr. Jarrard stated that it had to be brought up to code. The brackets were too low for clearance. He continued that with it being the entrance for three of the units, that it should be more gracious. He said that the porch will have a turned metal roof on it to match the roof on the front and it will be painted to match. The columns are similar to the ones on the front. John Greer, representing the Department of Heritage, which manages Trapnall Hall, had two points to raise. The first point was that Trapnall Hall hosts outdoor parties in the rear and the appearance of the fence would be important. He asked of Mr. Jarrard, which way the fence would face. Mr. Jarrard stated that the ordinance required him to place the finished side of the fence toward Trapnall and the rails and posts would face the parking lot. The second point was that the old structure that used to be there actually acted as a retaining wall to hold up the soil for the backyard of Trapnall. He continued that there is a brick wall that is cracked and would be coming down. He was concerned that the two -foot change in elevation between the lots would create problems in the future and wanted an answer from the applicant about how the applicant proposed to solve it. There was discussion and Staff produced pictures showing the conditions with the Trapnall Hall property being about two feet higher in elevation over the existing parking lot elevation. Mr. Greer stated that he thought that there should be a retaining wall and if the commission really wanted a concrete retaining wall, or a brick retaining wall, etc. When the old building was removed, in essence, a retaining wall was removed. Ms. Tirado stated that she would install the fence as shown on the drawings inside her property line. Commissioner Walls asked how high the fence was going to be. She answered that the fence would be six feet in height and be installed along the ground. A discussion arose among the commissioners about approving the application conditionally concerning the retaining wall. If a retaining wall were going to be built, Staff would have to sign off on the specifications of the wall. Ms. Tirado asked that if the Rainwater Flats fence changed, hypothetically, would that change her application. The discussion ended that the fence at Caroline Apartments would need to match the Rainwater Flats fence. A motion was made by Commissioner Walls to approve the application as submitted with staff recommendations of 1,2 3,5 and 6 and that Staff approve of any retaining wall fence variations on the west wall. Commissioner Weems seconded the motion. The motion was approved with a vote of 3 ayes, 0 noes, 1 absent and 1 vacant position. A motion was made to adjourn at 6:25. ATTEST: Chairman Secretary Date: Feb 12 05 10:05a David Newbern 501 663 1422 p.3 nr Historic Commission Realigns, with Planning Department The Little Rock Historic District Commission was recently moved from under the City's Housing and Neighborhood Programs back to its Planning and Development Depart- ment, which is where it originated. "I believe that the commission is actually a better fit in the plan- ning and development department, particularly as heritage tourism con- tinues to grow nationwide, with Little Rock being no exception," said Commission Director Tony Bozynski. "Additionally, if you look at most larger cities, the historic commission almost always fits un- der planning. The commission's duties are to preserve and protect sites and struc- tu res of historic and architechual in- terest and significance; to encour- age private efforts to restore such sites, buildings, structures and their surroundings, specifically in the MacArthur Park area. In addition to staff members, the committee is made up of five elected volunteers comprised of one architect, two property owners, one QQA member, and one member at- large. Under the new department, one of the commission's primary new projects is rewriting their guidelines for external changes to buildings in the MacArthur Park area. "We want to make them more user - friendly," Bozynski said. "We also feel there are some gaps in the current guide- lines that need to be filled." The project will hopefully be completed sometime this summer. In the meantime, the commis- sion will also continue to hold its monthly meetings, which usually take place on the first Thursday of each monih starting at 4:30 p.m. at City Hall. "The commission is a dedicated group of people who are concerned with preserving our city's historic resources," Bozynski added. "We are excited to be an active part in planning Little Rock's future."