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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCultural Resources Cmte - 03/31/09 r-���--t CITY OF PALM DESERT � � BUILDING & SAFETY DEPARTMENT INTEROFFICE MEMORANDUM To: Rachelle Klassen, City Clerk � From: Suzanne Cicchini, Administrative Secretary Date: April 28, 2009 Subject: Submission of Approved Minutes for the Cultural Resources Preservation Committee Meeting held on March 31, 2009. Attached is a copy of the March 31, 2009 Minutes of the Cultural Resources Preservation Committee Meeting approved by the Committee on April 28, 2009. Please include on the next City Council agenda. Thank you Attachment CITY COUNCILACTION APPROVF,D�-�--- I?T:NIF.D Ri?CCIVCD .` r� ��- ()'I'itT;It MF.ETING DATE �-7-C � AYES: �5� � �t l Sb l NOES: -��/��'- ABSi;NT: N�/1 c�- ABSTAIN: N�ne vFli���cn �3v: 1�-�K( r�� Original on File with City Clerk's Of'fice G:\BldgSfty\Suzanne Cicchini\Word Files\Cultural Resources Preservation Committee\Meeting Items\Memo-City Clerk-Minutes 04-28-09.doc CITY OF PALM DESERT i--�---� � � CULTURAL RESOURCES PRESERVATION COMMITTEE " Minutes March 31, 2009 Administrative Conference Room I. CALL TO ORDER Committee Chair Gale Broeker called the meeting of the Cultural Resources Preservation Committee to order at 10:01 a.m. II. ROLL CALL Present: Absent: Gale Broeker Kent Routh Don Graybill Vera Handley Kim Housken Bob Pitchford Also Present: Russell Grance, Director of Building and Safety Renee Schrader, Associate Planner— in at 10:36 a.m. Suzanne Cicchini, Recording Secretary III. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS None IV. CONSENT CALENDAR A. MINUTES — OF THE MEETING OF FEBRUARY 24, 2009 Committee Member pon Graybill noted on Page 4 under VI Old Business Item G. Additional Items Needed for Properties, the number of apartment units is actually three instead of six as stated during the meeting. MOTION was made by Committee Member Kim Housken to approve the Minutes as amended. Committee Member pon Graybill seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. V. NEW BUSINESS None CULTURALRESOURCE PRESERVATION COMMITTEE MARCH 31, 2009 VI. OLD BUSINESS A. UPDATE ON LETTERS TO HOMEOWNERS OF POTENTIAL CULTURAL RESOURCES PROPERTIES Director of Building and Safety, Russell Grance reported that five of the seven property owners have chosen not to participate. One has not responded and one said yes. Committee Chair Gale Broeker reported that she heard someone at the City of Palm Desert was telling people when they called that historic preservation would affect property rights, and another caller was told that their home was already on a list of historic homes. She did not have any names or specifics. These calls did not come to the Building and Safety Department. Committee Member pon Graybill inquired if there was something the Committee should be doing to have the City of Palm Desert adopt the Mills Act. Discussion commenced. Director of Building and Safety Russell Grance has done quite a bit of research on the Mills Act and he came up with a comprehensive application program in draft form. Committee Chair Gale Broeker suggested adding two more property owners. B. DISCUSS PROGRESS OF SITE PLAQUES Russell Grance, Director of Building and Safety checked with Marketing on the site plaque design. Their only recommendation was they wanted to use the City Seal Palm Tree. Bob Riches in the GIS Department provided the sample shown to the committee. Discussion commenced about the color, size and various attributes of the plaque. Committee Chair Gale Broeker asked for a motion to send this design on to the City Council. Mr. Grance will get cost estimates. The plaques should be visible from the street and substantial enough to stand up to the elements. Further discussion commenced about the various methods of attaching the plaque. Most are attached to the houses. Some are attached to fences. Committee Chair Gale Broeker suggested placing a star on each side of the number on the first nine plaques. Committee Member Kim Housken suggested using a pound symbol before the number and a more subtle, deeper, natural desert green color. Committee Member Vera Handley was in favor of the simple design and color choices with the raw aluminum. MOTION was made by Committee Member Vera Handley to send the design on to Council. Committee Member pon Graybill seconded the Motion. The motion was not voted on. G:\BldgSfty\Suzanne Cicchini\Word Files\Cultural Resources Preservation Committee\Minutes 2009\033109 Minutes.docx Page 2 CULTURALRESOURCE PRESERVATION COMMITTEE MARCH 31, 2009 C. UPDATE OF BOOKLET AND BOOK Committee Chair Vera Handley posed some questions she had to help provide information to the Art Department at the College of the Desert. Committee Member Kim Housken recalled a work shop was to be scheduled. Due to schedule issues for Director of Building and Safety Russell Grance, the work shop was postponed. Mr. Grance suggested that this forum could be used for work shop items. Approximately 400-500 copies of the booklet were discussed as a potential number to print. Committee Chair Gale Broeker recommended more than one sketch for each style of house. Committee Member Vera Handley suggested using about 20 simple frontal view sketches, as long as the style is represented. The sketches could be examples of different types of architecture such as a house or roof. Not all houses on the list need to be represented. Committee Member Kim Housken suggested making a list of what to include. Committee Member Bob Pitchford opined that one student should be selected for the sketches for continuity throughout the book. He emphasized that one technique be used. Discussion commenced about what style the sketches should be. Committee Member Vera Handley was uncertain about whether the teacher would assign it to just one student. The people who offer to do sketches are advanced students. The professor's idea was that each student take one type of design. Committee Member Kim Housken suggested developing text, get the writing down first; have a layout or outline of what is wanted in it. A storyboard could indicate what is needed. Committee Member Vera Handley went over the rest of the questions she had. Committee Chair Gale Broeker requested that Renee Schrader, Associate Planner weigh in on this discussion since she had done an extensive report on architectural types at her last jurisdiction. Ms. Schrader indicated there should be enough detail on the facade to point out the elements, however, a single element could be highlighted. A very simple line drawing would suffice to show how a part fits together with the other elements. Regarding artistic license, the sketches should represent the homes and be identifiable. Committee Member Bob Pitchford offered that other elements such as palm trees be in the booklet. The College of The Desert students from next year will likely be involved with this project. A historical map and a current day map could be included. Committee Member Vera Handley reported that the names of the students involved would be noted in the book with appreciation. Discussion commenced about a work shop date and items needed for it. D. UPDATE ON CALIFORNIA PRESERVATION FOUNDATION CONFERENCE Committee Chair Gale Broeker announced that she and Committee Member Kim Housken will be attending the conference. She will be taking a work shop on financing historic preservation. Committee Member Kim Housken noted that there is a sustainability track. There was a discussion of the mobile work shops and two tours that are coming to Palm Desert. G:\BldgSfty\Suzanne Cicchini\Word Files\Cultural Resources Preservation Committee\Minutes 2009\033109 Minutes.docx Page 3 CULTURALRESOURCE PRESERVATION COMMITTEE MARCH 31, 2009 Committee Member pon Graybill reported that he will be volunteering at the conference. For that, he will be allowed to attend any of the workshops except the mobile ones, at no charge. Committee Member Kim Housken inquired whether Renee Schrader would attend. Ms. Housken provided her with information about the conference. VII. REPORTS AND REMARKS A. COMMENTS AND COMMITTEE MEMBER REPORTS Prior to the meeting, Former Committee Member Jan Holmlund delivered to Suzanne Cicchini, Recording Secretary reports and information she collected about historic preservation. She requested that these be provided to the Committee Members. She also included a statement; received and filed. Director of Building and Safety, Russell Grance relayed that K Kaufmann sent her regrets on not being able to attend the meeting. Committee Member pon Graybill reported that he and Director of Building and Safety Russell Grance discussed storage for historic items. The Committee would like to look at using the apartments on Santa Rosa Way for storage. Mr. Grance wrote Mr. Graybill a letter about a meeting he had with City of Palm Desert Redevelopment Manager, Martin Alvarez to discuss access to an apartment on Santa Rosa Way. The apartments will be demolished in the future. Based upon the interest that was expressed at the last meeting, Mr. Grance put together a memo to the City Manager asking for consideration of the storage request. Mr. Grance is still waiting to hear back from the City Manager. Director of Building and Safety Russell Grance did not know what the Redevelopment Agency has planned for that site. Committee Chair Gale Broeker mentioned that when demolition started she asked Director of Community Development, Lauri Aylaian what was going in there, because it was a historic house. She recalled that she was told "no project." At a recent meeting, she asked if an Environmental Assessment report was done when the property was purchased. A lawyer she spoke with said "under CEQA, property acquisition is an action subject to CEQA. There should have been an initial study done before purchase of property." Ms. Broeker noted that the ordinance says that as a committee, they are to initiate and prepare nominations of eligible City owned Cultural Resources to local, state and national registers. Three properties on the Committee's potential list are City owned. She inquired "Why can't we be doing what the ordinance tells us we should be doing?" Director of Building and Safety Russell Grance responded, "We are." Chair Gale Broeker "Are we?" Mr. Grance reported that memos were sent to the City Manager, because these are city owned properties. The Bates House is Redevelopment Agency owned. The City Manager is the Agency Director for the Redevelopment Agency. Mr. Grance noted that he has two memos to the City Manager in addition to the storage question on Santa Rosa. In lieu of the letters sent the other property owners, the memo serves as the letter. G:\BldgSfty\Suzanne Cicchini\Word Files\Cultural Resources Preservation Committee\Minutes 2009\033109 Minutes.docx Page 4 CULTURALRESOURCE PRESERVATION COMMITTEE MARCH 31, 2009 Contact has been made. Director of Building and Safety Russell Grance is asking for direction because the Committee feels that these items are to be considered. The ordinance is being followed, and there will still be a public hearing. Mr. Grance gave Mr. Graybill copies of the memos to address all three properties the Committee is inquiring about. Committee Member pon Graybill inquired if Redevelopment Agency money was available for cultural resources preservation and asked if Director of Building and Safety Russell Grance found anything out about that. Mr. Grance reported that he talked to City of Palm Desert Redevelopment Manager, Martin Alvarez and he didn't seem to think there was. Discussion commenced about funding for cultural preservation. Committee Member pon Graybill inquired if it was illegal to use Redevelopment Agency funds for cultural preservation. Director of Building and Safety Russell Grance indicated that it was not, but noted there were many factors including the current economic situation that can affect funding. Committee Member Kim Housken discussed the City of Rancho Mirage very positive and impressive presentation of A Young City Rich in History. The next Work Shop of the Cultural Resources Preservation Committee will be Thursday, April 9, 2009 at 1:00 p.m. in the Administrative Conference Room at The City of Palm Desert. The ne�xt meeting of the Cultural Resources Preservation Committee will be Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 10:00 a.m. in the Administrative Conference Room at The City of Palm Desert. VIII. ADJOURNMENT With Committee Concurrence, the meeting was adjourned at 11:13 a.m. � �CC� Suzanne Cicchini, Recording Secretary G:\BldgSfty\Suzanne Cicchini\Word Files\Cultural Resources Preservation Committee\Minutes 2009\033109 Minutes.docx Page 5