City Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

All right, you can go ahead and get going here. Good afternoon and welcome to the Colorado Springs Historic Preservation Board meeting, September 14th, 2026. The Historic Preservation Board is comprised of seven members 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 the evidence presented to make their decision. Our camera is not working, so. Be kind of like radio. I do just take roll. This one.

Board member Lowenberg.

Sick this afternoon.

Remember music present? Remember beer bound present? Board Member McKennelty.

Here.

Board Member Wendt.

Here.

Board Member Potter. Board Member Fitzsimmons. Thank you. And we have a call in ending in 3288 online. If you would please identify yourself. Well, then we have four members present. Thank you.

Let me just say, yeah, let's see. So, whoever just joined, your number is 3898. Please let us know who you are. Unmute. Hello? Yes, you. Yes. 719-332-3898. If that is your number, please let us know.

Just muted, could you unmute there?

Yes, can you hear me?

Yes, there you are.

Yes, this is Mike Anderson with the Historic Neighborhoods Partnership listening in.

Got it. Thanks, Mike. Thanks, Mike.

Yeah, we can move on. All right. Changes to agenda postponements. Do I make this section?

No, we do not have. We have no changes to the agenda or postponements. All right. We'll move on to number three. Communications. All right. I will take care of that. So the first thing that we're going to dive into this afternoon is that we have been asked to change our time and or our date of our historic preservation board meetings. One of the things that is brought to the attention of our staff for this board is that we are the only group that meets toward the end of the day and meetings extend beyond regular business hours. And so we've been asked to either pick a date and or time that would better align with other boards and commissions that the city has. For example, planning commission, downtown review board begin at nine o'clock in the morning. So I guess with as much discussion as the board would like on this item, and we don't need a formal vote, but maybe a thumbs up or a, hand raised on proposed time for the meeting, and also if you would want to change the day that we meet. So I will open, I'm now just going to open this up to the board for your thoughts, discussions about this matter.

So is it your goal to end by 5 o'clock? that would be the latest you'd want the meeting to go?

We could set that as a target, yes. But I think understanding that we don't always have control over how long something might take. For example, if you're going through the historic preservation overlay of Parkside, that's going to take time. But I think that the idea would be Yes, for the majority of our meetings that we could get through that agenda before the five o'clock whistle. Yes.

Well, at least for me, I don't work on Mondays, so I can be here whenever.

OK. Maybe I should just ask.

I'm retired, so I make it a priority whenever it is.

My second to last term is about to expire. So I can't really weigh in. So.

The way I see it, if I can jump in is the two, I think keeping the day makes a lot of sense. First Monday of the month and you need to voice preference for either just moving it up an hour, hour and a half to 3 or 3.30, or we move it to 9 a.m. or 8.30 and do it in the morning. To me, those are the two easiest options.

I think for people working, it would be better to have it in the afternoon so that they can have most of their work day afterwards. And not just people that are on board now, but in order to attract younger members to the board.

And I think the other consideration, if I could, is, you know, the applicants, the homeowners, whoever that's coming in, you know, oftentimes they have to take off work from their professional lives to come and meet with the board. So.

But judging from past meetings, it would probably make sense to have it, with the target ending at 5, probably to have it starting no later than 3.30.

I think that's probably... And most of the time, I think, at least 80% of the time, that's going to work. We'll be out of here by 5 at the latest. Although it does depend on what our annual plan is going to be if we're going to be spending time with that annual plan then we may need maybe we do need to go with three o'clock so that we haven't you know so we allow ourselves a block of time what are your thoughts with the annual plan do you think that's something that's just going to be a report back or do you think it's something where we're going to we're the group actually is going to be spending time discussing and so forth.

My preference is that it's a board decision or a group decision and that we have discussion on those kinds of things and that your staff representative is not the one dictating to you all the time what you're going to do because I don't think that's entirely my role. So based on That I would say that I think our best recommendation would be to keep Mondays and go 3 p.m. So that it gives us that time to have at least a full two hours. And I agree with you that almost on 80 or 90% of the time, two hours is always going to be more than enough for us to get through our agenda, And if it's not, I was having a discussion with Chip before this started that we could also just choose at five o'clock, we're talking about the word plan to say, hey, we've hit the end and we'll continue this discussion on to our next meeting. And it looks like Matt has a question. So Matt, go ahead.

Yes, thank you. Sorry I'm late. Couldn't find the link to get on this one. I guess you're talking about moving this this meeting earlier. I would not be able to attend in person ever and maybe probably 50% of the time would I be able to get there or attend virtually at 3 PM.

So please take that into consideration.

What works for you, Matt?

The current situation.

Oh, the current, okay.

Has anybody thought about early in the morning?

That would be the same problem for them. They don't want to come in early outside of the normal time for the day.

True. We do have, there is one board in the city that I'm aware of that meets as early as 7.30, I think. Park's board meets early. I was on the top support committee a long time ago when we met in the morning. But I would, I think we wouldn't really want our meetings to start any earlier than 8.30 or so, just because we have technology set up in the room.

Just to pick up on something Judy said, though, and it's only my third meeting, so I don't know. If there are people from the community coming in, how often does that happen? Because I think you're right that people would be very hard to come in if they had to make a case for something in the board. But again, I just don't know how often community members are coming into the commission.

There's usually somebody here every meeting from the community. Okay. somebody if there's something on the agenda if there's something quasi-judicial decision otherwise why don't we try 3 30 and if we find that that's a problem then uh we can go to three o'clock or just revisit the whole thing okay and would starting time be next meeting or

Yeah, I think so.

Yeah, so I'm hearing I'm hearing you're changing it fully aware that I probably won't be able to make most of the meetings.

Or you may not be able to make. Most are part of a meeting. Right, what time? What time can you? What time do you leave 430?

my my schedule varies greatly and meeting meetings here very greatly so i i cannot uh i get out at four or 4 30 and then i'm at use office so it's a 20 some minute wish traffic probably 25 minutes to get there if i'm driving yeah so if we start at 3 30 and we get through our our regular um

old business, by the time we get to the new business, you can at least call in, right?

Sure.

Okay. Yeah, because half an hour is normally just housekeeping stuff anyway. Raise of hands for 3.30. Yeah, let's just see.

With that, we're going to try and do 3.30 for Historic Preservation Board meetings. We'll see how that works. All right, I do have more items for the board. So let's see, I am going to start with the Historic Preservation Survey work. So as the The board knows the city has recently adopted and the board recently adopted the historic resources survey plan. Trying to get a discussion going on. Prioritizing the. Planning efforts or work products that we would like to do that. I think it's been having a little trouble because we have more sporadic attendance. I think it's something that we need really all of our voting board members to be here or on line for it to be. I think a productive discussion, but I really would like us to continue to do that so you will see that as an agenda item that comes back for that discussion. The next item is. that in the preservation plan. Also, it's drawn interest from the Historic Neighborhood Partnership and Historic Preservation Wines. They would like the city to work on updates to our Historic Preservation Ordinance. There's kind of two pieces to this. or maybe there's three pieces to this, and this is very general. The first would be to have a more clearly defined process for designating individual properties as a historic landmark. The second would be to also evaluate procedures for establishing a landmark and also a historic preservation overlay. And the third would be just reanalyze our existing ordinance and re adopt a brand new historic land landmark or historic preservation ordinance for the city for the city. No, I think. From your staff's point of view, this is a thing that we should pursue. We've been given direction from our planning director for us to have the ability to work on this. So what will be occurring in the next couple of weeks or a week and a half is we would develop a scope of work that would include a scope of work for just adding landmarking to our existing ordinance and or a scope of work that would include rewriting an entire rewrite of the historic preservation ordinance that would include the ability to both landmark individual properties and also create historic districts or historic places very much like we would with our historic preservation overlay right now. In both of those efforts, we would look at the review process and procedures for establishing a landmark within the city of Colorado Springs. As part of doing this, I would like to be able to bring back to the board that scope of work and those RFPs that would kind of outline in specific details, what exactly does all of this mean? what do you think it's going to cost us and where do you think we're going to get the money to do this? And if we did this, we most likely would hire out for a good deal of that work. So I can take any questions on that or I can just move on to my next item.

So I have a question. Are you saying that you would be recommending hiring an outside firm to take a look at our existing ordinance according to these particular items and then make recommendations to us for changes?

Yeah. Thank you. So there's that that's going on. And I will add that we do have good support on this from, again, Storrs Preservation and Storrs Neighborhood Partnership. and Historic Preservation Alliance. There's been a group of folks there, Cheryl included, that have done a lot of background work and provided the city with that information to help in this effort.

Can we do the money to hire somebody to help us with this?

We will be working on that. We have some money.

So we may start with some this year and add some more next year.

So we have some hope. Yep. The third item is that we will be bringing to the board a kind of draft mock up of the historic preservation website also, which would be kind of a complete rework of what we've got going that takes into account lots of ideas, resources, information, particularly that Judy and Sarah had provided along a long time ago, but we will. We do have that in the works and I'd like to also be bringing that back to the board. So with all of that said. I was kind of hoping for October, but this is a lot and we don't have any well called design review items, so we have no report of acceptabilities that are going to come to the board for October. So I think the Board should plan on us not having an October meeting, but having a November meeting that will most likely have one item that's a report of acceptability, and then these topics for discussion. And I think with that, that concludes communications from staff. Do you want to talk about chair? Oh, yeah. And also, yes, I did want to talk about chair. So also at our November meeting, like for us to decide upon a new chair and vice chair for the Historic Preservation Board. I think as at least Pat and Judy really know that Christine has been the chair for the last three years. I think running or four. And so she would like to step down, give somebody else that opportunity. So one of our other actions for November will be to appoint a new chair and vice chair for the historic preservation. Then that concludes.

And I don't know if maybe you guys already talked about this before I walked in, but Sarah will be taking over legal direct.

My name is Sarah Bruin. I'm a senior attorney with the corporate division, and I am going to be taking over from Young as a legal advisor to this board. Oh, great.

Thank you. That was the other thing. You know Sarah, right? Sarah, this whole time. That's okay.

I figured when there was a moment, I would introduce myself. I wasn't like, who's this strange person sitting at the table?

I appreciate that a lot. I like if you just bump in and say who you are. That's fine with me. All right.

That concludes item three for approval of the minutes. We should see if the board has any communications they would like. Okay, board. Any communications from the board? Okay, so now we can move on. Now we'll go to 4A, HPV 2321, minutes for May 5th. I don't think it's in that window, so I don't think I can vote. Did I start in May? I think I said yes. No, really? I came in May.

I came in May.

The minutes should say who was attending, right?

Okay. Typically, unless there are separate rules for this particular board, it just requires, you know, in order to vote on the minutes, you don't actually have to be present at that meeting. You just have to have a quorum at this meeting to vote on the minutes, if that makes sense. Because the expectation is that you've all reviewed the minutes. And if you had questions or there were any inconsistencies or something that you didn't understand that you would have asked those questions, or requested that they be amended. So unless there are separate rules for this board, I don't think that there are. But that's how the general rules are typically applied. I'm already liking Sarah.

Young was very like, maybe we should just postpone it until next time.

Your advice is the same that we've given planning commission? Correct. It's the same across the boards and commissions, unless a board or commission has a separate set of rules and they adopt them differently. And I don't believe this one does. So just want to throw that out there. You're all eligible to vote on the minutes to get those approved.

Great. I move we accept the May 5th minutes.

Is there a second? A second.

All right. So it is now we vote, right? It's moved and seconded that we accept the minutes for May 5th, 2026. Then I pass it over to Solange. Solange, would you take the... Thank you.

Board Member Musick. Aye. Board Member Beerbaum. Aye. Acting Chair McAnulty. Aye. Board Member Wendt.

Aye.

Board Member Fitzsimmons.

Aye.

Thank you. We have five members in favor.

Okay. And they're accepted. All right. For BHPB 2324 minutes for August 3rd, 2026. Zero. Motion for accepting these. Draw motion. Okay. You have a second. Sorry. You have a second. Second, OK, alright, it has been moved and seconded to accept the minutes for August 3rd, 2026. John went moved.

That was the second guy.

I think I was the second on that. So board member music or remember beer bomb. I have to ensure my County.

Aye.

Board Member Wendt.

Aye.

Board Member Fitzsimmons.

Aye.

Thank you. The motion passes with five members in favor.

Okay. And that concludes item four. Item five, consent. All right. Items on the consent calendar will be acted upon as a whole without further public comments 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. the lines, would you please read the item into the record?

Item 5A, HIST-26-0007, report of acceptability to re-roof the residence with a barrel-style stone-coated steel tile roof located at 610 Park Terrace.

Is there any commissioner who would like to pull an item from the consent calendar?

Is there any city staff member who would like to pull an item?

No. Is there any citizen in the audience wishing to pull an item from the consent calendar? Is there anyone on the phone wishing to pull an item from consent?

So you can ask for a motion. Oh, I see. All right.

Motion to accept by HIST 26-0007. Okay. Second?

Second. Okay.

It is moved and seconded. We now do a roll call vote to approve the consent calendar. Did you get the two? Yes. Okay.

Board Member Musick? Aye. Board Member Vierbaum?

Aye.

Acting Chair McKenzie? Aye. Board Member Wendt?

Aye.

Or member Fitzsimmons?

Aye.

Thank you. The motion passes with five members in favor.

So just so you know, Paul Loomis back here in the audience is the owner of 610 Park Terrace. It is the first report of acceptability in the Parkside historic district. And so now Paul will have a kind of clay tile roof like all the rest of his neighbors on the Park Terrace Street.

I just want to say I'm so happy to see that proposal. Before I even read the staff report, I just saw the picture of the house and I thought this needs apparel tile. Thank you. So it was originally cedar shingle.

I had that removed a long time ago. It's got asphalt. There were no 4x8 sheets of plywood, so I had to do that years ago. But now it's past its lifetime. I couldn't put clay on because I'd have to re-engineer the roof trusses. They're not built for it. So I can't do the heavy clay. But this stone-coated steel, I mean, you can see them around downtown. That was my concern when I was looking at it.

It was the weight on my sword, but I think

And it should last 30 years and it looks great. And all my neighbors, we all, nobody commented because we all got together in my yard with all the different colors and styles and different companies and they all approved. So thank you all. So I can leave and then I can coordinate with the roofing contractor. They pull up regular permit. Is that how it works?

I'm going to send you an approval letter.

Okay.

And if you take that to RBD and pull their roof permit. Okay, awesome. They'll have to do it at the counter.

Okay. Thank you very much, everyone. I'm going to leave, let you get your work done. Thank you for coming in. And check out my house in a month or two.

Okay. Appeal. If anyone would like to make an appeal, here are the instructions for that. In accordance with the requirements of Section 7.5.415 of the City Unified Development Code, an affected party may appeal to the City Council any action of the Historic Preservation Board in relation to City Code where the action was averse to that person. Within 10 days from the final action on the item being appealed, which is Thursday, September 24, 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.

That concludes item five. Skip six.

No unfinished business. No unfinished business. And there's no new business. No presentations. And no presentations.

And no overtime. You can just adjourn.

If there's anything from anybody that I think we've done our work, it's adjourned.