City Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay. Hello, everyone. Welcome. Let's go ahead and call the meeting to order. Thank you for joining. Good afternoon and welcome to the Colorado Springs Historic Preservation Board meeting for June 1st, 2026. My name is Christine Loewenberg. The Historic Preservation Board is comprised of seven board members who are appointed by city council to administer the Historic Preservation Code. Historic Preservation Board members are community volunteers with expertise across a wide variety of disciplines. Each member acts independently, carefully assessing all of the evidence presented to make their decision. We're going to go ahead and get started and do a call to order, which I just did, as well as the roll call.

Would you mind? Music. Well, we just received these resolutions. I'm still going to call his name.

Okay. Foreign member Baumgartner. That's a point of confusion. We're actually...

We have different Board Member Baumgartner who's an alternate now. So for today, maybe use their full name.

Board Member Paul Baumgartner.

Excellent.

Board Member Duvall. Present. Board Member Potter. Here. Board Member McAnulty.

Present.

Thank you. Thank you, we have five members for this.

Awesome, thank you. I would like to then go to item two on the agenda, which would be changes to the agenda or postponements. I believe we are going to postpone the item on the agenda for discussion specific to our planning and we would like bill to be present. And then because we have new board members, we'd like to have the opportunity to get them up to speed over the next couple of weeks so that they can have the opportunity to participate.

And this might be a question for young, do we need a motion to postpone item nine a presentation? Yeah, we just do that. Just to be safe. Let's have a motion.

I would ask for a motion then to postpone item nine on the agenda, 2026 work plan to next month. I move we postpone that item until next month.

I second that. Awesome. Thank you. Apologies was for member music that motion, yes, thank you. Sure longer. I. Or music. Or remember a beer bomb. I remember Potter. I.

Board Member McCanopy.

Aye.

The motion passes unanimously. Excellent. Thank you very much. The next item on the agenda would be item number three, communications. Mr. Gray. Mr. Gray is not here today.

I'm happy to stand in though. Okay. Ryan T. Fertiller, Urban Planning Manager with the City's Planning Department. Bill is out unexpectedly today. So I apologize for the delay in item nine. And I also apologize in advance for if you have any specific questions about the agenda items, I'll certainly do my best to answer them. But unfortunately, it's just unavoidable absence from bill. So apologies again. Very quick, a couple of communications though. um at last week's city council meeting i don't know if anyone caught it but um nancy hengem introduced a resolution uh recognizing may as historic preservation month um and a great resolution was read into the record uh tim boddington of hpa uh made some comments as well so um If you missed that, the video of the meeting is available online. You can always go back and check that out. We try to do that every year. And I know Bill and others worked to get that done last week. So that was great. Also, and maybe even more noteworthy at last week's council meeting, we had a council appointment of Chip McElnulty? Yes. McElnulty? Yes. I don't know why I'm struggling with that. As a T for teller, I should be able to pronounce last names better. Chip is our new full-time member of the Historic Preservation Board and council also appointed three alternates, Nicole Kavner, John Nguyen, and Shannon Baumgartner. I believe this is the first time the HPB has had alternate members.

We've had alternates. Oh, you have? Well, great.

See, I'm already messing up in Bill's absence. So great that we have multiple alternates. I believe Shannon is online. So I just want to thank Chip and Shannon and any other alternates that might be online that I missed for your efforts and volunteerism. I also want to recognize Jim whose second term of expired just last month. So I believe you served for six years, Jim, and your service to the community and to this Board is greatly appreciated. I'm sure I speak for Bill and the rest of city staff and say, we'll miss you, your contributions on the Board. Thank you. Chip, do you want to introduce yourself, say anything about yourself to the board?

Sure. My name is Chip McAnulty. I'm a retired high school teacher. I retired three years ago from Mesa Ridge High School in District 3. I am a Colorado Springs native, born and raised. Proud to say I have three generations that attended Palmer High School. And yeah, there we go. And then so I retired in May of 23. In May of 2024, I fulfilled my lifelong dream of getting my PhD in diplomacy and international affairs. So I finally got that dissertation.

That was fun.

And I've been traveling for the last couple of years. My wife is a travel nurse. So I've got to be the kept man that's followed where she went. Had just a ball, lived in Baltimore, lived in Monterey, California. I mean, Really, you just can't go wrong coast to coast. But I'm just glad to be here. I'm glad to just learn and listen and see all kinds of different things. I heard some people talking about tennis over here. I love to play tennis. So it's a big thing of mine as well. So thank you.

Shannon, I believe you're online. Do you want to introduce yourself and say anything about what brings you to the board?

If you are speaking, Shannon, you're muted.

Can you hear me now?

Yes.

Okay. Thank you. Shannon Baumgartner. I own an architecture firm here in Colorado Springs. I've been in Colorado Springs since 99 and Denver since 88. I've studied for my master's of architecture program at the Boston Architectural College. and then will be transferring to Harvard for my PhD. I have a little bit of military presence in that I have 13 Presidential Service Awards. I've met with the Joint Chief of Staff and I guess at the White House have a plaque all the way down the hall, probably by the janitor's closet, but I have a plaque at the Pentagon anyway. But mostly just here, love architecture. It's my passion. I think about it, dream about it, work on architecture all day. So it'd be nice to serve the Colorado Springs community in that capacity.

Great. Thank you. I appreciate your volunteerism. I know there's one other phone number on the call. I'm not sure if that's either Nicole or John, but if it is, feel free to unmute yourself and introduce yourself to the board. I think that is a sign that the 480 number is not either Nicole or John. So those are all my communications, Ms. Chair out there, but I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you, that's fantastic.

With that, item number four on the agenda is the approval of minutes. We have minutes to be approved for the month of February and March. So the first item, HPV 2319, that was the meeting I was at and able to facilitate, I would have...

I would ask for a motion for the minutes for February 2nd for approval or clarification.

I move for approval.

I yeah, I'm not sure ship should fall. I wasn't there on this side. You should probably abstain from votes on the minutes since you didn't attend. We appreciate your. Motion. Almost to prove the minutes. Thank you Sarah.

Is there a second second? I'll call the police and the second was for member of your bomb, yes, thank you. Hello and. I. Remember music staying I wasn't here. I remember your bomb I remember potter. I. And board member McAuliffe stayed. Is that OK?

We only have three yeses and then abstain right to.

Yeah.

Yeah, but you can't vote on today's motion. We have a tour of stains. Before.

My. I don't know. My understanding was as long as you had a majority of the members present at the meeting, you could pass the minutes.

How many attended the February meeting?

This is Melissa Wetzke, Senior Analyst. So we've had this come up a couple of times at City Planning Commission and per city attorney, as long as we have a quorum for the meeting itself, We just take the votes of the people that are there and that can vote on, but we don't need necessarily a quorum. Young, can you confirm that?

How many? I think what Melissa is relating that I've heard before is we have a quorum to open the meeting and establish actions. And as long as... Right, but I'm saying we don't have the majority vote right now to approve these minutes. We have three. Three voting for the motion to approve the minutes, zero voting against, and two voting to abstain. Okay. And so you're saying that that's not adequate to approve the minutes? Is that what you're saying? Right, because the three doesn't establish the majority. I think what Melissa said is that planning commission, we've allowed that.

to be considered an approval is that correct melissa we run this by trevor because this happened to us at planning commission when we had uh members leaving and coming in new members coming in just as we are having here where as long as we had a quorum to hold the meeting the eligible voting members still voted and it was still a you know pass fail like any other item let's consider it approved engine if if young consider if

Over the next month, if you learn otherwise, we can always redo it.

Yeah, we can.

It's fine.

Great.

Thank you.

So now you'll just have to do the March. Yeah, March minutes.

So then I move we approve the March minutes.

I abstain, I wasn't present.

Board Member Musick. Aye. Board Member Beerbaum. Aye. Board Member Potter. Aye. Board Member McAnally. Abstain.

I don't have that document. It's okay. I can just share it.

Okay, with that, item number five is on the consent agenda. So items that are on the consent calendar will be acted upon as a whole without further public comment, unless a specific item is called up for discussion. Any items called off will be heard immediately after the rest of the consent calendar is decided upon. Would you please read the item into the record?

Item 8A. HIST-26-0004, a report of acceptability to modify an existing 576 square foot detached garage to include a 1,249 square foot accessory dwelling unit and a new 1,073 square foot detached garage located at 1915 Wood Avenue. Item 5. Sorry, I said 8A. It was 5A, sorry. And then item 5B. Go ahead. HIST-26-0005, a report of acceptability for a 304-square-foot addition to the rear of the main house and the conversion of an existing detached garage to a two-car garage with a 1,248-square-foot accessory dwelling unit. The property is zoned R19HPO and is 9,500 square feet in size and is located at 1531 Wood Avenue.

And if I could. Madam Chair, I'll just interject that the agenda as published listed the first item as 8A and the second item as 5A. Normally that'd be 5A and 5B, but just for the record, we can refer to them as 8A and 5A, even though that's kind of erroneous agenda numbering.

Excellent. Thank you for the clarification. Is there any commissioner who would like to pull an item off of the consent calendar?

Maybe if I could reach real quick, especially for Chip, our new member. Consent calendar items are typically acted on by the board with one vote. It can be for multiple items. And that vote will be based entirely on what you've read in the agenda, the staff analysis, the attachments, et cetera. Items that are more complicated or have opposition or controversy, would be put on the new business calendar. And then there will be a formal staff presentation, an opportunity for the architect or the applicant to fully describe the project. And then obviously an opportunity for public comment, neighbors, et cetera. In this case, both of these two projects were put on the consent calendar and we can act on them as a whole.

So I have a question of clarification. Is somebody that's online Representing one of these, one of these items.

We have representatives for both items here in person. Should there be questions? But in order to invite their comment, we need to pull it from consent and actually talk about it.

So is there any commissioner who would like to pull an item off of the consent calendar?

None. Is there any city staff member who would like to pull an item from the consent calendar? Is there any citizen in the audience wishing to pull an item from the consent calendar?

Hearing none.

Is there anyone on the phone wishing to pull an item from consent calendar?

If so, you'll need to press star six to unmute yourself.

Hearing none, I would ask for a motion then for approval of the consent calendar.

I move we approve the consent calendar. I second that. Thank you. Roll call vote, please. Chair Loewenberg. Aye. Board Member Musick. Aye. Board Member Beerbaum. Aye. Board Member Potter. Aye. Board Member McAnulty.

Aye.

Thank you.

The motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much. And thank you very much to the applicants. In accordance with the requirements of section 7.5.405 of the City Unified Development Code, an affected party may appeal to City Council any action of the Historic Preservation Board in relation to City Code where the action was adverse to that person, adverse to the person, excuse me. Within 10 days from final action on the item being appealed, which is Thursday, June 11th, 2026, the appellant must file notice of appeal and pay the $176 fee with the city clerk. The appeal letter should address specific city code requirements that were not adequately addressed by the Historic Preservation Board. City Council may elect to limit discussion at the appeal hearing to the specific matters set forth in the appeal letter. Thank you. With that, Item Number 7 on the Agenda, Unfinished Business, we had none that fell forward. New business, we voted earlier to postpone, oh, excuse me, no new business. Item number nine, presentations and updates, which was the 2026 work plan, we voted earlier to postpone that to next month. So with that, we have concluded the business of this meeting.

And again, I'm sorry, Madam Chair, I'll just apologize again for... Bill's unexpected absence, and I'm just looking for a communication. I believe he said he was working still to have someone from the state come down and do a training, if I recall correctly, and seeing one of those emails. So that is still pending, and hopefully we'll get that scheduled. Lindsay Luelling for a future training. So keep that on the horizon. That should be coming soon as well.

Thank you to everyone for attending. Meeting is adjourned. Thank you.