Historic Preservation Board - Regular Meeting

Okay. Let's call this to order. We can let all the people in the overflow room come in.

Oh, boy.

Okay. As February 5, 06:00, we are convening the meeting of the Delray Beach Historical Preservation Board, and I would like the secretary to call the roll.

Carol Perez? Here. John Miller? Absent, Peter Dwyer? Here. Chris Kopezes? Here. Vlad Dimitrescu? Here. Ezra Creek? Here. Jim Chart? Here.

I think you've all seen the agenda. Are there any changes to the agenda from the board? Any changes from staff?

No, sir.

Alright. Okay. Peter, can you make a motion to approve?

Yes. I'd like to make a motion to approve the agenda as published.

Second.

Can we all just say aye rather than call the names?

Do we have to do roll?

I think for these, you could go ahead and do all in favor. If it's easier for you, though, Diane, that that they call it, but the the commission does now do all in favor. So I think you guys could too if you'd like to.

Okay. All in favor?

Aye. Aye. Opposed?

You okay. Alright.

Minutes.

We have no minutes to approve. So we'll skip over that. And now we could swear in the public.

Please raise your right hand by the authority vested in the notary of the state of Florida. Do you swear affirm the testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

So any comments from the public? Now is the time to speak. Obviously, you can speak on the items on the agenda, but if there's anything other than the agenda that someone in the public wants to speak about, I welcome them to come up.

I'd like to enter some paperwork or some pictures here.

Can can you state your your name and address for the record? Sure.

My name is Charlie Simmons, and my address is 1616 North Swinton Avenue.

Then you could go ahead with your comment.

And I'd like to enter into the record just some pictures here that I wanted to have you see or distribute if that was possible.

This is on non agenda items. Right? Right.

I I have just a few few minutes. I just wanna present a situation that's going on.

Okay. What's the sets do

you have?

There's seven there, I believe. Seven or eight.

So if there's one left.

Okay. Yes. Go

ahead. So I'm grateful for this opportunity to present tonight. My wife Kim and I moved to Delray Beach four years ago from Fairfield, Connecticut, which, like Delray Beach, is known for its its historic charm. And we chose our home at 1616 North Swinton Avenue because of its historic history and its character values values that that are are very important to us. In Fairfield, we live also in a a historic home, a a '19 an 1880 home that we spent thirty years restoring to its original charm.

I also served nine consecutive two year terms on the facilities board at our church in Fairfield Center, which has a sanctuary that was built in the eighteen eighties also. And over those years, I did many projects with improvements and restoration of the buildings on the campus there. So I have a deep appreciation for historic architecture, including the buildings here in Delray Beach. In fact, the building one of our original meet meeting houses at the church in Fairfield, Connecticut was burned by the British in 1779 when they invaded in in July 19 in 1779. So we were told that the house that we bought here at 1616 North Swin Avenue was designed by the renowned local architect Samuel Ogren.

It feature features four original pillars that are made of concrete and stucco, which match the style and the materials of the house, and they create a very distinctive look from the street that you might see in those photos there. Unfortunately, phase two of the North Swinton Avenue roadway underground improvement utility and underground improvement project, it initially called for the removal of those pillars as well as a large mature fig tree in front of our house to make way for a new sidewalk that was planned. We strongly objected to this plan, and after our appeal, we were informed by the city that they've decided against removing both the tree and the pillars. Instead, the sidewalk is gonna be redesigned to accommodate both. So now here's the key.

While we haven't yet seen that redesign, we hope the sidewalk path will be offset slightly to preserve the pillars and minimize the risk to the health of the tree. This adjustment would allow for pedestrian and bicycle traffic while maintaining the historic character of property and the streetscape. Preserving these pillars and the fig tree would also help maintain a small piece of the city's history and the character of this north gateway into Delray Beach. At this time, I would like to publicly thank the city manager, the city attorney, and their staff for recognizing and addressing the issue. While we believe that our particular issue is resolved, I wanted to ensure that you folks here at the Historic Preservation Board are aware of this situation, and we all continue to be diligent about preserving the neighborhood's, historic integrity and character.

If any issues remain unresolved, we sincerely hope that as this HPB here, you will support our efforts to maintain the historic nature of the property and the historic corridor on North Swinton. And I wanna thank you for your service to our community.

Well, I wanna thank you for bringing this to our attention. Can we just discuss this a little bit right now or do we wanna leave it until the end of the meeting?

It's up to the board. You're welcome to if it's something you wanna address.

Well, I

know I

have a couple of questions that I'd like to ask. I don't know about anybody else. First of all, I'm very I'm very familiar with this, and I've I've suffered some slings and arrows in trying to prevent the massacre of some of those trees along there. It looks like there's no sidewalk now, and there's no sidewalk on either side of you.

There's a sidewalk across the street.

I understand that.

Oh, but there is a sidewalk to the south and no sidewalk to the north on our side, on the on the West Side.

Okay. But on that block, are there any sidewalks? Mhmm.

Yes. Yes. At sixteen o four, my neighbor has a sidewalk, a five foot wide sidewalk. I know I know

the LDRs are such that we are supposed to put in sidewalks, but this is such a lovely area and lovely walk. I would hate to see it. Well, I'm all I'm all sure. By cement.

Well, there's gonna be

a five foot

sidewalk, and I'm all for it, you know, improving the pathway so that it's looks good and it's passersby can use it. But the plan was to go straight through originally to remove the tree and the pillars, but we've sort of, you know, objected to that. And now we have a potential solution.

Were you were you told it was gonna be five feet

or eight Five feet wide.

Is aren't the LDR's eight feet?

Five.

They are? Okay. Any any comments, Michelle? Well, I'm

just so glad to meet you. I know we emailed about a year ago. And while just a quick note to the board, the house is not currently under the board's purview as it actually designated historic property or contributing site in Historic District. We did speak with previous owners right before you bought last year. And think I offered in the email too to talk with you about the benefits of designation.

I've toured the house when it was for sale, it's gorgeous. We'd love to talk to you more about potential benefits should you ever improve the property further or add on. The tax benefits are pretty valuable. But our research brought us to the lot to the north, which originally was the site of FJ Schrader's home. And I have some of that research if you're interested in it because your house is included in that plan.

And FJ Schrader, for who don't know, he was involved Well Sam Augren is credited with being the city's first registered architect. F. J. Schrader was here right at the same time and designed First Presbyterian Church, the building in the back on Bronson as well as other things in the community. So his involvement that far north at that time when most of the development that was right around the core here on Atlantic and Swinton is pretty special.

So thank you for coming tonight. I'm glad to hear that a resolution has been reached or some type of solution. And final point is Swinton serves as the bus route for Palm Tran. So I think it's been part of, and I'm not the expert and I'm not public works or utilities, but my understanding is creating a connected pedestrian network of sidewalks through the area on both sides of the street would provide a safe route for pedestrians to access that bus and kids are going to and from school, things like that. So just thank you Mr. Simmons for coming tonight.

Thank you, thank you all.

I would have one other question. Again, in experience I've had, the engineers from FDOT are the ones who design the the rework of the street and the sidewalks. And this was a big political issue five years ago when they tried to put in a sidewalk. So

Bike lanes?

Both. Yeah. Yeah. The bike lane was in the street, but it was a bike lane. So I'm just concerned that given the influence that FDOT has on city construction and public works that our presenter here does get what he wants rather than what has been proposed.

I think he first, I'm not 100% sure. Again, I'm not public works. That would be the director, Missy Barletto. She's very well versed on this project. They've had many meetings over the years with the community and had opportunity for the public to come out. To be fair, I don't Mr. Simmons was an owner yet. But she would be the expert to consult on this. I don't know if it's FDOT. I think it's a county right of way. I don't know if it was the county's engineering team or the city's that designed. I don't know those details.

It is county but it was state engineers that designed it.

Mr. Simmons I think worked, congratulations, very effectively to make it through the chain of command and talk with the right people. So I think he's in communication with all the right folks. And if, like he said, something comes up, it can be addressed. And I'm always well, I don't technically, your property isn't covered by my team. We're obviously always here to help refer you to the right the right team to talk to.

So Just just on that that note. By the way, you you know that they we're doing the infrastructure there a few blocks north. Yes. Huge excavation. Huge

Well, it goes down in in phases, and it

Yeah. So I'm I'm afraid it's gonna get here too, so I don't know what's

gonna happen.

Yeah. It is. There there there's excavation that's gonna begin happening, and this is why we had to act urgently with all new drainage systems, catch basins Yeah. Huge. Lighting, signs, and whatnot. Roundabout. There's a roundabout at twenty second for sure. Yeah.

I don't know how that's gonna

And we hope it will be paved properly.

Repaved. Repaved. Yeah. You know, I I do have something to to say related to this. The house that north of the this property, that was a wonderful property, right, got demolished. I guess that's how life goes. I'd like to see if there's possibility from now on that every time this happens, the developer will scan the the building, not just take drawings and all that. We do that in the office all the time. We scan existing building inside and outside. At least it's a one of our better record of what was there. That property was amazing. You know? And I I live very close by, and it pains me every time I

do this. As do I. I live close by too. We photographed what we could. We encouraged the property owner to try to relocate, make it available to somebody to move it. There wasn't interest in that from the developer's perspective. I think they did communicate with some people but I don't think that it came together. But that is standard practice with historic properties that if we get to a point where something's demolished that we document the building. I'll bring that back to my director.

It's a newer technology and it's becoming much more

See, we are at least notified typically of buildings that are going to be demolished but we have no purview over them. But I agree, photographing buildings before they're gone is great for our records and our history. Thank you for that.

Mr. Chair, I just wanna thank you for coming in for not just complaining about it but going through the system to try to make your case and in your case being successful. I would suggest that you remain diligent and to keep us informed of of the progress.

Yes. I certainly will. There was one journalist who wrote about what's going on in our federal government now with really smart people who are trying to do the right thing that make make bad decisions. He said it was like curing acne with decapitation. And and that was what I felt was going on here. I'm like, wow. You you say that tree is scheduled for removal. That's like unimpossible. If you see that picture there, it's

like Yeah.

Really? And then they have the four bullet, you know Pillars. Mission pillars of the mission the mission statement on the website is preserve the trees, know, and character of the neighborhood. We're definitely hopeful that we'll be able to, and we will be diligent for sure and report back.

Thank you.

You for hearing. And

thank you for what you do.

Thank you. Chair, can we

make sure that we're talking into the mics? Because I'm

not hearing you here. I'm sorry.

That's okay.

Speak up.

Yeah. I have to speak up.

Okay. You can pull your mic down a little. I'm not sure it's on.

Yeah. Seems like it's on. The light is on.

Oh, it is? Okay. Any other comments from the audience? No? Okay. Let's move on then. Any presentations? No. Alright. I guess that means we go to quasi judicial.

Hold on a sec. This hearing shall be conducted in accordance with the city of Delray Beach quasi judicial rules. The applicant and the city shall be permitted to present their cases. The public shall be allowed to speak for three minutes each or a maximum of six minutes if the person represents an organization or a group of people who are present but agree not to speak. The board members may be allowed to cross examine a witness.

The city or the applicant will be allowed to offer rebuttal testimony. The decision to approve or deny an application or appeal may not legally be made upon personal views as to whether a project is a good project or not, nor may a decision be based on the numbers of citizens who support or oppose a particular project. The law requires that all decisions must be made on the basis of whether the project meets the requirements of law, the comprehensive plan, and the land development regulations. So do we need to talk about ex parte at this point?

Yeah. If you just have staff enter the file into the record and then then Okay. Ex parte communications.

So Michelle Hoytland, principal planner for the record. And I'd like to enter file number 2025026 into the record for 300 Southeast 7th Avenue. The applicant is here and miss Kubin will present first if you wanna do ex parte now.

Okay. Starting on my right.

I've I've driven past the property, but I've had no communications.

No. No.

None. None. None. Okay. We're bringing up your presentation. If you need help, let me know. But you have a clicker, I think, and the keyboard to advance your your drawings.

Okay. Well as miss Hugo knows I'm not very good with technology but we'll muddle through I'm sure. Okay. Good evening. My name is Bob Cuban. My wife's name is Lisa. We live in 300 Southeast 7th Avenue. It's our primary residence. We've had the home for twenty two years. We have been working on refurbishing the home to its original masonry vernacular is the type of building it is from which I understand is basically is just common concrete.

Again we've been there for ten years working on it and we decided a few years ago to expand it and would work with Michelle Wynnum. The house was originally owned by Viola Blank Harrison and there's the Blank Nichols subdivision which is in the Marina District, is where the house is located. So the history that I know about the house, if you're not familiar with it, is that George Blank, the original owner of that area, the property in that area, they had a nursery, decorative tree nursery, decorative plant nursery there. Actually George, And I I think, actually built the original yellow house, the old the the front porch. Yeah.

The corner porch. Yeah. It's and that was his original house. Yeah. And his son, I believe it was John, and he had three daughters. And he when they were selling off the property, apparently, he the father the son of the of George built his three daughters three homes. And we occupy Viola Blank Harrison's home. And so we are the second owners of the home actually, the second family to live in the house. So that is the that is the background history of it. There are many I I I really enjoyed hearing the the presentation before the idea of the keeping the trees and and the property original and and keeping as much of the foliage up, and we've really strived to do that.

So the people in our neighborhood call our house the Bromeliad House because there's hundreds of bromeliads that have been propagating there. 70 foot palm trees. I think we have 11 palm trees, sables and coconut palms, royal ponciana, what somebody referred to as a legacy bougainvillea. So this bougainvillea has been there on a trellis for, I have no idea how long. I call it the bleeding tree. But anyway, we can go through. We did add addition to the house, the original house. The house is on a double lot. It's a 100 by 140 foot lot. The addition is on the back of the house.

So some of the things in working with Michelle Hoyland and and Michelle Hewitt and and Caterina Pompano Water was the goal of keeping the house as as congruent with what was originally there as possible and allow us to put the structure up. It was a joy working with Michelle and her team, bringing through it. I learned quite a bit. This is my first historic building. So I had a little bit to learn and the ladies here were amazing in helping.

So moving on, some of the things that our goal with developing the property was again to keep it all congruent with the original as far as roof lines. So you'll see that the original roof line actually blends directly into the addition roof line, which is above the garage doors. So it looks like, my perspective look from the street, looks like it was originally there. The addition is a two and a half car garage addition underneath with a two bedroom or one and a half bedroom actually apartment upstairs with a small, slight kitchenette and a balcony off the back and one and a half baths. So through the design and through working through it all, it came out wonderfully.

We're very happy with how it came out. Is there anything else I can add

to that? Well, the request is ad valorem tax exemption.

Yes. Yes. That's what we're here to do. We finished, got through the process and the CO and all that kind stuff. And our goal here now is to get the ad valorem tax exemption, which was an incentive. And Michelle mentioned that earlier for us to do the construction and invest our hard earned money into the process, as well as maintaining the historic integrity of the building. And again, we're very pleased with how that worked out. You can see that there is an entrance from the back that goes up the stairs around the back of the property so that there is not a staircase or any kind of entryway that is in the front facade of the house or the side facade of the house. It is a corner lot, it borders on 7th Avenue and 3rd Street. So it can be seen from two sides.

So it's very important that we keep everything looking right from not only the front side of the house, but also the north side of the house. One of the other goals in the development and the design of the property was that the second story cannot be seen from the streets, 7th Avenue. So as you've passed in front of our house, from the street side, six feet up, your eye to eye line cannot see the property in the back. So it still maintains the original integrity of the front facade of the house, which was something that we and with Michelle's help said, this is something that's important to maintain. The windows are all congruent with how the other parts of the house are.

We have a deck on the back, on the above the old carport, which is where the addition connected to. That carport has been turned into a breezeway between the two spaces. And you can see that we've kept the yard as much as we possibly can original to what was there. The interior of the house was all done by myself that we their construction company did what they call a vanilla shell, and I went in and finished off and did all the trim work inside the house, all the painting doors, all that kind of stuff, casings. And we call the house we've nicknamed it Casavela, which is sale house.

So my wife and I sale catamarans off the beach around the north end, which is a fantastic thing. So we try to keep that theme into the house, that into the addition. Used a lot of butcher block wood, a lot of natural materials, kept everything as clean and and wholesome and not over the top as possible. So it's a nice little comfortable living space up there. Is there anything else I can add, Michelle? You think? You think I got it all? Again, this is my first time so I'm trying to No,

it's excellent.

Okay, very good. Can I take any questions from anybody?

At the end.

At the end? Yes. Okay. Very good and thank you very much.

It's a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Kubin.

Okay, so the item before us here again is an ad valorem tax exemption for 300 Southeast 7th Avenue. This is on the West side of 7th Avenue on the South side of 3rd Street, the Southwest corner of the Marina District. Very south edge of the Marina Historic District. The home, like the owner said, is on multiple lots. It was built in the 1950s, 1957.

And the Marina Historic District has a provenance known for the association with the Blank Family Nurseries. The Blank Family had palm trees and ornamentals that they grew in their nursery along coastal here all through the neighborhood which is why today we have such a lovely tree canopy that remains in the neighborhood thanks to the Blank family. So the applicant came through for a COA in 2020. The board reviewed the initial COA and continued that COA with some concerns. But the addition in the rear is about 2,100, almost 2,200 square feet.

Garage on the 1st Floor and what technically we refer to in house as a guest unit or a guest cottage on the 2nd Floor of that garage connected to the rear of the building. They also had a waiver for secondary and subordinate associated with that COA approval. Then February 2021, they came back with some revisions to their plan, addressed board comments and the board approved the project. The state of Florida in the Florida statutes affords the tax exemption to historic properties. We've had a number of these through our board, but for our new board members, this is an incentive that we detail outline for our property owners when they're coming through and particularly it's applicable for additions.

So if someone's coming through for maintenance updates, roof repair, roof replacement, window replacement, painting, electrical change out, plumbing, none of those things technically qualify. You have to be adding square square footage to your building. Essentially what happens when you add square footage with the county tax collector is your taxes go up. So they reassess based on your building permit valuation and the value of your project. So the tax exemption allows the owner an opportunity to come before the board, ask for the application, which he's doing now, after he receives a certificate of occupancy.

In this case, he got it in May. And they can then take this on and not pay an increase in taxes for this property for ten years. So let's just say their taxes were 5,000 a year and as a result of their addition, they went up to 8,000 a year. They're not paying that 3,000 a year after the approval occurs for ten years. The process is to come through the board.

HPB makes a recommendation to the city commission. That will be the action you take tonight. Once that's complete, the request moves on to Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners. The applicant is squeaking right in through the deadline, which is March, the first week of March. So we're hopeful that it can get up to the county and qualify for the next upcoming tax year.

But these items that are outlined in the Florida statutes were adopted in our LDRs and we have them outlined. They're kind of lengthy in the staff report. But the project complies with the requirements from an architectural standpoint and that they executed the plan as it was approved. The board still has to take action at this point and make a decision as to whether or not the qualifying improvements make sense and that the tax exemption is appropriate along with your recommendation that occurs after you deliberate. So a few pictures.

I like to kind of give the info, but if we now can take a look at some of the fun pictures of the property. This is the front. You can see very typical of the fifties. You had these corner windows set up with the center entrance on the front of the house in the irregular floor plan, so it's not symmetrical. There were some decorative coins that you can see in the very far left of the screen, and the applicant proposed removing those from the building.

So he was really focused on going through and trying to bring the building back to a more original appearance. One of the things I think is really important in the view is this little piece of the building in the rear here, which actually faces the side Street, you can see it kinda had a tile facade on it. Their proposal removed that, which is really nice. You can see those two windows up here. Right there.

That is the point of what we're looking at here in this picture. So it's really a great transformation to the building. The addition here was connected. There was a code requirement that there be interior connection that occur in order for the building to qualify with a second story. Because right now a detached structure cannot be taller than your principal structure.

So this is why the building was attached. And it was a two story on the rear. So that massing is really pushed to the back of the property. This is another look at it. So if you're standing in the opposite corner or the southwest corner of the property looking northeast, this is the back and still the rear of the building.

And this is overlooking their interior courtyard. Here we have the plans. If you for some reason wanted more detail and wanted to look at them, we include the plans. These have to be forwarded up to Palm Beach County as well with the overall application. But here backing up, you can see the red is where the addition came through and pieces of it here wrapping around with a covered walkway area so that you can come from the garage to the inside of the house.

Black line drawings always show things looking more sharp than they are, but the owner is right when you're standing at the curb, the perspective is so much different. You really don't see that building in the back. These are the original building permit plans that we were fortunate to have on record. So yeah, I mean it's really great to see the investment in the city and in the community with this renovation that the applicant has completed. And the request is now before you for your review and decision. Thank you.

Alright, Any comments from the public? That looks like a no. All right. Any rebuttal by the applicant to staff on their presentation?

No. Everything with the staff has been spectacular. Oh.

Okay. Wonderful.

We should have him come back more often.

Yeah. I could I could use here that more often.

Any rebuttal of the applicant? No. Okay. So let's turn to the board. Carol, do you have any comments?

No. I don't.

I saw Vlad shake his head. He doesn't.

No, it's great. I

just wanna say I went over to the property today and confirmed, I can confirm that you don't see the second story, that it is not visible. And I do have a question for you. I mean, assuming we voted for this and then it gets referred to the Board of County Commissioners, on what basis could they deny this? I mean what would be the basis for any kind of denial of the application?

So if you look through your staff report, there are the specific requirements on what the deliberations And

I have read it, yeah.

The county utilizes very much the same, almost verbatim, the same same information when they come through their decision making. So it's imperative that a project's executed to the plan as it was approved. We did look at the property. It has been CO'd and it did get executed correctly. More high level kind of answer to that question would be if somebody didn't execute the plan as it was approved by the board.

But as when I read all the documents, it appeared that did everything. I just didn't know if they have some leeway or whatever to

Not usually. The only time I've seen something kind of in the realm of what you're talking about is tax exemptions can be revoked if an addition's removed. So if that back addition, say he sells in five years and a new owner comes in, you'll remember this happened with the Paul Rudolph Soule C. Biggs house. The owner came in, removed a later addition to reimagine the site and come up with a new addition.

It was still under tax exemption at the time. So they had to go through a revocation and payback process with the county and the city because the tax exemption is not just county taxes, it's city as well. So I've seen that with revocation. In some instances where a building was renovated and it's no longer a contributor because the changes were inappropriate, that can happen. We don't see it often. In fact the Sul C. Biggs example that I shared with the county I think was one of their first times in recent history that they had seen something like that.

Thank you. Sure. You say revocation, means clawing back the money? Yep.

Affidavits

From to pay day one?

Yep. And that is in the covenant. So when this moves on to city commission, there's documentation that we include that ties the owner into that covenant that says they commit to maintaining the building as it was approved for ten years. They can come through and renovate and do something else and then they maybe start a new tax exemption and revise it. But they have to maintain that structure for a ten year period of time in its form.

Even if they sell it.

Yeah and the, oh great point, thank you. When a property is sold, the tax exemption transfers with the property to new Thank

you. Peter? Yeah.

Robert, great project. We're very pleased to see that you had a great experience with staff and I'm I'm the beneficiary of exemption as well. I live in historic Delaeda Park. So I'm familiar with the process and I wish more people would take advantage of it. But I really support this. Looks great.

Chris? Yeah. I support it as

well. Okay. I do as well. I hope that he can also do the blank house which is at some risk right now.

Call me

in. Okay.

Call the roll.

Make a motion to recommend approval to the City Commission of the Historic Property ad valorem tax exemption application 2025Dash107 for improvements to the property at 300 Hundred South East 7th Avenue Marina Historic District by finding that the request and approval thereof is consistent with the comprehensive plan and meets the criteria set forth in the land development regulations.

I second. Now can we call the roll?

Carol Perez? Yes. John Miller Zamson? Peter Dwyer? Yes. Chris Kopezes? Yes. Vlad Dumitrescu? Yes. Ezra Creek? Yes. Jim Chart?

Yes. Very nice work.

Thank you.

Alright, moving along. To B, certificate appropriateness and amendment to the master sign program.

I remember this

one. Yeah. Three times the charm.

Michelle Hewitt, Planner. And I'm reading into the record file number 2025Dash026 for 10SoutheastFirstAvenue, certificate of appropriateness, and amendment to the master sign program.

Any ex parte?

No. None.

None. I

went to see the

Okay.

Building. Carol? No.

No. That's right. Okay. Shall we have the Hi. Good to see you again.

Yeah. Nice to see you guys. Alright. My name is Jennifer Pedrajita on behalf of ten Southeast First Avenue, Delray Orthodontics. We did a revision the since the last time that I was here. We made some changes. Am I pressing the correct button? Yes. Okay. So I told you guys about Doctor. Janet. Here's the timeline. I'm just gonna skip to the revision so I can save you guys some time. This is what it looks like right now. We spoke to I would like to call you guys the Michelle's because, you know, same name.

So we revised it, and that is what it looks like right now. We're, complying with all the changes required, which is taking it down. Once the electrical and the black backing that you see right there is removed, we can bring it down a little bit more so it's aligned, with the area. You so if we take the black backing there, we can drop it down a little bit more and mount the letters individually instead of having that whole black piece in the back. So that's the night view.

Okay. So this is what the revision will look Additionally, removing the back piece will reduce the square footage of the sign. Yeah. That's pretty much it. That is what it's gonna look like now. Kinda matches the building, the colors, a little bit bit less in your face with the without the black. So, yeah, hopefully, this time, we can get this approved.

Alright. To staff.

Okay. So here we have the subject property outlined in red. Just a quick brief history or just general statement about the property. Again, it's within the Old School Square Historic Arts District and within the Old School Square Historic District. It's a contributing building that was constructed in 1920 as its used gray masonry vernacular style commercial building.

And the building is currently currently contains a mix of retail office and restaurant uses. So previously at the December 4 HBB meeting, the request for an after the fact sign installation came up for the board and was continued with concerns regarding the land development regulations and the existing master sign program. And staff was also asked to provide some information about the signage on the building. So briefly, in February 2019, a building permit was submitted for Haagen Dazs signage. The submittal was administratively approved as the proposal was deemed consistent with the master sign program for the building, which you can see here.

On November 2539, two wall signs for Andre Dupree were administratively approved via the building permit process, also deemed consistent with the master sign program. And these were non illuminated red and black wall signs. And they were located on the north and east sides of the building. It is noted that processing the review of signage that is compliant with an approved master sign program is typically reviewed in association with the building permit. This ensures streamlining inefficiency.

So here is the building prior to any signage installation along Southeast 1st Avenue. This is the rendering of the signage that is currently installed on the structure. And then this is in Reality in the Field, where you can see, I mean, we've gone over this, but the size and the appearance of the signage. So here on the screen, the current proposal includes modifications to the design of the sign. It includes an overall square footage reduction of 13.5 square feet, where the currently installed signage is at 49.22 square feet and the proposed is 35.6 square feet.

It also includes removal of the black backplate and removal of the electrical component for the internally lit letters. The same acrylic and vinyl material will continue to be utilized. However, the color palette has been modified to only include two shades of blue that you can see on the screen here. Here is the current configuration dimensions and lighting element that is currently installed on the structure. And here is the proposed.

You can see the differences with the black backplate removed and those letters just placed directly onto the building along with the removal of any electrical components. This is the current door signage that exists on the structure. Structure, and then the walls, the window signs, which will have to comply with the regulations, which based on calculations, they do. And then another item that the board wanted to see were the regulations as they exist in the code today, along with what the installed signage is currently meeting and what the new proposed that's before you today is at. So you can see that square footage reduction and the height from the ground.

Here we have a staff report excerpt regarding the Delaware Beach Historic Preservation Design Guidelines. The applicant, they've modified their request. Again, they've removed the eliminated the electrical component, and that eliminates the concern with the internally lit letters. And then to remedy the modern appearance of the signage, they have removed or proposed to remove the black backplate. And here, another staff report excerpt under the Secretary of Interior Standards section.

Again, the modern appearance has been significantly reduced with these proposed modifications. The square footage has been reduced with that, again, black backplate being removed. Standard five, consideration should be given to incorporate signage that emulates the materials and appropriate lighting styles on the structure. The revised proposal will continue to utilize the acrylic and vinyl materials. However, the electrical component that is currently installed is is to be removed.

This will allow for other indirect lighting options to be applied at a later date, which can be administratively reviewed at the staff level. Here we have the Secretary of Interior Standards on the screen here with the highlighted elements. The items highlighted or what were utilized to analyze the request. And the same here for Visual Compatibility Standards. And here, the Delaware Beach Historic Preservation Design Guidelines has specific has a specific section for signage in historic districts and for individually designated structures.

And that concludes my presentation.

Thank you. Any comments from the staff? I'm sorry, from the the attendees this evening. Seeing none, any rebuttal of the staff presentation? No. No? Any queries or rebuttals to the applicant?

None from staff.

Sorry, none from staff, okay. Vlad, I think you had the most comments on this. Do you wanna you're good? Yeah.

I just couple of quick questions. Is this this means that the master sign program will allow for future electrical signs or not? Does that can you

Will allow for future electrical signs?

Yes. I mean, is that is that a no no from now on? Or is the it's up to the next sign up

So it would be if someone else came forward with another sign that wasn't within the parameters of the master sign program, including this new signage that potentially could get approved today, they would have to come back before the board. And that would need to get reviewed and approved by the board. Because currently right now there's no It's unlimited. Right. It's, yeah. They would need to come back before the board.

However we did indicate that if the owner, could you go to the picture with the new sign on the building? That if the business owner, because they're taking off the electrical component from inside inside of the sign. So the ability to internally illuminate goes away. The design guidelines do state that a sign can be indirectly lit. So right below the sign is currently an outlet.

And I talked with the orthodontics owner as well as the building owner and have said that if they wanna come through with some type of gooseneck light that shines up onto it, that I think we can approve that administratively. If it went beyond anything that was pretty simple, we would refer it back to the board. So I think they have some flexibility if they wanna light the sign. But it's indirect.

It was just the fact that this is called a master signage plan. Yeah. And I didn't know if it's modified for

the rest of the

building and for the future.

So you're modifying the master sign program specifically to allow this sign in this location to exceed the sign requirements for size. But it fits in with the type of signage that was approved on the other businesses around the rest of the building. So if they had come in with this just like this and they were 30 square feet or less, we could have administratively approved this. I understand. But because it's over the 30 square feet and because it's been here twice already, it's before

the board. Ezra?

I I have one more question. Sure. Again, because it's a master sign program, I went there and to me, you know, this solution is not the best possible. It's kinda hard to see this from the side as much as big as it is. Were they allowed to put also a blade sign option if they choose?

So they could come through and propose a blade sign. The struggle with this building, and I just don't know it off the top of my head, is if the blade sign encroaches into the right of way, they have to get an agreement and a hold harmless agreement. I feel like the building is either right on the property line or very close to. So if that was something they were interested in doing, they could certainly come in. We could look at it with them.

It's possible that it would fall within the boundary of the property. But I think if my memory serves right, that it goes right up to the sidewalk and then it's right of way. And then you've agreements that have to go in place. There's minimum requirements about how high off the ground they go and how far out they project. I think these would all be city right of ways, so that would be a lot easier to do. If they were county or FDOT, they're much harder to get those approved.

I just want wasn't aware of that option.

Signs are pretty cool for historic properties.

Yeah. Exactly. And more much more visible and double sided. Yeah. So so, yeah, would that

be Good point.

Good solution. Alright. No. I I I like it as it is. I think it's much less of a and, they can install it, know, straight, not crooked.

I'll make sure of that,

Don. Alright.

Ezra? No. I just want to thank the applicant for their patience. Yeah. And I think that y'all have tried to work with everybody involved to try to resolve this in an amicable way. So thank you for doing that.

Just moving forward, one comment I have is I understand the public is watching, is having a hard time hearing us. So we gotta make sure we lean into our mics.

I promise I'll do it.

Thank you. That's me.

I won't ask you to repeat your comments. Thank you. Carol?

I just wanna say thank you for listening to all of our our comments. I think the sign as it stands now is a much better sign.

I agree.

Short and sweet. And I'll

just echo Carol's comments. Thank you for your patience. Looks good.

Okay. I would add your good humor as well. Somebody want to make a motion? Peter, do you

want to make

a motion? My screen is dark. I'm waiting for the battery to recharge and I don't have it committed to memory so

you could read it up there.

Approve the certificate of appropriateness and amendment to the master sign pro program 2025Dash026 for the property located at 10 Southeast 1st Avenue, Old School Square Historic District by finding that the request and approval thereof is consistent with the comprehensive plan and meets the criteria set forth in the land development regulations.

Second.

Call parole.

Carol Perez. Yes. Tom Miller's absent. Peter Dwyer. Yes. Chris Cabeziz. Yes. Vlad Dumitrescu. Yes. Ezra Craig? Yes. Jim Chart?

Yes. Thanks so much, Thank you. Is a building permit and let us know if we can help you with anything else. Thanks. Thank you. No legislative items. So we're on to reports and comments. Our next board meeting is March 5. Wednesday March 5. I do have some updates from the December meeting that the board asked two questions.

I'll start with the landscape memorandum that was sent on to the city manager's office on 12/05/2024. In the memorandum, there was the board had discussed a second time about potentially adding historic plant list information to the website. So our director added that as a numbered item. So that it's really direction that's coming from the city manager via the city commission via the city manager. But I do wanna note, if you go on to the city website, under our landscape code, there are several, maybe a dozen guides and plant list information there.

So we will start pointing single family residential property owners to that list if they need help. If it comes back from the commission to add historic plant lists to the website, we will. But right now we I spoke with Kelly before we met just to make sure I understood the process and we do need to receive the formal direction through the hierarchy. So that is in the manager's hands. I don't I did not get a chance to confirm with him if it was forwarded on to the commission yet. So do you have something you wanna add?

He he called me back. He said that he received it on December 5 at 10:00 and sent it off to the commission on December 10 at 11:00. So they do have it in their hands. I haven't had a chance to talk to anybody to see if they remember it. But it it did get back to where it got two two and a half years ago.

Okay. Good. Good. Thank you for confirming that.

He he also added that since there is a historic preservation workshop on, I believe, the eleventh having to do with the cemetery and with Atlantic Avenue that during public comments, I should stand up and talk about it to the commission.

Okay. I'm not gonna say much more. I think potentially we could talk about that process offline. It's a pretty packed meeting. It is smack in the middle of the tennis tournament too. So I don't remember there being public comment at workshops. That's been

a lot. That has changed. There are now public workshops. Public comment, yeah. Public comments.

Okay, great. Thank you. And

what I'd like to do is with the permission of the board speak as not a private citizen but as chair of the board in having their support on this proposal. Kelly?

I I guess I'm trying to think about that. Sorry. I think that typically you if you're going before the commission, it needs to be coming from you. I think that you can state that the commission had written a memo. I mean, the HPB board had written a memo recommending That's something that's factual. It's not like you're saying it. You don't have to say it. As the chair, I know they support this. Know, they they wrote them you guys have all written a memo with a motion that approved it. So, I mean, you can state something that's factual and still be there on your own.

That works for me. How about board members? That's

fine.

But I just wanted to say like anything I mean outside of that memo you don't wanna be saying, you know, they all support this and I'm the chair kinda thing. But as long as you're just saying the the historic preservation board drafted a memo and it was sent to you guys on December 5, and I'm here to talk about it, you know, talk about

supporting The meeting

that or is at 03:00 and if people can free themselves up at that time, I think it would be good to have a good representation from the board.

Is that the is that the correct time still?

The workshop?

Do you

know that?

It was just published.

I specifically asked the city manager if it were four and he said no. It's a three.

We'll double check before we leave. She's pulling it up.

Okay. Perfect. I think it is. Okay. I had heard 04:30 so that's okay.

I have update two. I have two more things, I'm gonna start with update two. And Michelle's like so close to answering what time the workshop is on February 11. 03:00 on here.

Okay. Great.

Second item that was asked, and I can give the update again when mister Miller's here or I can remind him to look video because he was the inquiry or inquirer about the property at the corner of 2nd And 2nd. 2nd And 4th, sorry. The Northeast Corner. So it took me a bit of recall in going back and looking at my records because it it's been quite a while that this thing has been circling the wagon. But ultimately, the property owners did submit a COA following the changes that they made.

So we've reached out to them. I don't remember if it was directly through my team or through code. You know, a lot of times with code enforcement, we do ask code to go out, make contact with owners, ask them to get in touch with us because sometimes owners don't realize that they're needing an approval rather than just throwing a citation at someone. So I don't remember who it was, but contact was made. They came in through the process, submitted a COA.

The COA went stagnant. And so we, you know, started reaching out asking what's going on with the COA. And they advised us advised that they hired an attorney to represent them. And we thought, oh, great. This will move quickly through the process. And then we again stalled. So they do have building permits in process. One of the building permits is still not CO'd. So they don't have a CO for the interior exterior alteration that the windows are under that permit. So we've I've communicated with the building official to see what can we do to kind of get the ball rolling again.

The I don't know if the attorney is actually engaged. I've not heard anything from them in several months. It's kind of hard with a project to you know, we're not really in a position when a COA is submitted to then send out code enforcement on somebody. It just doesn't seem like we're trying to help them get into compliance. But we could touch base back them to see what is it that they need, how can we help them through the process.

But that was the intent was for them to come through, process back to the board. There were some other changes beyond windows that were needing the board's review and we've made that clear to the property owner. So it's a tough position for staff to be in to kind of chase an applicant around and keep it helpful and amicable and not seem like we're kind of singling somebody out. So it's not been a simple solution and it's not solved yet. But we are working on it.

I met with my leadership team today and let them know about the board's concerns and looking for some solutions to kick start it again. So we have some ideas how to get it going. Any questions on that?

This has been a pattern with this particular property. And I think many of us watch that property very closely. I know John does. I know I do. And it is certainly in a in a key part of our city.

And if the owner is not complying with city directive, which you may or may not be saying, I I think that's a problem. And it's a problem much wider than just the board because certainly code enforcement is part of that. And I would imagine the city manager's office would have some say in that matter too. Okay.

I'm not sure what if you were asking me a question in there. I'm sorry.

There was not a question in there.

Okay. I don't know. I wasn't on the board when that project came through. But So they have permits in.

And what Are you asking like what happened?

No. I'm just wondering, you know, they have a permit but did their permit expire? No. Are they still able to keep going?

Well, if I could back up one second just to give you the brief backstory. They came before the board with the COA to change out their windows. The board ultimately denied the request because the design wasn't honoring the existing window pattern and the window surrounds. So the applicant went back and we talked with them a bit and they said, what can we do? And we said, you could come in with new windows keeping the window surrounds.

So and that can be done administratively. You don't need the board approval for a window change out as long as they're the same frame appearance and profile. You can go from wood to aluminum by permit. So that's what they did. In that process, they took out the wood surrounds, which was expressed by the board not to do.

So they have an active permit in hand, and they have been actively working on the site for interior and exterior alterations. But the alterations that they have made exceed what was on the permit. Yeah. Like, restuckling the building and some other things. So they

Which is which is not insignificant.

No. And we've talked with them about it. So, you know, we do have a plan going forward. I I have said this to some of you before. You don't know what other people have going on in their lives. I mentioned this to you before. I don't know what's going on. Maybe there's something that's prohibiting them from having, you know, an opportunity to commit again to compliance. We want to work with them. We want them to feel supported by the historic team because long after the project's done, I always say to our applicants, something happens, we're here for you if you need us as a resource.

So we'd really like to get the project, help them get through the process and get it resolved. I don't wanna say too much more to be fair because they aren't here to speak for themselves.

Certainly looks better than it than it was looking. I mean, when I I I'm I don't know the whole history of this building, but I know when I look at it, I am like, thank you. Someone, you know, started fixing up this this building.

Mean, I it's so important that they did the inside. The

one thing I think about though is if they're doing things without the proper permits, there is a safety aspect that the inspectors come in and have to just make sure it's safe for the tenants that are there, that there's they inspect it. That's the whole purpose. So that's my concern is that they're doing things that is not getting reviewed by an inspector. Duly noted.

Anything else on this topic?

My concern I think rests with, we believe they're coming in with some fairly significant changes particularly on the South Side.

Sorry, I would just caution if we're gonna talk about the specific changes. You you might not wanna say too much because this will end up coming before you if it if the COA ends up

But

getting through the whole process of when when. Yeah. When the COA gets put through.

I'm just saying if if there is this continued pattern when they're coming before us again, we should recognize that.

Yeah. I I think you just need to remember that every application comes to you when even if they've violated even if they've been violated by code or they've done it without permission, the application comes to you as if it's as if they're about to do it right then.

So we shouldn't be prejudice.

Right. Would you guys approve this if it was before you? And so while you're sitting up here, you have to make that determination based on on that fact. And then code enforcement handles the other stuff. If if it gets to code enforcement, they are the ones that make the decision of whether, you know, they've done something outside of their permitted site plan or application or whatever it may be.

K. Right. They would be red tagged if they were in violation. That's my experience.

The right. The the they'll be handled in the code enforcement side if if if it gets to violations. And that's outside of this board's purview. Michelle,

is there anything else you had?

I do. So tomorrow night at the Delray Beach Historical Society is the Segregated Shore lines event, 6PM. It's being held at the Old School Square Gymnasium, also known as the Historic Fieldhouse Historical Society Archivist. I'm just gonna read this from the email. Kaylee Howell, you join her for a captivating evening exploring a topic and time that forever altered history highlighted in our their latest exhibit exhibition, Land of Sunshine and Dreams, the history of the fifties and sixties, is ongoing at the historical society.

So you can stop in and see that. But tomorrow night, they'll be covering postwar prosperity and optimism, influences on civil rights, Delray segregated neighborhoods, and the sundown law, Brown versus Board of Education, the NAACP, demonstrations on Delray's beachfront in 1956, tensions between city leaders and the community televised mediation between the Civic League and the city commission, the path to integration in public spaces, and civil rights organizations and committees in Delray Beach. If you are a Delray Beach Historical Society member or student, the event is free. I did speak with Winnie today and she said city staff can come along. I don't know if that extended to board members.

I think it probably would for no charge. But you do have to make a reservation so they know how many seats to have out. They are expecting a really good turnout for this. Again, it's in the field house. I would highly recommend or encourage you all to attend this event, particularly because we're working on the back end on the Frog Alley resource survey.

And we will be approaching topics like this at some point here and how Delray Beach progressed through history. Think it'd be a really great framework. And we appreciate our partners at the Historical Society for putting this lecture together. So if you can, tomorrow night, 6PM. Thank you. That's all I have for the board. Board

comments. None from Peter? Good. Okay. Good. None from me. Shall we adjourn?

Yep. Sounds good. Alright.

Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. Good meeting.