Historic Preservation Commission Agenda and Packet 2019 03 18

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Historic Preservation Commission Meeting Minutes February 18, 2019 Page 10 of 13 Haley stated that a recurrent issue was the concern that landmarking devalued a home. She suggested that the Commission could offer the new construction grant within the first three years, but not have a time limit on the preservation grant. Thomas replied that extraordinary circumstances could cover dysfunction of the property, change of ownership, or timeframe to respond to that issue. Haley asked if extraordinary circumstances as a phrase would deter people from participating. Thomas replied that applicants would be getting money for free if they could show extraordinary circumstances. Zuccaro stated that staff could draft some additional language on the extraordinary circumstances. That language could be completely open-ended with no timeframe. Haley urged the Commission to remain permissive and willing to work with applicants. She noted that the subcommittee had talked about requiring a new HSA beyond a certain timeframe and making the applicant responsible for doing a new HSA to get applicants to do their projects sooner than later. Ulm liked the timeframe because it was an incentive to get a project started and start preserving the home sooner than later. The timeline helped drive the preservation. Haley asked how the time limit would sound to someone who did not know the reasoning behind it. She worried that a consumer would hear the time limit more than the other parts of the incentive process. Dickinson replied that he thought the time limit was in the fine print. Ulm replied that if the applicant wanted to do a preservation project, they would want to get the project going within the three years anyway, and if they didn't want to do a preservation project, then they were not going to worry about it. Each applicant would apply the language to their own circumstances. Thomas added that it was the demolitions that were killing the city and the Commission needed to stop the demolitions. Haley asked if the Commission wanted to use the three-year period as the time limit. Dickinson replied that two years was enough to start a project and three years was enough to finish it. He added that getting extensions should be a reasonable process and that staff should be able to tell people about the extension process.