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North of Broad Historic District Meeting Minutes for 2/7/06

Hot off the presses, here are the meeting minutes for the North of Broad Historic District Meeting Minutes from 2/7/06.

February 7, 2006 7:00pm
Laura Daab’s House

In attendance:
Laura Daab
Sam Patterson, assistant to Delores McQuinn, 7th District Council Person
Barbara Smith
John Johnson
Lothar Pausewang
Jim Daab
Bill Hartsock
Charlotte Kerr
Anna Smith
Amy Corning
David Herring
Wren Granade

Sam Patterson handed out a info/procedural sheet on Design Overlay Districts.

After a varied discussion among the attendees, a conference call was set-up with Delores McQuinn at 7:30pm.

Delores suggested the following from a meeting that she had with Brooke Harding (Community Development):

• Have a public meeting at the East Distrct Center (25th & M Sts.)
• Invite city officials from Community Development, Zoning, City Attorney & Delores. This would be a panel that could conduct a Q&A session and present the pros & cons of a historic overlay. Also invite the “Two Marys” – Mary Thompson and Mary Robinson.
• Send out a meeting notice to the community. Sam Patterson said that he could probably set something up for Tues. 3/14 (as it turns out, Delores had a town hall meeting that night).

Note: as of this date, I have not heard from Sam Patterson to set up a public meeting.

Delores said that there is an archive of the previously failed effort in the DHR archives. David Herring agreed to get a copy of the archives.

Delores continued to discuss design overlay:
– Community Development and City Council govern/approve design overlays

Delores also discussed the possiblity of having an opt-out clause in the overlay plan to accomodate the elderly and poor. Their properties would not be governed by the overlay regulations until the property is sold. She felt that this might be a good tool to use to get more support for the plan.

Delores also emphasized that she advocates a design overlay over a historic district, but that she is not opposed to a historic overlay. She will support whatever the residents want.

After the conference call ended, the group further discussed Design VS Historic. Bill Hartsock and David Herring pointed out that design overlays address set-backs, height and volume, but do not address materials and asthetics like historic overlays do.

It was generally agreed, without taking a vote, that the group still wants to pursue a historic overlay rather than a design overlay.

The major objection the plan faces is a property rights issue: “Don’t tell me what to do with my house.”

The group decided that we should research design overlay with the city. Who has a design overlay? Possibly the Cary Street corridor. Laura Daab will email Kim Chen to see if she knows.

NEXT STEPS:

Prepare an argument for Historic VS Design overlay.
David Herring to get copy of old effort from DHR archives.
Laura Daab to contact Kim Chen about design overlays in Richmond.
Google to get info on design overlays (everyone).

We will wait to hear from Sam Patterson about scheduling a public meeting and proceed from there.

Meeting adjourned 8:30pm.

Respectfully submitted by,

Laura Daab