Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutHeritage Preservation - 02/26/2007 APPROVED MINUTES EDEN PRAIRIE HERITAGE PRESERVATION COMMISSION MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2007 7:00 P.M. Prairie Rooms A & B 8080 Mitchell Road COMMISSION MEMBERS Betsy Adams, Chairperson; Nina Mackay, Vice Chairperson, Richard Akerlund, Bob Amell,Ann Higgins, Ed Muehlberg, Jane Plaza STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES Kaitlin Robinson, Claire Lukens, Lauren Bentz COMMISSION STAFF John Gertz, Historic Preservation Specialist Peggy Rasmussen, Recorder I. ROLL CALL Adams called the meeting to order at 7:04 p.m. Commissioner Amell was absent and Commissioner Muehlberg arrived at 7:55 p.m. Student representative Robinson was absent. Karen Kinzel and Jeff Strate were guests. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION: Akerlund moved, seconded by Higgins, to approve the agenda as published. Motion carried 5-0. III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES —JANUARY 22, 2007 MOTION: Higgins moved, seconded by Akerlund, to approve the minutes of the Heritage Preservation Commission meeting held on January 22, 2007 as published. Motion carried 5-0. IV. CUMMINS HOUSE REUSE STUDY PUBLIC INPUT SESSION—7:00-8:00 PM Karen Kinzel, a wedding planner, introduced her idea for using the Cummins property for outdoor weddings. She works with about 100 brides a year, many of whom want an outdoor location for their weddings. The house could be used as a changing room and for another purpose during the week. The City would get the rental fee for the weddings and she would be considered the preferred vendor. Kinzel owns her own tent, tables, chairs, etc. She would rent a trailer that has a bathroom for use during the wedding and reception. She requires a 30'x 40' area for the tent, with the ceremony being held farther away. The tent is stored in the trailer, which is kept in a storage facility in Shakopee. Gertz said Kinzel was at the open house on February 16. He and Bob Vogel told her they would be in touch with her about this idea. She was thanked for coming to make her presentation to the Commission. HERITAGE PRESERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES February 26, 2007 Page 2 Higgins asked about the suggestion Vogel had made at a previous meeting to hold another open house in May. Gertz said Vogel wants to keep the public aware of the reuse study and perhaps participate in National Trust Preservation Week in May. Adams said the Eden Prairie Historical Society is looking at an idea for a fundraiser that would involve a tour of different historic sites, where people in costume who are knowledgeable about the property would be there to talk about it. Adams suggested coordinating the HPC's desire to participate in preservation week with their fundraiser. Gertz said he has been asked to help the Historical Society with the tour of historic sites and he offered talk to them about holding it during preservation week, which is usually in the first part of May. Gertz said the HPC could focus on the preservation part of each site and the Historical Society on the history. It would be a good opportunity to talk to visitors about reuse of the Cummins house. Adams added that it would also be a good opportunity for publicity about the house. Gertz invited the Commissioners to let him know if they have a person or group or organization they think he and Vogel should meet with. They are going to conduct another round of meetings with individuals. They plan to talk with the local farmers about growing heritage vegetables and flowers on the property. Strate suggested they also talk to the Bachmans, who live in Eden Prairie. V. REPORTS OF COMMISSION AND STAFF A. GLEN LAKE CHILDREN'S CAMP VIDEO —JEFF STRATE Strate said he has heard about the problems involved in trying to restore the camp. Part of the challenge for people who appreciate historic sites is letting other people know how important the sites are. He decided to make a video about the history of the children's camp, which began with treating children for tuberculosis at the Glen Lake Sanitarium. It includes interviews with former child patients, as well as doctors and others who worked at the sanitarium. Strate asked the Commissioners for comments after they viewed the video. Adams said it should be explained during the first portion of the video that children were treated at the sanitarium, not at the children's camp. Strate said if the Commissioners are aware of a group that might want to see the video, tell them to call him. He has a Web site, birchislandwoods.com. He also plans to run the video on that Web site. Strate was thanked for his presentation. B. EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS UPDATE Gertz announced that the City staff member working on the Prairie Bluff interpretive panel is finished with his portion of the work. It has not been fabricated yet. Gertz is hoping to have Bob Lambert look at it before he retires at the end of March, because he was involved with it from the beginning. HERITAGE PRESERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES February 26, 2007 Page 3 All the pages of "Eden Prairie: the First 100 Years" has been scanned into the computer, and Gertz plans to talk to the Historical Society about getting the book edited. Plaza has been working on adding information about the historic places in Eden Prairie to the City's Web site. However, staff redid some portions of the Web site and would not do anything on the historic portion until that work was done. Gertz said it is now done. Adams asked if the site could include asking people to share historic family photos. They might find them as they are clearing out their parents' homes. VI. OLD BUSINESS A. CUMMINS HOUSE REUSE STUDY—REVIEW PUBLIC INPUT IDEAS Gertz said Vogel was unable to come to this meeting, but faxed a list of the suggested reuse options that have been gathered so far. Ideas are still being added. The Commissioners studied the list, which is split into "Residential, Commercial, Recreational/Cultural, Educational, Institutional, Social, and Other." No business plans have been submitted to accompany these options. Gertz explained that in April the best ideas will be pulled out and funneled into a final set of options that will be turned into more detailed plans. He said the Commissioners could start at this meeting to indicate which are better ideas. Adams said some ideas have people with an interest behind them and some were just brainstorming ideas. It was decided that "Pilots lounge/rest facility (general aviation)" should be placed under "Commercial" rather than "Residential." Gertz said Vogel has looked into using the house as an overnight place for pilots to stay. This may be an instance where the house could have double use as a flower shop, for example, that would not distract from pilots wanting to stay in the house overnight. There are people looking for a place to hold a seasonal farmers' market. This seems to be a location where that might work out. Higgins expressed doubt that it would be feasible to house staff for community service organizations. However, she would be willing to listen if there were a local agency that would explain how this could work. Akerlund said if the property were to be used as a post office substation, Minneapolis is the postal district that would have to give approval for that purpose. B. CUMMINS PROPERTY FUTURE BALL FIELD PARKING UPDATE Gertz said he had a meeting with SHPO and MnDOT representatives to discuss the future ball field parking proposed by the City north of the house. He and the others are not convinced that is the best use of the space; a better design is HERITAGE PRESERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES February 26, 2007 Page 4 needed. They want to explore with the County the option of relocating one of the ball fields and redoing the parking. This would require the County to agree to consider the parking situation a result of the Pioneer Trail impact and consider relocating a ball field as part of its mitigation. If a ball field could be relocated, it would eliminate the large parking north of the house and subsequent parking conflicts. It is hoped there is room at the Flying Cloud complex or farther west. Gertz said this issue has to be settled. A meeting has been set up to discuss it on March 8 at the City Center, with MnDOT, Hennepin County, the Parks Department and SHPO. The first priority will be to see if the County is willing to look at relocating the ball field. If so, that would have to be approved by the Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Commission. Gertz said if those changes are approved, parking for the Cummins house would be determined based on reuse scenarios. One of the possibilities is to locate parking directly west of the house. SHPO suggested parking on the west side of the wood lot. The trees would remain, and a trail would be constructed from the parking area to the house. C. EDINA HERITAGE PRESERVATION BOARD REQUEST The City of Edina's Heritage Preservation Board has requested a joint meeting with the Eden Prairie HPC this summer. They would like to have the meeting in Eden Prairie if possible. Gertz suggested setting a date for May or June to meet at the Riley-Jacques Farm. A tour of the Dornkemper house could also be offered. The Commissioners agreed to extend an invitation to the Heritage Preservation Board to meet with the HPC in the Riley-Jacques Barn at 7:00 p.m. on June 18, a regular HPC meeting date. Gertz said he would develop an agenda. It was noted that there was an error in the January 22 minutes regarding a meeting with Edina's Heritage Preservation Board. MOTION: Akerlund moved, seconded by Higgins, to reconsider approval of the minutes of the Heritage Preservation Commission held on January 22, 2007, and to make corrections to Item VLA. on page 5, by replacing the word "project" with "meeting" in the first sentence, and striking the last three sentences, beginning "The Board would like to host the HPC . . ." Motion carried 6-0. MOTION: Plaza moved, seconded by Mackay, to approve the minutes of the Heritage Preservation Commission held on January 22, 2007 as reconsidered and corrected. Motion carried 6-0. VII. NEW BUSINESS HERITAGE PRESERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES February 26, 2007 Page 5 A. CITY PRESERVATION CODE AMENDMENTS REVIEW AND DISCUSSION Gertz said it is important to amend the present City Preservation Code in order to update the many outdated elements in it. Gertz copied the code and made comments along the side for the Commissioners to review. He included copies of the historic preservation codes of Tampa and Scottsdale, which were recently revised. The following are his comments as listed: Gertz said the "Definitions" section needs to include clear definitions regarding areas of historic preservation. Lawyers would challenge what is currently in the code. For example, "character-defining feature", which was referred to in discussions with people from Friendship Ventures, is not currently enforceable, because the City has no definition of what that means. Add an expanded section on "Designation of Heritage Preservation Sites." What happens when a property is designated and what does the property owner need to know? Add a section on the rescission and amendment to existing designations. How do you un-designate a property? Gertz said the current code does not have any means to address this, and it will have to sooner or later. The current criteria for designation of heritage preservation sites are too general now. They should be more site-specific or adopt citywide criteria that address Eden Prairie's resources. Current criteria are easily challenged because they are too loose. For example, anyone could make the case that any building could be a visual landmark in their neighborhood. Under "Planning Commission Review", the words "a program for the preservation of a Heritage Preservation Site" should be more specific. For example, require Site Preservation Guidelines be adopted governing the use of the designated property. Each designated site should have preservation guidelines for the property, indicating what kinds of things need to be protected, etc. Under "Communication with State Historical Society", replace the word "program" with "Site Preservation Guidelines." Under "Hearings", sending the notice of a hearing to all owners of property within three hundred fifty feet should be changed to 500 feet, to be consistent with other Planning Department property notification requirements. Under "Additional Powers and Duties of the Commission", include reference to maintenance standards, define them and what constitutes demolition by neglect. Include specific penalties for demolition by neglect. Property owners are not always willing to maintain historic properties. HERITAGE PRESERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES February 26, 2007 Page 6 Under "Review of Permits", it is important to include a section on the consideration of economic hardship. The HPC should be able to grant a waiver on restrictions based on demonstrated hardship, so long as it does not enable the loss of historical or architectural significance. Consider changing the term "Alteration Permit" to "Certificate of Appropriateness (COA). This terminology is more widely used in preservation codes and is more accommodating when dealing with minor change requests. It better describes what is usually requested. The Code should be amended to include "Minor" and "Major" definitions for COA applications, how the definitions are determined and who would review and approve the COA request. A "Maintenance" definition can be added to provide a clear understanding of those tasks not needing review at all. Adams recommended having an appeals process in place also. Higgins asked how long it would take to change the code. Gertz replied it would take less than a year. Not all sites are going to have individual guidelines. In those cases, the HPC would fall back on The Secretary of The Interior's Standards and Guidelines. However, the standards should be included in the code rather than alluding to them. Under "Hearings", the change is that the HPC, rather than the Council, would hold the public hearing. Gertz said that depends on whether the City Council wants the HPC to hold public hearings for things like permit reviews, designations, etc. Regarding the property owners within 500 feet who are notified of a Heritage Preservation Site Alteration Permit application, there should be an appeals process in place for them, informing them how to appeal the application. Janet Jeremiah, Community Development Director, came in at 9 p.m. She agreed that adding more clarity to the code is a good idea. There is interest in the Council for amending the code. The Council would review the amendment documentation, and then it would go on the Consent List for approval. The consensus of the Commissioners was for Gertz to go ahead with a draft of the amended code. Gertz said he would bring a draft to the March meeting. Between now and then he will ask the City attorney to review it. It would also have to be circulated among staff. Gertz said the HPC's role is to look at these changes and provide the rationale for them. If there is anything missing or anything that should not be there, the Commissioners should say so. He asked them to continue to become familiar with the preservation ordinance. Adams said doing that would enable them to discuss it knowledgeably at the next meeting. HERITAGE PRESERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES February 26, 2007 Page 7 Muehlberg said the process for an owner of a locally designated property to request changes should be delineated. The timing and schedule for submitting a request needs to be defined. Gertz agreed the code should include timing. It would be up to City staff to inform the property owner when they bring in a request. The request would be stamped with the date it is made. Akerlund inquired if there is a process for a property owner to request designation of their property if they consider it to be historic. Gertz replied anybody can initiate local designation. He would first look at the property and see if it meets the criteria of the City's code for designation as a Heritage Preservation Site. If so, it would be brought to the HPC for a decision, the findings sent to the City, and then the whole designation process would follow. VIII. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Higgins moved, seconded by Akerlund, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried 6-0. Adams adjourned the meeting at 9:30 p.m.