Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Any changes? Do we have a motion to approve? Motion. Motion from David. David. Second from Amanda. All those in favor? Opposed? Minutes are approved. We proceed into this month's uh items. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Chairman. Um, so, uh, new business, um, BAR 2456, um, which is 406 through 420 South Main Street. Um, what you see in front of you, you'll have there are two uh, rectangles. The first in the discussion is the old Anderson Hotel, and it's right here um, in in red. The second um and we'll see this this aerial again is the uh or house over here on Manning Street and the that property is outlined in red as well. But just I I like to show everybody because it um just the position and the relationship of the two when you're looking at things that are fairly close together. Again, we are right here. This is Town Hall. Um this is River Street. You can see Maine here. uh Murray, McDuffy, and Manning and Fant beyond that. Everybody know where we are? Great. So, um the city purchased this property at the end of last year with plans to demolish the structure. In December, both the city engineer and the civil engineer consult a consultant uh inspected the structure to ensure the integrity of the adjacent building and South Main Street. Um the

hotel I'm sorry, excuse me. During demolition, my apologies. Let me back up. The city is requesting approval to demolish the Anderson Hotel out of concern for public safety. The city of Anderson, the city of Anderson building official has concerns about the imminent danger this structure poses and on August 16th condemned the structure. The letter is attached in in your packet. Over the last several years, multiple investors have attempted to renovate slashrestore this building. However, each found that it was not financially feasible due to the structures advanced deterioration deteriorated condition. Uh roof damage that occurred from the storm in early May 2024 further exasper exacerbated the poor condition. So, the city has had a civil engineer, a consultant come in uh to look at the structure. Uh it does hold up. it retains uh the basement wall retains uh Main Street. So, they've looked at that to ensure that it's structurally sound as well as the adjacent building. Um and the report is that it's just beyond repair. And this is a picture of the back as you can see um as it exists today. It was taken a couple weeks ago. Um, I will point out you can see here in the middle you can you can see right through the building. Um, that's a closeup of that. Can see the trees on Main Street. This is the building from Main Street. Again, the store opening here that you can see

through weather has been in there for some time and the letter from uh the city building official. So again, the city is requesting uh to demolish this building out of concern for public safety. And it's important to note that anything replacing this building um would have to come before you all for review and approval. Uh and the town intends to work to make sure that the any new project will fit into the downtown uh streetscape and further encourage that. So again, staff is recommending approval for demolition. Can I ask a question? Yes, sir. Is it possible for for this board to actually stipulate that um any new design actually uh incorporates the exterior facade details that are currently existing? Um so that that's interesting and a valid point. Um this request is for demolition of the structure. I would say that that would be something you should consider when you get a construction um request in front of you for a new building. The reason I asked now is I would hate for someone to go through the drafting process with the architect paying fees for something that we would ultimately choose not to approve because it's not historic. And and I I hear you and understand that, but I Just think about it. I don't Well, no. I I don't know how that's going to translate from the demolition permit to to the construction permit or to a an approval for a new building, right? Um I would I you all can do whatever you

want. If you want to make that a condition of the demolition, that's certainly feasible. Um, you also might make a recommendation um to staff or to city administration that that be included in the new building. Okay. I'd like to make a comment too on that. Uh, typically uh they come before us uh with a preliminary design that mimics a lot of the adjacent buildings on Main Street and uh we try to offer some guidance to them. Uh, and then they come back with more of a final design. But I also have another question for you, Chris. If you look at the photograph of the back of the building that's up now, there's a a brick wall on the adjacent building. Looks like it has a parapit wall up top up there. Would that wall remain? Is that a stable wall or is that coming down? That's a good question. It appears to be part of the of the hotel. Um, and as I noted, it's that we we had a consultant in to look at the stability. I can I can get that answer that question answered for you, but I don't can't tell you if that's going to come down or not at this point, but I do know that the engineer was brought in to make sure that that building is going to be structurally sound, the adjacent building as well as Main Street. Any more questions or comments? No concerns. Um I I wonder if um when we um vote on this now if we could um add uh verbally to it that um because you know you said once demolished the city will seek a partner to redevelop to complement historic

downtown. But to your point, which I think we all agree on, um if somehow we could phrase in our approval that um we we would hope that whatever architectural uh that it would use the architectural features. Correct. Um and you know, that's certainly valid strongly in the You think so? So, we can put that in there that uh we're requesting them to come before us with a preliminary design that would complement the adjacent buildings. Perhaps they could duplicate what was there before and reflect duplicate the front the front facade of the hotel. I think that's what we're trying to get at. Yeah. Okay. to keep it the historic look that we had before to to reflect historic look of the hotel that was there. Doesn't have to be a hotel, of course, but you know. Right. Okay. You got that, Chris? Hold on. Yeah. I think the the difference is instead of reflecting other buildings in historic Anderson to reflect the elements of of this facade currently. Good work. Yes. elements of the facade. Okay. Um, so I'm going to have to work on the wording unless you all want to, but the um the request that a preliminary design come to

BAR that complements that reflects sorry that reflects the historic features of the Anderson hotel. What What did What did you say? The words that you said were so good. I think Chris was right. the present are architectural elements of the the hotel building the that to reflect the architectural elements ele elements of the Anderson hotel. Yes. So let me read that. Let me go through this again one more time. um request a preliminary design come to BAR that reflects the architectural elements of the Anderson Hotel facade. Front facade. Yeah. Something like that. Of the what? Front facade of the Anderson Hotel. front facade. Okay. Okay. Any other comments? Do we have a motion? Motion from Dave. Second from Gia, any other comments or request? All those in favor? Opposed? Carry unanimously. Great. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. board. Do you want me to Do you want me to un get u let you know if that's a wall that will be coming down that you ask about if if you can get that without that? Yeah.

Okay. As I promised, we're back here. Um again, we were just looking at the Anderson Hotel, which sits over here. We're going to move over to Manning Street. Um the property is outlined here. It's the historic or house and um I'm going to wax a little bit about the or the history of the house. Um the or house was was built by Christopher Orur and was an inn and it was his son possibly worked in it. What's interesting about his son is that he was before the Civil War was um one of only two and the last speaker of the house from South Carolina. Um and after the war he was the first governor of South Carolina elected by popular vote and after that he was um sent to Russia as ambassador to the US where he died. Um, but I just think that's a nice connection. So, often why why these places we want to h keep them around is because they go back and reference back to some history. And it's nice to know Anderson has a place in that history. Um, so um the applicant is seeking approval of the color change to the house. The proposed color scheme is as follows. The house bo body body would be a northern sky blue um which is a I believe a vbar color. The building skirt would be northern sky blue as well. The trim would be do white. The shutters black and the stair risers and tread uh would remain the existing gray. We're going to look at the house right

now. Uh this is the house. Obviously, this is a summer picture. I believe it's 2003. That's the proposed body color, the do white, and that's it. Um staff is recommending approval. Okay, this consider some couple things here. It's the oldest residence in the city of Anderson. It's very important. Another thing is this house is on the National Registry of Historic Places. That's true. Yes. I don't think you can change the color of an exterior of a building on the National Registry without their approval, but I'm not positive on that. It's been a few years since I've been to one of those meetings. Uh I honestly don't know the answer to that question either. I thought that you couldn't you wouldn't get any funding if they if you weren't restoring it to their standards, but you don't you don't get any funding from them anymore. You haven't gotten any funding for years. Uh I went through that process a few years ago. Uh, as far as changing the color to from white to blue, any comments or concerns about that, I when I read this um I wrote past it, of course, and uh it is the oldest house and the history behind it. So, I did some research um because I wondered has it always been white? And um I I read I bet 15 different articles and um finally I did find where um originally it was white. There's a picture of it when it was um on the on

the square on Benson Street before it was moved. Um and I think maybe it was moved twice. Oh, really? Um, I think it was moved to another part of Vincent Street and then it was moved to Manning Street. Um, and of course it's the more you read the more historical it is and how it was used for offices underneath and all kinds of things. But originally when it was the hotel on the square uh and and I do have a picture which I will um uh give to you all for the files. Um has everybody seen it or anybody want to see it? Um okay. It's it's right here. right there. And and obviously the columns uh the four columns were added at a later time, but um it it appears that the railing around the upstairs porch is the same and the actual um um rooftop and everything is is the same. Okay, go ahead. AI says that you can generally change the color of a house on the national historic register as the listing on the register itself does not restrict paint color changes for private owners. However, historic district regulations might still impose limitations on the exterior paint color. Okay. So they can change paint code to

national but to get money from from them they could stop it if you change the paint code. So generally it's my understanding that when it comes to historic districts a a lot of the local board has more teeth than the state or national organizations. So you all have the most teeth. I personally cannot imagine this house anything other than white. Yeah. Yeah. And and we have approved before some very old houses although they didn't have historic value but in that same sort of neighborhood um that have been painted and we approved the colors. But this is something unique and um my feeling is it should remain the color it is and and it you can do the color inside not on the outside. Okay. Just two more items. Uh the the color of the uh building skirt material, it's a dark color now. Um looks to me like it's kind of a green to match the shutters. Yeah, green. Uh what do you think about that? Staying that color or Oh, no. I think it ought to stay the colors it is. It is. And then the shutters they're requesting going black. Was it black at one point? Cuz those shutters don't look

No way to tell. Yeah. Only black on my photos. Yeah. Yeah. Uh now the do white trim that's just slightly off white. Just slightly off white. Uh what are your thoughts on on the trim and the shutters? Do you think we should go with not changing any of the colors? That's what I would tell. They they didn't I don't think they had the pigments back in the early 1800s where they would um change it to from white to dra white. They had white. So, we're looking at turning down the request to change any of the colors of the paint. Is that correct? That's okay. Do we have a motion for that? We have a motion from Amanda, second from Jill to keep the colors of the house as it is today. Any other comments or questions? All those in favor? Opposed? Carry unanimously to Tell them to remain with the original covers. Got it. Okay. Any any board business we want to discuss? Staff report? Yes, sir. Real quick, um there is the comp plan is being finalized as we speak. Um and there will be an education

um opportunity where the consultant will present the comp plan. Um the comp plan helps drive the development ordinance. Um we're going to list that as a education opportunity. It'll be late in February. I'll get that date out to you later, probably this week, later next week. um that will be one opportunity and there's going to be at least three other opportunities for continuing education. So, while the comp plan doesn't specifically affect you all, uh it's sort of supports the board, the BAR's um existence and in the comp plan, you know, it says talks about the historic districts and that there should be a board and what moving forward for the next 20 years um the recommendations are for that. So, I would encourage you to come to that. It's going to be at the end of the day, I think 4:00. I don't have an exact day yet, but I'll let you know, probably by email. Uh, and again, there'll be three others to follow, and we'll get those dates to you as soon as possible. Thanks, Chris. Okay. Anything further? Do we hear a motion to adjurnn? Motion from Jill, second from Mary Lou. All those in favor adjourn, we are adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.