Historic Preservation Commission Agenda and Packet 2019 01 14

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Historic Preservation Commission Meeting Minutes December 17, 2018 Page 6 of 18 thought the reduced third story was a good idea, but it still had too much glass. The south building was respectful of The Huckleberry, but the norther buildings did not respect its neighbors. The north buildings reminded her of the Chase Building on Main Street, which no one likes. She added that the parking was inadequate and it might encourage the City to pursue a citizen -paid parking structure. She also felt that it would set a precedent for large buildings to provide inadequate parking downtown. Haley asked for additional public comment. Seeing none, she opened commissioner discussion. Dickinson asked what "the traditional context of downtown" from the Design Handbook meant to his fellow commissioners. He thought that the context precluded chains from coming downtown, but he was not sure what else that phrase meant. Ulm replied that the history of Main Street was small business and small-scale business. You don't see many office buildings and the added retail in this plan would help enliven the area. Haley replied that this proposal was more respectful than structures like the buildings that housed Pica's and Eleanor & Hobbes, for example. The three-story building on that same block was another example of what did not fit in to the traditional context of downtown. Chuck Thomas agreed with Commissioner Ulm and added that the buildings should be segmented. He noted that there were plenty of two-story structures, including ones that were next to one-story buildings. Though this was a large building, it was segmented in its design, respecting the nature of Main Street. The two-story structures next to the one-story ones did not bother him. He agreed with Jean Morgan than the Chase building was a poor example, but he did not agree that there should be more parking. Too many downtowns have been destroyed by adequate parking. Parking orphaned the structure from the buildings around it. Dickinson stated that the parking was beyond the scope of the HPC, though he observed that the proposal parked itself more than other downtown structures. He thought that if this were three different proposals for three different buildings, the HPC would probably be fine with those proposals. He added that he thought they probably checked all the boxes and worked with staff to make sure they met the Design Handbook criteria. Haley added that the proposal responded to the directive to attend to size and place through the architecture and the materials. Parris stated that the proposal seemed to incorporate newer, current materials while nodding to the buildings to the south and north along the block.