Minutes; Historic Preservation: January 2006

Evansville Historic Preservation Commission
Minutes
Wednesday, January 18, 2006, 7:00 P.M.
3rd Floor, City Hall

Present: Sandy Decker, Betsy Ahner, Steve Christens, Carol Culbertson, Steve Culbertson, Rich Modaff
Absent: Dennis Wessels (came to meeting but was excused prior to start, due to illness)

The meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by chair Sandy Decker.
Minutes: Motion to waive the reading of the December 21, 2005 minutes and approve them as written by Steve Culbertson. Second by Rich Modaff. Carried.

263 W. Main Street – this item was left until the end of the agenda to allow time for the home owner to appear. Motion by Carol Culbertson to approve this application. Second by Steve Culbertson. The homeowner did not appear but had provided photos and a description of porch decking that needed replacing. Sandy noted that this house has a plaque but is one of the homes for which the paperwork seems to be missing. Motion approved.

Subgrant Update - Tim has the reconnaissance finished and should have a preliminary report ready by February 1, 2006. Joe DeRose has encouraged him to take photos of homes currently in historic district. Many of the early index cards of our historic district homes do not have photos.

Submission of Minutes and Reports to WHS – Sandy will forward a copy of the Annual Report to Betsy to be sent with the last half of 2005 meeting minutes.

Grove Society Report – nothing new to report on the building. The Old House Group meetings for February and March are set for the 4th Thursday of each month. The Progressive Dinner will be April 22 and one more home is needed. Betsy is working on this. The funds raised at the Progressive Dinner support the restoration of the Baker Building.

Bricks on Main Street – ECP has submitted a grant application to theTallman Foundation for $25,000 and Chris Eager has put together a list of people he considers to be potential donors. There is a public hearing on the Main Street reconstruction on Monday evening at City Hall.

Large Scale Commercial Development – the City Planner is going to start drafting an ordinance for the committee to consider. There seems to be a consensus that retail buildings should be limited to 50,000 sq. ft. that is about twice the size of the Piggley Wiggley. He is also trying to work on design standards for businesses not in the Historic District.

Smart Growth – Sandy reviewed items in the plan that designated the Preservation Commission as the Partner/Champion.

Strategic Plan – Sandy reviewed the action items identified in the strategic plan. She suggested making the Restrictive Covenant for historic homes a priority this spring. Ways to publicize the requirement that homeowners in the historic district appear before the HPC before doing work on their homes was discussed briefly. She also suggested that when the survey is done, we may need to submit another CLG grant to pay for the work of filing an application for a new historic district.

Motion at 7:45 PM by Rich Modaff to adjourn. Second by Steve Culbertson. Motion carried.