Chairperson Black
called the meeting to order at
1. Roll Call
PRESENT: Ernie Bedford, Jacinth Black, Sandra
Jones, Tim Lichtenwald, Richard Osburn, and Mike Storey,
ABSENT: None
VACANCY: One
OTHERS
PRESENT: Keith Baker, Planning Director, Debbie
Marquardt,
Technical
Secretary and no others
.
2. Approval of the Minutes of the Meeting on October
22, 2008
It was
moved by Bedford and seconded by Jones that the minutes from the meeting of October
22, 2008 be approved as presented.
The motion passed unanimously.
3. Certificate
of Appropriateness
None
4. Public Comments (not related to agenda
items)
None
5. Old Business
a.
2008 Survey Results
Mr. Baker discussed the survey results from 2008. They received a total of 11 surveys which is
a 46% response rate. There were nine
questions.
The first one being, have you applied for a Certificate of Appropriateness
since the changes in the application?
The majority of the responses were positive. Yes – 8 No - 3
Ms. Black stated that there
were major changes done to the process and that a lot of the approvals are now done
by the staff and there hasn’t been any feedback in terms of the residents and
it looks like the process has had a positive response.
Do you have any suggestions
to change the process? Yes - 3 No - 8
Do you read the information
sent to you by the city? Yes – 9 No –
2. It looks like they are paying
attention.
Do you watch the televised
district meetings? Yes - 3 No – 8
Do you feel well informed of
the guidelines? Yes – 9 No – 1 Not Sure
- 1
Do you feel well information
of the issues discussed? Yes – 6 No - 4
No answer – 1
Would you recommend a friend
to move to the district? Yes – 8 No - 2
NA – 1
Would you be interested in
being appointed to the West Main Street Historic District Commission – Yes - 2
No - 8 N/A – 1
A scale was associated with
how strongly they would support the following items with 1 strongly support through
5 strongly against.
Signs indicating entryways in
the District. 1 – 7, 2 – 1, 3 - 3
Educational videos about the
homes and the District.
1 – 3, 2 – 2, 3 – 5, 4 - 1
Printed articles about the
district and/or highlighting homes.
1 – 3, 2 – 5, 3 - 3
Summer walking tours through
the district. 1 – 3, 2 – 6, 3 - 2
Nearly half of the district
participated.
Ms. Black was encouraged by
the response and it seems like half of the district is supportive of specific
events. That is a strong awareness.
Of the above ideas, would you
be interested in participating?
Street lights have been
needed for years.
They would help with tours,
videos and there was opposition to any special assessment projects.
Any other additional
suggestions for the Commission?
Ms. Storey thinks the
comments are interesting. Maybe they
would like to check with other homes and see if they would like to come into
the district. With real benefits they
might interest other homes.
Mr. Osburn stated it would be
a benefit to explore the possibility and see if others are interested in
joining now that the rules have been changed.
One of the other feedback comments is there are other residences that
have special unique categories that are at risk. There are some Dow houses out there that they
don’t want to lose.
Ms.Black stated that the
historic district must be contiguous and they have to look at the houses that
are contiguous to the district they have.
There has to be a sense of value added to the district that would
provide assistance in a number of ways.
It is not unheard of to have more than one historic district in the
community. There can’t be just one house,
there has to be a minimum number. As
they enhance the value the residents receive in this district, it becomes more
desirable to join.
Mr. Osburn stated that there
are wonderful homes and buildings out there that he would hate to have them
disappear.
Ms. Jones asked if property
owners choose to be in the district or does the city pick them? If these people don’t want to be part of that
district, why doesn’t the district go on further?
Mr. Storey stated that there
was some falling out in the past.
Ms. Black stated that as they
go on one of the new business items is to create some subcommittees and those
subcommittees will include these four items that the residents have given a
strong support for. A number of people
signed their survey. So as they get into
the subcommittee, the chairs can look to see who was interested in the
residents and form that subcommittee with the residents and work together. The historic district is not a lot different
from a protected district but it is not a privileged district.
They had another request on
lighting. A letter was received by the
city from residents within the district or the neighborhood in regards to
improving street lighting in the area.
Those residents received a response from the city.
The Engineering Department
staff will facilitate this. They
received the request and will see if the request is legitimate. If further action is recommended, the city
will contact Consumers Energy who installs and maintains the street lights in
the city.
Plans are provided to
individuals who are impacted by the street light. The city has decided to set up a meeting with
the area residents directly affected by the street light. If street lights are standard, there is no
cost to the residents. Non-standard or
decorative lighting would require additional cost to the residents.
The duration of the process
is dependent on the city and will be coordinated with Consumers Energy. The Engineering Department is planning a
neighborhood meeting in late March or April to discuss proposed lighting
changes.
Ms. Black stated they are
trying to find a funding source for lighting.
Mr. Storey stated that he talked to the foundations and that money is
going to be hard to come by. They will need
to put together a plan with costs and see what they would need to be
realistic. He talked to a few people in
the city engineering department to see what they have talked about before. This might be a topic for a subcommittee once
they get the costs involved.
Ms. Black stated they would
need to write a proposal to the local foundations and city engineering is
investigating the costs.
Mr. Storey is willing to
chair that committee. Mr. Osburn will
join him and see what they can find out.
Mr. Osburn asked about the ruling on solar power? They might check the surveys and see if the
person interested in lighting signed the survey. The people that wrote the letters might be
potential members.
Mr. Storey asked how they
define consensus. Mr. Baker stated he would
have to defer to the Engineering Department or Consumers. It might be by cost and brightness.
Ms. Black wanted to comment
on sending the residents minutes from the meetings. The more effort someone has to go through
the less likely it is for them to obtain it. Staff will send a copy of the adopted minutes
to the residents.
Ms. Black stated that they
used to send a packet to new residents.
It would include an updated district map with property owners. There is no automated way to find out if
there was a sale in the district.
Mr. Bedford stated that they
had a good response with the surveys.
The majority of them were positive and there were a couple that
weren’t. A couple of them still favored
getting rid of the district. They questioned
the amount of resources poured into the district. The district is a voluntary commission.
6.
New Business
a. Creation
of subcommittee/work group
Ms. Black stated that they are going
to pass on the entranceways for now.
One of the ideas is educational
videios that they talked about last year. A second idea would be print articles
highlighting different homes in the district and maybe summer walking tours to
highlight areas in the district.
Ms. Black asked if anybody would step
forward to work on videos. They could
shoot a video and put it on Midland Community Television. They identified three homes that would be
willing to participate in it. They could
talk about the house and who lived there.
They could work with people from MCTV and also maybe Selina
Tisdale. The goal was to have somebody
from MCTV. Ms. Black asked Ms. Jones if
she would chair that subcommittee.
The summer walkings tours will be
taken on by Ms. Black. Between now and
April she will contact the residents to get a working committee going and maybe
plan or have a first meeting and Ms. Black will be glad to work with the
subcommittes and get a start.
b. Board vacancy update
There is one vacancy and the city is
the process of its annual appointments and they have recevied one
application. They do have one pending
vacancy at the end of the fiscal year.
Keith will report back on the tax
credit. Ms. Black read it and did not
understand it. Her impression was that
it was for restoration and rehab of privately owned properties and it was
considered a great benefit for the historic societies.
Mr. Bedford mentioned the historict
district conference is coming up and there might be some information on
lighting there.
Mr. Osburn asked about the contracting
consultant of the planning department and if they would take over the West Main
Street Historic District. Mr. Baker has
a number of night meetings and he will have to make that decision. That is definitely a possibility but no
decision has been made and it will be Mr. Baker in the interim.
c. Awareness update
City in 15, the monthly program on
MCTV, is going to begin a year long program with informational pieces of the city‘s
boards and commissions. Some time during
the year they will get to this board.
There is an updated map that can be sent
to the residents and updated packet information and minutes as well.
7. Adjournment
The Chair adjourned the meeting at 8:00 p.m.
Respectfully
submitted,
Keith Baker, AICP
Director of Planning and Community Development