Historic Preservation Board - Regular Meeting

There we go. We're gonna call this meeting to order. The Delray Beach Historic Preservation Board of meeting of 10/15/2025. You please take the role.

Chris Kabasis?

Here.

Benjamin Baffer? Here. Vlad Dimitrescu is absent. Richard Kasser is absent. Peter Dwyer is absent. Carol Perez? Here. John Miller?

Here. Any changes to the agenda this evening?

Nope. Nope. No changes.

Oh I'm sorry you asked me that.

In general. No change. I do have one question. So I saw the email about the training.

There's two.

I assumed it was next time.

So There's two. It's on the agenda.

Yeah. I saw Yeah. So there's two trainings.

There's one this month, and then next month are the flood adaptation standards.

Okay. Since we have so many board members absent tonight, would it

be They can go back and watch

it. Okay.

And then if they have questions, they can bring I've already emailed one of the board members that.

Mhmm.

That if there's questions, they can bring those questions in November since we'll be doing a training then too.

Okay.

Yeah. Good thought. I thought of it too and I think we just need to push through.

Okay. So no move no changes to the agenda. Can we get an approval?

I'll make a motion to approve.

I'll second. Carol.

Can we do a all in favor?

You can.

All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Moving on to minutes. We have three groups of minutes here, June 4, July 2, and September 17. I believe we need to make motions separately on these.

Before we do Mhmm. Britney, I did not get that one month revised. Which month was it? Do you remember if it was June or July?

We were talking about June 4. Yeah.

So on the June set of minutes, there is mention to emails that were sent in in regards to one of the projects. And we're going to strike that, remove that off the minutes because we can't put emails as public comment. I didn't get a chance to update it before it went out. So

Okay.

That one change, if if your motion could just note that.

K.

I I you don't actually have to do them all separately if you wanna just say with approving all of the minutes on the agenda with the change to the June minutes as as stated by Michelle.

Okay. I mean, I looked them over. I didn't see anything issues.

So I'll make a motion to approve all three agenda items, with the condition of the June 4 having the email stricken.

I'll second.

K. We have motion to second. Any discussion? Britney? Or, actually, let's just do a all in favor, aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Okay. Swearing in to the public, such as it is tonight. If there's any members of the public who would like to speak on any item tonight, please stand up and be sworn in.

Please raise your right hand. By the authority vested in

me as the notary in the state of Florida, do you swear to affirm that the testimony you're about

to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Okay. Comments from the public. If any member of the public would like to speak, to the board on any item which is not on the agenda tonight, now is the time to do so. Seeing none, we're gonna move on to item seven, quasi judicial hearings, and I'm gonna read the rules. This hearing shall be conducted in accordance with the city of Delray Beach's quasi judicial rules.

The applicant and the city shall be permitted to present their case. Public shall be allowed to speak for three minutes or for 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 city commission, board members, staff, and the applicant may be allowed to cross examine a witness. The city or the applicant 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 the personal views as to whether a project is a good project or not, nor may a decision be based on the number 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 requirements of law, comprehensive plan, and the land development regulations. Okay. We're gonna move on then to item a, certificate appropriateness, HP 117Dash2025. Is there any ex parte communication on this item? None. Nope.

I've driven past the site.

None.

Alright. Thank you. For the record, Michelle Hewitt, Planner. And I'd like to read into the record chief Adura Court for file number HP117Dash2025 for a level one site plan and certificate of appropriateness application.

Just for the

Hello? Victor Cook with two fifty Royal Court LLC. I'm here to speak in defense of our application for the installation of stucco in place of wood siding for our commercial nonhistorically contributing office building. As mentioned previously, we're looking to replace our decorative siding with stucco as well as update our existing windows with new windows with white frame and gray glass. These windows are impact resistant as well as replace failing gutters that, are currently existing on the project on the property.

Our objective is to preserve the historical character of the building whilst still improving the overall appearance as well as the durability and quality of the structure as a whole. There you can see the the location of the building in regards to the the overall neighborhood. The existing conditions of the building are as such. Currently, there is a wooden there is wooden siding in place on the building. A permit has previously been filed and work had been completed in to repair the existing wooden siding.

However, even those repairs made only a few years ago have already started to show deterioration. So the current proposal is to repair those those damaged segments as well as overall replace the the wooden siding with a new stucco exterior. Additionally, the wooden the doors that are currently in place, they're very old. A lot of them are very outdated. They're inefficient from an energy standpoint as well as several leaks have been detected throughout the property around those those entry points.

Now in a kind of larger context, several other, commercial use buildings in the neighborhood, also designated as nonhistorically contributing within the historical district, have already transitioned to a a more modern stucco exterior as well as a gray framed window for their exterior property. They're shown are the locations of a few buildings. The first one located at 205 North East 5th Terrace. Very lovely exterior. Very nice building.

They have a stucco exterior with a relatively modern finish, white frame windows, and a slight graying on the tint in a similar frame to what we are proposing for our structure. As well, 250 North Dixie North Dixie Boulevard, another similar kind of situation, commercial use building. Exterior is stucco with those same kind of gray framed windows that we're additionally proposing. And then lastly, in the neighborhood itself, there's the 230, George Bush Boulevard property. Again, similar similar situation, stucco exterior and gray fit well, gray windows and doors.

So it it kinda it shows a a precedent in the area of other commercial buildings transitioning from the the wooden siding to a more durable and weathering weather resistant stucco exterior. Lastly, there's this building, towards the southern end of the historic neighborhood, 241 Northeast 4th Street, another relatively modern looking exterior on, on this very nice looking building, stucco, and again, the gray windows to apologies for sounding repetitive. So as I mentioned previously, the purpose of this imp of these improvements is to remove or is to, eliminate the existing issue with the flaking of the siding and the deterioration due to moisture in the air and repeated rain, storm weathering, other environmental effects that have been negatively impacting the building quite significantly. Additionally, stucco is proven to be much longer lasting, more weather resistant, and in general, it it's just a much better exterior finish for the Florida climate. The new windows that we're proposing are going to, as I mentioned previously, improve energy efficiency as well as temperature retention and interior comfort, whilst also being impact resistant, again making the building more resistant to severe weather instances.

And lastly, the overall aesthetics of the exterior of the building are likely to improve significantly due to the more uniform appearance of the stucco, the more newer, less deteriorated appearance of the the exterior windows, doors, and gutters. So here's a rough rendering of what our proposed exterior would look like. Still relatively similar to the character of the existing building whilst maintaining a new, more effective, more resistant exterior to the elements. And that's the end of my presentation.

Thank you. Staff will do theirs, and then if we have any questions, we'll come back to you.

I just wanna make a quick comment that I've said to you guys before, like, you're not a precedent setting board. You're gonna look at every case case by case and make decisions based on that to the extent that it I I allowed it in to the extent that it's relevant to, like, rhythm of buildings on the streets or something like that. But but it shouldn't be used you know evidence of precedent but go ahead.

Once again Michelle Hewitt senior planner and this is for a level one site plan and certificate of appropriateness application for G50 rural court. Here on the screen is an area with the subject property outlined in blue where you can see the location of Rural Court, Northeast 3rd Avenue and Northeast 5th Terrace. I'm going to go over some brief history on the property and the architect that designed this. The subject property was constructed in 1972 by Charles E. Toth.

At the time, he was the property owner and architect. The subject property was originally constructed for Toth's architectural office. It contained an apartment on the 1st Floor and an office on the 2nd Floor then in 1977 in addition was constructed to the existing structure by TOTH the subject structure is considered non contributing to the Del Ida Park Historic District and is expected to be reclassified as a contributing structure with the future resource survey of the Historic District. The mid century style structure exists in its original design with a flat roof, red framed windows, board and batten wood exterior siding and a wood deck on the north side of the structure. Toth himself, was born in Pennsylvania in 1927 and moved here in 1963 to Delray Beach where he is considered an accomplished architect, in the city.

There have been some alterations throughout the years on this structure most recently on 07/10/2024 staff administratively approved a request for ground level improvements including reconfiguring the parking area installation of a dumpster enclosure, new sidewalks and landscape modifications. Exterior modifications to the existing structure included painting the railings, trim and windows in navy color, replacing of decking, replacing of stairs and moving the existing wall behind the fountain. The request before the board today is for the removal of existing wood siding for the installation of smooth stucco siding, installation of white frame aluminum windows after the fact and repainting of the structure. Here on the screen I have the structure prior to what's out there today. So this is the front or north elevation where you can see the existing Borden Baton wood siding and the red frames, the dark red frames that are painted on the structure.

And this is what's currently out there today. So, they have been replacing the wood siding that's actively what was going on in the site. And you can see the windows that are currently installed, the white frame aluminum with the gray glass, and comparatively between the two, oops, the appearance here of this north elevation. Here's another angle of the front or north elevation. It's a little blurry but you can kind of see the overall appearance of the structure with those dark red frames in the wood.

And then here's what's currently out there today. This is the on the left is the before with the red dark red frames and that wood siding. And then the current, the wood siding is still currently out there. The windows are installed with the gray glass and the white, frame aluminum. Here is the rear on the left, the south, basis of south elevation.

Again, red frames on the left and then those white frames on the right. And then this is the side or east elevation before on the left and then currently out there today on the right. As mentioned previously, the request is to change the wood siding to smooth stucco siding, painted white, paint the structure white, and then to utilize white aluminum frame windows with gray glass. Going into the staff report, here is an excerpt from our Secretary of Interior Standards for Rehabilitation. The structure is classified as a non contributor.

However, it is on the cusp of becoming a contributing structure, given its style and association with Charles Toth, a Delray Beach architect. An alteration to the exterior of this structure, namely changing the wood from wood to stucco, could have a negative impact upon its historic integrity. And here's just a screenshot here where it's not recommended from the Secretary of Interior Standards Rehabilitation, where a not recommended approach is replacing historic wood features and altering wood features which are important in defining the overall historic character of the building, potentially resulting in the loss of the character. Going into the visual compatibility standards, this section is specifically for the relationship of materials, texture and colors. This particular standard indicates that the facade of a building and or hardscaping shall be visually compatible with the predominant materials used in the historic buildings and structures within the subject district where it's specifically recommended to utilize materials that match the old in design color texture and other visual qualities and where possible materials.

Here are two screenshots from our Delray Beach Historic Preservation Design Guidelines regarding siting. On the left is recommended approaches. And the main item here is that replacement should be designed using the existing physical evidence as the pattern. So elements are based on the original details. Going back to the Vision Compatibility Standards, again this is for relationship materials, textures and colors.

There is concern with the color of the proposed window frames. As previously mentioned, there was an administrative approval for navy window frames and that was considered appropriate because it was still maintaining that dark color painted frames and allowing for some modification keeping but keeping the same overall appearance of the dark color frames. We it is believed that the dark red frames were original to the structure and should be maintained. Additionally, mid century modern structures would have are commonly seen with, painted or dark colored frames. There is also concern with the appearancestyle of windows.

The original building permit, which you can see in the bottom right, shows a mutton for each window, which had been retained over the years up until recently, which you saw through the images that I was going through previously. And they should be replaced like in kind to maintain the appearance where the proposal is to utilize a single pane. And then here is a screenshot here, again from our Delaware Beach Historic Preservation Design guidelines where it's not recommended to change the historic appearance through adding a finish or color that changes the appearance of the frame. Going to the visual compatibility standard of architectural style, the application of a new cycle pattern could create a false sense of historical development by introducing elements definitive of a more modern interpretation of the style thus the board will need to make a determination that the proposed materials and appearance are appropriate for the structure, as well as the Del Ida Park Historic District. Here are the Secretary of Interior Standards for Rehabilitation and the Visual Compatibility Standards with those two items highlighted that were used to analyze the request, and then our certificate of appropriateness findings.

And that concludes my presentation.

Thank you. Any members of the public want to comment on this item? Seeing none. Mister applicant, if you have any rebuttal to staff, if you please, up at the front.

I would like to comment that, these improvements to the exterior of the building are in conjunction with an overall improvement to the larger site of the, of the structure, which is already permitted. They include the improvements of landscaping, the addition of new irrigation systems, the addition of paver pathways, and the expansion of the parking lot and reshaping to improve so to

construction building.

To the structure and thus could not be completed without that. The replacement of these of the stucco exterior.

Okay. Thank you. If we have any questions, we'll be sure to come back to you. Staff, any rebuttal?

I have a few things just to note. Four addresses, I know Kelly outlined that there's no precedent setting, but I just wanted to address the four addresses that were outlined by the applicant in their presentation. 205 Northeast 5th Terrace used to be owned by the Platts. That's Mediterranean revival style architecture where stucco would be appropriate on an exterior. 250 North Dixie Boulevard historically has had a stucco exterior.

230 George Bush Boulevard Boulevard, the Hacker Building, while it does have stucco, some of it's an applied stucco. So it looks like wood siding in in parts of it. And 241 Northeast 4th Street, the dentist office on the corner of Lake Ida And 3rd is new construction. So just those few notes. And then also to clarify something, the original building permit, it looked like I I failed to mention this, or Michelle and I talked about it, and I meant to to note it.

The bottom windows we believe were operable. So if you saw that original building permit, we're not sure if it they were replaced or they're still operable today, but you can kind of see that diagonal or that diamond shape dash line at the bottom of each window would have meant that those were operable at the bottom. So just a few notes.

It's called the hopper window.

Thank you.

Hopper. I have a question for either staff or the applicant. So these windows are obviously installed. Were was there a permit

So the

given for this?

The applicant came in and got a COA approval to replace the windows. And the compromise was navy blue frames. There there would still be some character defining element with a dark frame window. But then the windows that went in were white frame. So those were not intended or approved as white frame. They were intended to be navy blue frames.

But they're not they don't have the muntins on them. No. So but that was okay as long as the frame was

Did the permit show that?

So the permits currently it's not approved it's currently still in process. It was paused once this was the colored it was noted that the colors weren't it wasn't gonna be painted. Uh-huh. So don't know what the final So not issued.

Right. So they got it installed.

So they did it without a permit in hand.

Okay. Yeah. That was one of the questions I had. And then secondly, this the siding

Can you go to exterior?

I don't know if it's really board and batten, but it's like a

It's a pattern.

It's a grooved pattern in the wood. And that was t

one eleven. It's t one eleven.

And that was common in the eighties and nineties, but was that original when this was put in in the seventies?

Do you know? Originally had a wood siding in a plywood fashion with that pattern to it. Michelle's gonna go to the drawing here. You can see in the bottom right hand corner the vertical lines. So that's how, so Charles Toth, I know we did a more expansive description of his background in Delray Beach in the staff report. He's notable. He's one of our important architects. Obviously later than Ogren, but he came and worked with Ogren. That was his first job coming to Delray Beach and then went out on his own and built his office building for himself with an apartment. It was kind of common for architects.

They'd have an apartment where they might spend the night there after a long night's worth of work. So he was very, his architectural style was pretty prominent in the mid century moderncontemporary style based on the timing of his career. So these are character defining elements. I know it's a tough call on windows that are already installed. So, I mean, I don't know if you're asking me questions about that, but I feel like

I just wanna know if they if they were installed with a permit. To me, that makes a difference versus installed without a permit.

Without a permit in hand.

But you said verbally you were going to approve the or administratively, you were gonna approve the same exact looking window, just new hurricane proof with the muttons in dark blue.

Yeah. That was the admin COA. So they came in for the COA, then it's their responsibility to go to get the permit and have the permit in hand then do the work. What resulted was a white frame. But yes, navy blue was what was approved.

Okay. But were there supposed to be muntins on the

new Yes.

There were. Okay. Were supposed

to look the same.

Siding, you know, they have done some work in repairing. I I wanna just say this for a moment. We're thrilled to see this property coming forward for an update and being occupied by somebody who's actually in the field. I believe environmental engineering is

Civil engineering.

Civil engineering. So it's kind of just thrilling to think, like here we still have a person in in the biz almost, right, bringing life back to this building. But I think, you know, is the white frames as much of a problem? That's a board decision. But the complete change of the siding, if if they could even do stucco with a siding look, you know, simulated stucco siding, I could see where the t one eleven is not gonna be anything they can continue with.

And I don't know that hardy board is something that they're interested in utilizing. But it would be nice to be able to see the stucco have some similar pattern to that vertical nature of what's out there now. Alright.

Any anything to add before we get in the board discussion?

No comments at this time.

Okay. Alright. We're gonna move into board discussion. Anyone have thoughts? Yeah. I

do think that the the vertical patterning is very important to this building's historical nature, and I I was thinking the same idea that if the if it was proposed to be stucco with the same look, that I would be for that. But completely making it flat takes away really it's one of its few architectural, big moves. So that I think would be more in line with the interior standards. For the windows, when I hear it, I didn't think it would be that big of a of an issue, but when I see the past picture with those red frames and the muttons, that also is a very prominent feature. And this can be seen from the street, this image right here.

And it's it's kind of a shame that it's it's there's a potential to lose that. How many times do we have this happen, right, where the the applicant has installed windows before they get the permit? And I don't know what the issue is. It happens more often than it it should. I don't know why that happens. I know we shouldn't be thinking about that. Right? We should be thinking about if this came like this, would we have would we approve the white aluminum frame or not? Right? And I think in that if in that situation, I would have pushed to remain with this care this character.

You know, there's a lot of things to be considered about. We I do love this property. I love that it's getting renovated. It's important, you know, that it's it's getting renovated. So some things to think about. I'd like to hear the other board's members' opinions.

General or Ben?

Yeah. I know this is agree a 100%. You said this is not a contributing structure, but it is very architecturally significant. And it's a very, you know, very deliberate style from the seventies and eighties that, you know, the the vertical, the t one eleven look is is a big big part of that. And to create that in stucco is not that difficult to do.

That I I think that, you know, I I I get that you don't want a wood wood siding on your building. I mean, we in in this environment, stucco actually is a much better, you know, much better envelope. But I I would I would think that, you know, that that the applicant should be able to affect the the vertical, you know, vertical groups within the within the stucco process, and I think that would be probably a a good way to to maintain the the architectural character. As far as the windows go, I mean, I I have powder coated windows after they've been installed, field powder coated them. It's not cheap and it's not ideal, but it can be done.

You know, you wouldn't have to replace the windows. You could could bring somebody out to electrostatic them, but, you know, it's just it's just frustrating. And

what about the Muttons?

I I don't have such a strong feeling about the Muttons because I guess because I'm looking for, like, the vertical, you know, the vertical lines, the horizontal, not so much that that didn't trouble me as much as, you know, when when this building was designed, the, you know, contrasting color window frames was a a real important thing to to the design. You know, they they wouldn't have done it otherwise.

Can you add buttons on those windows? You you can

you can apply buttons. I mean, you can get an aluminum button with an adhesive, you know, glued in and applied in. That's not a that's not real real difficult. You you you would just be putting a muntin on top of the glass.

Mhmm. Mhmm.

Yeah. So I agree with everyone here, and I applicant should go back to the original approved, and that was staff approved application and and do it according to what was approved. As far as the siting goes, yeah, I think the the vertical element's very important to the building. I don't think that a flat stucco is the way to go. Like the examples shown, you know, they were it was new construction.

That was stucco. It was a Mediterranean revival, and it was stucco and probably not a flat stucco. It was probably textured stucco. But this building, this is, you know, where the historic preservation board, and this is the building. And that's how it was designed and meant to it was meant to look like that. So that's I'm not in favor of the changes that was presented.

Thank you. I got a question too. So it was mentioned gray glass. So is this within the parameters that we had discussed previously when we said, you know, gray is okay? Yep. Okay.

Gray. That was one thing I was kinda thrilled about is they're gray. So gray would be appropriate for a non contributor.

Mhmm. And then it looks like the board is leaning towards approval of stucco, but with the, you know, detail, how particular would the board members be? Would you want to replicate the look exactly? Like, you know, 12 or 14 inches or whatever it is between the elements, or do you okay with approximating it?

I would I would say exactly. Mhmm. As exact as you can.

It's not that

Yeah. It's one or the other, really. It's not gonna make that big of a difference, but I just wanted to when we somebody crafts a motion Mhmm. I don't wanna be kinda specific so they don't have two vertical lines on each wall and say, well,

there's vertical lines

on it. You

know mean?

And how about with the windows? Do we want them to recreate the exact mountain dimensioning? I would think so.

I mean, practically speaking, I don't know how that I mean, like you see here, there's there looks like two different thicknesses. If it was a open window on the bottom, like we were talking, that looks like there's a bigger frame there whereas the top one

is a

thinner. Personally, I think if it

Go back to

approximates the look. Mhmm. I mean, to me, this I mean, yeah. It's it's a very dramatic applied button. Modern yeah. Modernized. But and and the the impact windows have that thicker frame anyway Mhmm. Which just highlights the difference. So

Very similar.

Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty thick frame on the existing. May

I ask the applicant a question?

Yes. Is it aluminum, the windows? They're aluminum?

I believe they're aluminum.

Yes. Okay.

That could be mistaken. I'm

not Sorry. You need to come up to the podium. Thank you.

Sorry, Richard.

Yeah. I believe they're aluminum, but I am not particularly knowledgeable about the the construction of the the window frames themselves.

Because that's what the approval would need to be for is aluminum. If they if we later figured out that they were vinyl, they'd have to come back to you because vinyl is not typically approved at the admin level. And also one other note that if you were going to craft a motion that was leaning toward stucco siding, you could put in there an option for them that they could do stucco, simulated stucco siding in a vertical pattern or hardy board or cementious board. So if they found that that was a more economical solution, they could do either. That way I wouldn't have to bring that back for clarification.

Simulated stucco siding with a vertical element. Or cementious board siding.

Alright. My dad was a carpenter and we had an addition to our house that had this exact plywood on it, and it rotted out and he stuck it over. Of

course. Especially at the bottom?

Yeah. Exactly.

It was mentioned that a full site plan with landscape plan was going to happen on this property.

That was approved at the admin level.

Okay.

So it was was reconfiguration of parking, landscaping, walkways, the dumpster, the decking. There was a little patio decking up 1st And 2nd Floor. Thanks, Michelle. That were all part of that approval. So that was allowed to be done administratively.

What triggers it to come in front of us for that type of approval? If they were doing

the parking modification wouldn't because that's hardscape that wouldn't. They were doing major renovations with trees, maybe. But we've modified the code now to make that simpler for applicants.

So I don't I don't

know that that would come before you.

Because I thought we saw commercial landscape plans. Right? We don't see single family. We see commercial.

You don't see everything though if it's minor. There's the chapter two updates that occurred a year or two ago gave some admin approval for landscaping to staff. So unless it was some type of major change, it wouldn't come before you. I guess I would have

liked to have

seen it. It's coming before you now because of the architectural elevation change.

It looks major.

Yeah. I would have liked to have seen the landscape plan on this just to see what they're proposing to see if it maintains a historical nature to that design. So, you know, we'll stick to what staff thinks on that. But maybe in the future, if you have if it can go either way, and you have two landscape architects up here,

it might be good to I understand. We're trying to make historic as simple as possible too.

Understood. Understood.

Alright. To that end, is there anybody who wants to make a motion on this or we have any other comments?

I just question the color. So the proposed color is white. Is that the right color?

I think staff is proposing blue.

Are you asking about the siding?

The siding. The color of the siding.

Michelle, is it white? Yeah. The white for

the siding. Yeah. White on white. Is

it the right color?

What do you mean?

I mean, is it white or is it off white?

Or I

don't know. They're proposing white, but what was the original color? Do we know?

Maybe the applicant wants to answer that.

To my knowledge, the for as long as I have been aware of the building, it has been this color. Our plan is to repaint it in a very similar color, if not identical.

So not white? Because this is almost like a grayish

I thought this looked like a gray beige

Yeah. Grayish.

I will say in person it does look more white. It could just be the lighting of the photo.

Can you go to the white frame window picture? It's very, very pale beige.

Maybe if you see the the other side without the windows on it. No. The the backside. That side. See, it it is a a very plain white color, generally.

I always thought it was like a white gray.

Remember this building back from the eighties. A friend of mine's father had an office in here and it was more of a brown back then. But, you know, things change. Paints change over time. So

And that would we could approve it admin. So the neutral color palettes,

we tend to admin approve. We just approved pink going up on Swinton Avenue last time. I saw that today. We're excited for that. Alright.

So oh, but so we're gonna say the the color will be admin approved? Because on here it says white. Right?

Right. And if they change it potentially could be admin. If it's more bold, we'd bring it back to you.

Alright.

So they don't need to make any change to that part?

No change?

You don't have to change, like, color because white or neutral palette would be admin approved. Alright.

Well, don't we want like, aren't isn't it going back to blue? Don't understand.

Window is windows. Frame.

Oh, you're talking about the

I was talking about the field color, the siding color.

Oh, okay.

Because I was just looking at these pictures that didn't really look white. Know?

Understood. Sorry. Yeah. Okay.

Alright. So I'm going to make a motion to approve the certificate of appropriateness, h p dash one one seven dash twenty twenty five and level one site plan application for the property located at 250 Royal Court, Delaeda Park Historic District by finding that the request and approval thereof is consistent with the comprehensive plan that meets the criteria set forth in the land development regulations subject to the following conditions. That the stucco siding will be a simulated will simulate the vertical elements of the existing facade and that the windows will be as previously administratively approved with the dark blue frames and mutton patterns that are existing.

That's it. Is there a second?

Does that

sound right? Second.

For discussion. Does that sound good?

The mutton and patterns that are existing, you mean, in this previous The previous. Yes. So the They're not existing

right now.

So just wanna

make sure.

As were

you could say as were existing.

As were previously approved

or previously not existing.

Yeah. Okay.

We understand what you mean.

And then I don't know if you wanted to mention Michelle had also mentioned that you could give them, you know, options of materials to use as long as it had that vertical pattern. I don't know if the board had consensus for that or not.

A vertical party board siding?

Mhmm. Okay. Vertical plank siding? Yeah. With that option as well. Perfect. Who seconded? Carol. Carol. Alright.

Brittney can you please take the roll.

Chris Kabasis?

Yes. Benjamin Baffer?

Yes. Vlad Dimitrescu is absent. Richard Kassar is absent. Peter Dwyer is absent. Carol Perez? Yes. John Miller? Yes.

K. Thank you. Thank you. Alright. So that's it for the

Quasi items.

Judicial items, legislative items, anything? No. K. We have nine presentations, so we have training. Training.

Don't need training, George.

I already know this. You should be training. I don't really want can you is it can you look at it on the

You can watch it on TV. Yeah.

Yeah. How long does this training last?

Maybe an hour. He's out

of here.

Thanks for coming. Have a

good night.

Save me a beer.

Okay. So every so often we like to take an opportunity to provide the board with training, particularly when there's newer board members or updates that are happening with the code. So this is a two part series. The next training, I'll tell you a little bit more about at the end, but that's at our next meeting on November 5 for the public who might be listening and want to watch the next training. It will be flood adaptation standards and maybe a few other things sprinkled in as well and any questions.

Some of you, I think, have all received binders from us upon starting your time as a board member. Those are helpful binders to look back on, and we're gonna cover a lot of that information tonight. And if you wanna bring your binders next time, you know, if you have any questions or if you haven't brought them tonight for note taking or anything like that, they're very helpful.

I'm sorry. The way I read the email, I thought it was next time, was the

training side. I did see that.

Kelly and

I talked about that.

Okay.

My apologies for not saying this and next time, but it is on the board Okay. So what is historic preservation? This information is taken from the National Park Service. Essentially it's a conversation that we have with our past about our future and our present. Provides us opportunities to ask what's important about the history of our city or our state or country, And what parts of that past can we preserve for the future?

So this board is largely focused on preserving the built environment. But it's an important way to transmit to future generations or current generations, what happened in our history and why is that important? Sometimes it's the built environment that tells that story, like Bankers Row, where you can see the grandeur of the nineteen twenties on the west side of the street, the Mediterranean revival style of architecture, to the simplicity of the post war recovery effort and that's impact on architecture on the east side of the road with the Bankers Row Mackle cottages. So it's very, you know, a lot of facets, It's these stories that we want to help to help tell. Sometimes historic preservation involves celebrating events, people, places, ideas that we're proud of.

And other times, it involves recognizing moments in our history that can be painful or uncomfortable to remember. Does anyone know who this is? Call out if you do.

Stoneman Douglas. Right?

Yes. So this is Marjorie Stoneman Douglas who's credited with being a journalist and environmentalist helping to defend and protect the Florida Everglades. We celebrate her work and its historic pastime, thinking about what we're left with in the built environment today. But a painful thing is her association with Marjorie Stome and Douglas School, where it was the country's most devastating school shooting, mass shooting that had occurred. That's a very painful memory to evoke, but it's important to tell that story for future generations.

Continuing many people are continuing to tell that story. Can you think of any examples, each of you, maybe you can give one example each of a happy history or something that might be uncomfortable or painful to remember?

Delray specific?

No. It can be the country.

Well, Delray specific, we still have remnants of a wall, right, that segregated our our city. Right? When when when Delray was segregated in

Along Lake Ida.

There was a wall and I think parts of it still still remain.

Mhmm.

That's true. Yeah. I think of I guess I think of Miami Beach with the Art Deco architecture and how that was saved because it was all getting knocked down. Great example.

I mean, there's so many, but, I mean, a painful one would be James McBride. He was a teenager who drowned off Delray Beach because he was black, and he couldn't swim on Delray Beach where it was guarded. So he had to swim on an unguarded beach.

Mhmm. On Mother's Day. Mhmm.

And I'd say any war. At all.

Good segue. So this part of my presentation is taken in piece to from the presentation we did, we've done a few at Atlantic High School trying to encourage our young folks in the community to get interested in planning, zoning, and historic preservation. So this was something we talked about with the students at Lenox High School. And this is most of them, if not every single one of them, this is before their time. I was pregnant with my daughter in 2001 when this occurred.

So these kids were that age or younger. So they didn't experience this. They've only heard about it and what it meant and shared the stories and we talked and, you know, where were you type of thing for us explaining where were you and where was I that day. And I remember exactly where I was here at the city working, and watched the second plane hit the tower. So this is a painful piece of history in this country, but we are celebrating those who fought for us on that day recovered, and ran towards the fire basically with a memorial.

I have not personally been to the memorial, but I've studied it and read about it. So this is something that we're celebrating, the memory of those who were lost on that day. So when did historic preservation start? There were efforts that began prior to the official adopting of legislation of 1966 for the National Historic Preservation Act. But does anyone know what this picture is of?

Grand Central. Penn

Station. So this building was raised to make way for Madison Square Garden. It was air rights challenge and, you know, now today what they're talking about replacing, right, Madison Square Garden. I thought this picture was in this interesting because the sign on the front, which it's a bit of sign littering, right? But the sign on the front happens to say make more of Madison Square Garden. And how amazing would that have been if it had said make more of Penn Station. I don't know.

Madison Square Garden has become iconic on itself.

It has. Yeah. In the time frame from nineteen sixties forward. So that that act is the cornerstone of federal historic preservation efforts and is what led us to having a historic preservation ordinance in Delray Beach. The impetus behind historic preservation Delray Beach, and John probably knows this best in his work with the Historical Society and living here, Old School Square was shuttered and fenced.

The school district walked from the property. Hesitate to say the word abandoned because I don't think that the intent was to abandon it, but they closed the site. And here was this property in the middle of our downtown core at the crossroads of Atlantic and Swinton, and it was being discussed of what to do with that site. And there was discussions of department store, like Kmart or a bowling alley. And the community came together and really rallied around Old School Square and the city and said, we don't want to see that happen.

So they worked hard to study our resources in the late mid to late eighties, and the the Delray Ordinance was adopted 1387 in March 1987, which created our land development regulations. It created you, our board, the local register of historic places. You can go on our website and see the board all the way back to the first board, which is on our website. They're not very long. They're typically a page or two.

But as the years go on, they get more interesting. And then Old School Square was purchased by the city from the school district. There's a deed restriction on the property that the it be used for educational or cultural purposes, I believe. And the city invested in the community and they invested in the effort for historic preservation. So we're very lucky that we were able to save this very important several structures of architecture from the twenty's, The teens and twenty's.

Here's this is a little bit older of a picture, but it's still very current. Amazing what we've been able to to do with this facility and how this has become. Something that's completely changed our downtown. At that same time, the comprehensive plan from the eighties and then in the nineties identified that there was to be a revitalization of the downtown. Basically, historic preservation set the stage.

It was built on the back of historic preservation protecting local resources, cultural resources. Northeast 2nd Avenue or Pineapple Grove Way was officially adopted as our Main Street through the main Street America program, which is also a historic preservation program through the state of Florida. So this information I'll cover a little bit more as we go on, but this is taken directly from the Always Delray comprehensive plan. So I encourage you if you haven't opened that document, it's kind of an interesting read and it's not super long. There's some important pieces there.

So what's the purpose of the board? The purpose of the board, I joke that we need badges that say to protect and preserve. But that really is the role of the board is to foster and promote recognition and preservation, protection, enhancement of historic resources and our built environment. The board, you all through our department, the division of development services, She'll also promote, and I'm just reading, certain functional aesthetic goals, objectives and policies in our comp plan, particularly the historic preservation element, which that's a new element as of 2020. We never had a dedicated element prior to that time.

Protection as it relates to the preservation of our historic resources. The board reviews all matters pertaining to COA requests for property site structures located within districts individually designated properties. And as I get through all of the we touch on so many different records at the city, and we come across things, and I kind of try to save them and earmark them to show you someday, and now I get to kind of show you. There's an inventory, photograph inventory of some properties which are all in Old School Square. And you can see the one on the top is one of those photographs.

In the eighties there was decline happening in our country. The economy was not in a great position. And our downtown and our neighborhood surrounding really were in a state of decline and disrepair. This is Dada's. You can see that the I forget the name of the restaurant that it was before. Both of those businesses have been blessed with really amazing chefs. And that's kind of an institution those businesses were. But it's the investment and the protection of that structure that you see on the bottom there that it's kind of famed. People say, where do you eat in Del Rey? Dada's always comes up.

So this board is composed of seven board members. Five of you are required to be, and this recently was revised in our code to align with the National Park Service and State of Florida requirements, for professions. So at least five of you need to be from the list on the left. The remaining two seats can be laypersons with knowledge or experience or even folks, laypersons who own property in historic districts. These are all adopted as we are a certified local government.

You'll hear me talk about that a little bit more as we go on this evening. But this is our mix. So our two lay persons are John Miller and Richard Kasser. And we're really blessed that both of them have, I think, breadth of experience. John with historic preservation for many years. Pioneer family in Delray Beach. Mister Kassar, I believe, has real estate and development experience. But we rely upon the professions that you're

going to

understand the complexities that we're bringing forward with these projects and these staff reports. That's why you're here is because you're on the edge of understanding what we're working with. We make up a team of three, Michelle, Katharina, and I, and the staff. So what does the board see application wise? COAs, site plans, variances, waivers, landscape plans, designations, LDR amendments, conditional uses, rezonings, comp plans, concept plan reviews.

It's a very long list. You typically see mostly COAs for residential. That's a lot of what you see. But we are, you know, obviously working on the daily. Our team is on a project that's been very long running and complicated, Sunday Village.

So behind the scenes, we're not just working on these, we're also working on other things like grants, permits. Pardon me. So the picture on the top here is again from the nineteen eighties of 202 North Swinton and how wonderful that historic preservation saw that this building was retained in place. And look at the investment that the owner has made. You've all saw this recently come through and and you approve this.

These are the different types of things we're doing COAs for. Additions, new construction, fencing, parking, carports, swimming pools. It's a very long list. I'm gonna move through this quickly. We can come back if you have questions.

But these are technically the board duties taken right from the code, the duties and actions. So you have quite a bit of approval authority because you are a final stop for applicants. They don't need to for most applications, they don't need to go on to a commission to get approval. You grant approval. So you're acting on those applications that we're bringing forward for these improvements.

The board can also make nominations for historic designation to the local register, the national register, working with us to increase public awareness. It's a very long list of responsibilities. You also make recommendations to the planning and zoning board on LDR amendments, conditional uses, level four site plans. The picture on the right is the Delray Beach Historical Society. There have been changes, obviously, positioning and buildings on that site are not exactly today as they once were.

But important to show you The notes I didn't include, but the notes in the document for this photograph were something like disbelief with how awful the property was being maintained. Not owned by the city or the Delray Beach Historical Society then. You also make recommendations to the city commission on occasion. So Delray Beach, has a total of 10,000 plus acres, 15.89 square miles. And of that, historically the historic areas are a 174 acres, approximately 575 properties.

I'm showing you a property here not in a historic district, but on the edge of, and it's it's an original building, much in its original form. So quite amazing that we've been able to retain that structure. Here's another great structure at 334 Northeast 1st Avenue. These are historic district acreages, so Old School Square and Delaeda Park are the two largest, West Settlers just behind Marina, and Nassau the smallest. We have two of our historic districts in Delray on the National Register.

Why is that important? The Marina And Old School Square District, if you're a contributor income producing property and you're doing alterations, income producing can be a rental, you know, residential rental. You can qualify for federal tax credits in addition to the local tax credits. We have 45 listings, individual listings on our local register of historic places. Five of those are districts, 40 are sites and structures.

That's increased, I think, there's been five added in the last ten years, nine ish years. These are a few photographs of local register properties. I'll move a little quickly through these, but if you haven't gone out and visited, there's many of these that you can go visit and some have markers on them. The upper left corner is on Northwest 5th Ave and it marks several sites that don't exist anymore, including school number four, Delray Colored, which was officially the first school in Delray Beach eighteen nineties 1895. The Colony Hotel.

Here's the DeWitt Estate on the upper right. Spady Museum, bottom right. I think we call the one on the upper left the Adams Car Dealership. It's where Azure has their office. And I forget the one on the bottom left's name. Do you remember the name of that one? It's an author, I think, who wrote Marley and Me? Yeah. Right? I can't remember the name. Anyway. I know what it is. It's over off of Vista

Del Mar. Amalong?

It is. No. No. Amalong's I think on 12th or 14th. No. Anyway, the Atlantic Avenue Intercoastal Bridge is on the local register of historic places. You can go out and see the marker for the Atlantic Avenue crossing. Nationally, there are seven sites. Two are districts, five are sites. So seven listings.

And that includes I haven't provided pictures, but most notably and most recently at the top of our list of in our minds is the train station just West of I 95 and the Corner Of 95 in Atlantic that the city recently did a major renovation and rehabilitation at that site. But this also includes the Sandoway House, the Marina Historic District, Sunday House. So our five historic districts Quick question. Please. Yeah.

So you mentioned the bridge. And the reason, from what I understand, it was considered or designated as contributing is because if it were to be replaced and not historic, it would look like Linton or Woolbright. It would have to be elevated. And so is is Delray able to toe the line on that and for both George Bush and Atlantic, or is sometime DOT gonna come in and say, nope. You gotta raise these things.

So I don't know that there's I remember this happening when Pat Casey was here. This, I think, was the last designation she worked on before she left. There is not the distance, the width, and the intercoastal to have anything as high as Linton in this position or George Bush just because the Intracoastal is so narrow at these Maybe

Woolbright would be a better example.

Yeah. Or even Woolbright's, it's more it's wider up there too. So there are some limits. And any time I hear of of things going on, I remind Public works, hey. It's historic.

I don't know that that would mean that, you you know, we would say no to something, and I don't think things would necessarily come before the board for review. But when federal dollars are utilized, the section one zero six process has to be run through, which comes through my office, and we are technically supposed to be seeing improvements to public infrastructure like that. We see, section one zero six reviews for all the cell towers. I don't know if you've noticed how many cell towers are coming in. We see them.

And if they're anywhere close to a historic site, we make comments. We've made some comments about ones on Atlantic Avenue because at the time there was a resource survey impending. And we were able to work with the cell phone provider to kind of shift some of these towers away from the colony, because they were going to be right in front of the colony. So it does give us some control and power, to protect what's called a view shed. It's not an eloquent answer, but I know it.

We do get to look at things. So the one to the bottom right happens to be our guest's home. This is Nassau Park Historic District. This district was created ultimately on the cusp of this dark gray area here. There was a home here.

These were demolished, and new townhomes, four townhomes and two buildings were built. The entirety of every house on the street is a contributor in the Nassau Park Historic District. It's our smallest. It's the only one on the Barrier Island, the only one with residential use only. And when you do go and look at the comp plan, you'll see in the comp plan these blue boxes here that indicate what architectural styles are appropriate for use in every district.

So, you can see here Old School Square has a huge list of appropriate architectural styles. So if a style style doesn't exist in the district, it's not something that can be introduced into the district. It's something we have to explain to applicants oftentimes. Old School Square, the names sake is the property for the Old School Square Historic District. Something that we, get confused and applicants do too is there is the Old School Square Historic District, which is the name of what you see in gray right here.

And then there is the Old School Square Historic Arts District. That is the name of the zoning district for everything that you see in gray. So the two acronyms sound exactly the same with the zoning district having the a in there. The building, where Bull Bar once was, that's an old picture, that is the oldest, commercial building within a historic district in the city that was once known as the Rodin Building. Dallaeda Park was the city's first subdivision, notably associated with the city's first female mayor, Catherine Linkstrong, her house at the corner of, Dixie Boulevard and 2nd.

And we've seen Quite a bit of work happening in in this particular district. Renovations and some new construction. That district to back up. It has residential and residential office. So it's kind of split in half where we have some commercial use, in there.

And that historically was like that. Not from inception, but over the years, offices were constructed there. The Marina Historic District, another our second one on the National Register paired with Old School Square, like Old School Square, has some of the most structures still standing attributed to important architects. Sam Augren, of course, he's in every district. Gustav Mas, he was responsible for the train station, Carver High School, the old Poinciana High School or school.

Belfort Shoemate is one of the five notable architects in Palm Beach, and we found, building he designed. Anytime we happen upon an old permit, it's kind of exciting, you know, to to see it. We had some association with Meisner that was moved into our district, John Volk. And then West Settlers is our newest or most recently designated in the late nineties. Atlantic Grove, some of you know where Zeri is, if you've gone for lunch to Zeri or dinner.

That's part of the Atlantic Grove project where if you're looking here, Atlantic Grove is right here on Atlantic. The commercial piece. But the townhomes are right here. Because it's a unified development plan, everything comes through our team for review. So anybody wants to do something in the commercial pieces, even though it's technically not in the district, the store team reviews it because a huge chunk of that project is.

The bottom left is Mount Olive Church and Mount Olive Baptist Church. This was late eighteen hundreds original structure to the district. National Register of Historic Places, sometimes there's thoughts that it's more stringent of an application for requirements where it's actually completely the opposite. It's an honorary designation. Being a National Register property does not require the review by my staff and I or anybody at the city against LDR's Secretary of the Interior Standards design guidelines.

Changes that happen to a federally listed property, National Register, we would, if people were asking questions about it, we would refer them to the State of Florida who would talk with them. Because changes to a property affecting its character could affect its listing on the National Register. The big thing with the National Register is the tax benefit that somebody could get for improving a National Register property. So this board, has to make findings. As you know, you see this in our staff report.

The four pillars here are the Delray Beach comprehensive plan, the design guidelines, the Delray Beach design guidelines, the secretary of the interior standards, and the Delray Beach Land Development Regulations, including the Section 4.5.1. Positive findings mean that you approve or support a request, and a failure to make positive findings is a denial. I do encourage you to go look at this at the very end of the presentation. You'll see where you can go to our website and access all of this information. This document is just so interesting to me.

The DIA is the one I would suggest you read, Data Inventory Analysis first. And then read the goals, objectives and policies. The DIA includes all kinds of information, a historical timeline, which you can see starts right down here in the bottom corner. It's a few pages long. That timeline was created by the Zion Study Circle. This study circle was put together when there was a the community was at odds. What history was first? The black community or the white community? And the history was different for each. And so the Zion Study Circle came together and brought that history together and told that story.

So we've put that story, that history, in the comp plan directly from the August 2006 meeting of timeframe, start the Zion Study Circle. And that group was compiled by our city commission in bringing the community together. So if you can, please go take a look. It's quite interesting. This is a presentation, graphic that I created for Atlantic High School.

And you'll have access to this presentation. If you want it on flash drive, we can give it to you or you can go back and watch this video. But I think it's important to note that our history really began in 1876 when the Orange Grove House Of Refuge was built. The House Of Refuge was on the beach. It was where the barefoot mailman would come and stop as he was delivering mail up and down the coast of Florida.

I'm going to move past this. You can take a look at that history in the comp plan. The goals, objectives, and policies, this is the first GOP, element for historic preservation at the city ever. Our our items were kind of housed and sprinkled in through the old comp plan. This brought it together and brought a single vision of what what needed to happen for historic preservation in Delray Beach.

So this is a framework that essentially guides our land development regulations and the processes we're moving forward with on a daily basis. You'll see in there to study I think we put to study the cemetery for potential designation. So we had we had goals that we're trying to achieve. The one that we use in your staff reports, you'll see is policy HPE 1.41. And this requires that the board make findings that any land use or development application for historic structure, site, or property within the district is consistent with the provisions of the LDR, the secretary of the interior standards, and the design guidelines.

So those aren't soft asks. Those are required by our comp plan. The there is also compliance with the Delray Beach historic preservation design guidelines. I have not sprinkled a ton of photos in here of this, but you can go look at this too. This is a document that guides us.

So an applicant comes in, they wanna change their siding, they wanna change their windows. This is a a resource for them as much as it is for us to look and say what is the appropriate method to do that. The visual compatibility standards, you guys hear us talk about this in our staff reports. These were put in place in the late two thousand's or modified significantly in the late two thousand's to address specific visual issues. To make sure that the changes that were coming through for a property or a structure were compatible with the historic district or the historic structure or the non contributing structure.

So this was created in concert with a consultant. This was not a staff created portion of our code. This was something we hired a professional to come and help us create these standards. The ones that tend to come before you in waiver fashion most often are the additions. This is four five one e seven m. It's at the end of the section. And it says, you know, addition shall be not be forward of front wall plane of a building. Shall be as inconspicuous as possible. Should not change the character of the building. These are feel like they're subjective, but sometimes they're very blatant.

An addition comes right forward of the front facade. That's a problem. And somebody might need a waiver for that. And then the secondary and subordinate. So that that is where we we rely upon you as a board.

Here's the analysis and the staff report, and you are the deliberating decision making authority to say, okay, this is not appropriate or this is appropriate. Maybe a waiver or relief request is required. This approval matrix is in the back of this document right here, the design guidelines. So what the board did was they, alongside of previous to me, with the previous director, they promulgated a list in concert with our director of what could be approved at the admin level and what can be approved at the board level. It also allows that anything we aren't comfortable with, we have the ability to refer to the board.

So sometimes that happens where it's kind of teetering on the edge of, can we approve that? But we have quite a bit of administrative authority. We might be coming to you in the future to talk about what else can we add to this list. What else can we add to make the process easier for the applicant and ultimately for you? The secretary of the interior standards, these are 10 standards.

These pertain to historic buildings. These are put together by the Department of the Interior, National Park Service, and these 10 standards you see in every staff report. Sometimes on the screen, they're kind of small. But the ones that typically apply most one, two, three, four, and then nine and ten back here. Ultimately, this is to ensure that the integrity of historic structure is protected for the longevity, ultimately ensuring the legitimacy of the district it's in.

So you start changing buildings, the district can its legitimacy can erode over time. And I'll show you an example of that in a few minutes. This is what that book looks like. It's big. If you had it printed, two sections of it is three inches.

These aren't just guidelines, what's in this book. There are guidelines as you see here, and we put these in staff reports and presentations of what the recommended and not recommended approach is to a whole myriad of things. Metal, wood, windows, additions, building site. So if somebody is coming in and they want to replace their windows, the recommended approach using window grids rather than true divided lights on windows, the upper floors of high rise buildings if they will not be noticeable as a recommended approach. Some of these things over time have modified slightly and there's guidance provided to us from the National Park Service on some things that are adjusting modernization, particularly windows for areas like Florida where we have hurricanes.

Right? We may not be able to meet all of these standards. And this provides the approach. Well, yes, they're guidelines, but they're designed as how you can get into compliance with the 10 standards. So they are guidelines to the 10 standards and they are required to be met.

This is an example you can see on the left the original building with its windows and it had very character defining windows. You can see particularly in the arch. I believe they're double hung windows. And this was considered by the National Park Service as an inappropriate modification. Because windows on the right can anyone tell me, like, what the problems could be with the building on the right? The windows?

There's no

muttons. They've closed in the windows at the top. Mhmm.

So, yes, there's no buttons on the arches. The windows in the top have been closed in. But do you also notice how much smaller in the window opening the windows are on the right versus the windows on the left? So the overall size of the window, it was basically a stock possibly a stock purchase of windows rather than a custom purchase. Or perhaps there was issues with stability, that instead of replacing the wood and the mullion, which is the divider between the windows, looks like it went from wood to maybe concrete or stucco.

So it seems like it's nuanced, but the trained eye walking by this building on the right would see that that change had been made. That's a character defining feature that don't meet the standards. So why is all this important? Inappropriate additions, alterations, renovations, relocations, demolitions, those inappropriate changes over time, like I said, erode that district. But as a certified local government, which the city is through the state of Florida, we are required to uphold and your decisions are required to uphold those standards, LDRs, and guidelines.

Being a CLG offers us a lot of benefits. One of the most notable is that we get to apply for grants. And while they're called small matching grants, we actually don't have a match requirement. So if we had the bandwidth to do it, we could be submitting for grants up to $250,000 each, a 100,000 per year, every single year. We were pushing and doing this for a while and got several projects done through the state of Florida, the GIS map, the scanning project, the cemetery.

There's several that we've gotten. If we weren't a CLG, we wouldn't be entitled to that match free grant opportunity. We are required to report all actions, staff approved applications, board approved applications, who the board members are, what your resumes look like, prove that you're qualified applicants. There's a report. Michelle Hewitt is working on this right now that's due every November to the state of Florida reporting our activities.

So while it seems like a soft benefit, it's important that we prove that we're upholding the requirements of our own ordinance. So now we are going to talk about threats to historic preservation. The one that's happening most notably right now is the king tides. So last week we had a full moon and it intersected with the high tide. We had some of the highest tides, I think, we've had in in several years.

We were hearing about the properties, particularly in the Marina District. That's our one historic district that's right on the intercoastal with their flooding happening. The city is working on a project to improve flood resiliency, but that is a major threat to preservation. Next meeting, we're gonna talk about the flood adaptation guidelines that the National Park Service put together, as a way to help property owners make their property more resilient to these changing tides.

Not just changing tides. It's sea level.

Sea level rise. Sorry. Yeah. Climate change.

Because, I mean, king tides have been happening

Hundreds of

nobody built a street to be underwater a hundred years ago.

That's right. Yeah. This is an example of a property in the Marina Historic District that was vertically elevated. The trained eye can see that change by the brick skirting that's around the building. This building would have had a concrete base around it and the wood siding almost probably six inches to the ground, if not right at the ground.

And now it sits up higher. Other threats to preservation, and this is an example that also is in the Marina Historic District, but not necessarily completely because of flood levels and sea level changes, but inappropriate alterations, demolition, new construction. So the area that you see, sometimes I refer to this in some of our presentations. This entire section of the Marina Historic District was removed in the 2008 time frame because so much inappropriate changes had occurred. Demolitions, new construction, additions that were completely inappropriate So when the consultant came through to do a resurvey, they were like, did this get approved by the board?

They did. The recommendation was this is no longer appropriate to even call this a historic district and the whole almost entire block South Of 3rd Street was removed. Other threats are, maintenance. And there is a code now as of 2018 that the, property owner is required to maintain their property in good order, free of wood rot, free of termites. If they don't and it leads to demolition, the property the board, you all have the authority to deny a property owner following a demolition due to neglect from reconstructing anything on that property for five years.

That's also in LDR 451, the historic section.

When that I'm not familiar with. When was that put in?

That was 2018. Really? Okay. That was a result of the historic preservation task force, which was underway before I came to the city. Members of the task force included Joanne Pert as the chair, Claudia Willis, Carolyn Patten, Roger Cope, a number of other people. And they were charged with looking at ways to strengthen preservation in Delray Beach. And this is one of the places they started. In addition to a number of other great things, they added maintenance requirements for historic properties.

Has that ever been tested?

We use it. Yeah. Yeah. The property and I only I'm only gonna use them as an example because they've done such a great job, is Swinton Social, which really was the property that was the impetus behind this code because a developer came along, purchased the property, and stopped maintaining the the property.

The property?

This is just East of Sunday Village, so Swinton.

It says little cottages on the

South Of Atlantic. Wasn't built.

Oh, okay. I remember.

Yeah. They're four little small wood frame cottages.

Came in front of us, like, a couple months ago. Mhmm.

Yeah. So there's new owners now. When those new new owners took ownership, the code enforcement violation was reissued to the new owner. They didn't know what that meant. We worked very closely with them. One of the houses, we believe it was a homeless person went in and a fire had started. And the inside was like the inside of a barbecue grill. And we walked in. We walked inside. No floorboards.

Just walking on the floor joists. And they had to bring that up to snuff. And they understood if they wanted to demolish it, it was going to be as a result of neglect and then you would have that ability to refuse. It's called scorched earth, to refuse construction of anything new on the property. So yes, this is being used.

It's very serious. Code enforcement has been trained just recently again, in how to use that code section. Other threats are things that happen, acts of God. This is on Nassau Street as well. I don't have the after photo to show you, but this did end up turning out to be a really lovely project. But at the time, this big section of the west side of the building caught on fire, smoke damage on the interior. It was in dire shape. So this was an act of God, can be a threat to historic preservation. This is not a historic building, but can anyone tell me what this is?

Wine the wine room. Yeah. They call wine and spirits. Do you know

the the name of what that building was before?

Arcade. Arcade Taproom?

The Arcade Taproom. So the Arcade Taproom is an original nineteen twenties Sam Agron building, important for its architecture, but also its association with culturally important people in our community, including Herb Roth and Fontane Fox. These were the cartoonists, the artists of why we are called an artist colony from the thirties because they would have their offices up there. They'd go work for a little bit, and then they'd go downstairs and have libations at the arcade taproom. So it was quite a popular location.

So the front of the building is still intact. Little to no changes happened. You can see it up here. So I'm taking a picture from the alley, but the entirety of the back of that building was removed and reconstructed new foundations. We tried really hard to get the detailing around the arch in the front of the building to be brought back to what it was originally, and it did change somewhat.

We didn't have purview over this, but I still tried to kind of squeeze my way in and help the owner and say this could be historic one day. Let us help you. So inappropriate alterations are a threat to historic preservation. I don't think this was inappropriate. The important piece is the building facing Atlantic. The piece in the back, which was a later addition, that is all gone.

They enclose part of that.

It used to be open air when it was built.

Yeah. But the the front curved arch, didn't they enclose some of it and put a door and an elevator or something on the side?

So you can actually see tiny bit of evidence in the left picture where the column, the roof, the doorway beyond, those were all later additions. So that was to accommodate an elevator that never existed there, but that was done a long time ago. But John's right. It was open air in the middle. And over the years, they had added a really beautiful glass ceiling in the building.

All of that is is different now. But the historic bar in the corner is still there, which is what they call the Speakeasy. And the stories, if you wanna go sniff out the stories a little bit better than I might tell them, there used to be, what I've heard, a tunnel from the bar that went out underneath the building during prohibition times, and that was how it was a place where you could drink, have alcohol. Do I have that wrong, John?

I no. I don't know. I I think it's hearsay. Now in the Colony Hotel, they do have a kind of a cellar Mhmm. In the Colony and I think maybe that's where that park is sort of in. You would never know it's there but it's kinda cool.

I know it's there because I do yoga there and you don't wanna be on top of that door. Oh, wow. But so the arcade taproom, it was the courtyard area, it was just open there. There was like no fall There

were building there was a building that wrapped it.

It was like little shops all the way Yeah. Around Like open courtyard. I

remember when the Brazilian steak house was there, gold. And I think it had the glass ceiling Yeah. That time.

Yep. When I was a

moved in, that was when the renovation took place.

Yes. Yep. When I was a kid, I can remember what it was like. It was almost like a Via, like you would see in Palm Beach. Because the buildings that the building and the shops that wrapped it in the offices above were all part of, like, kind of off the Ave Commerce. This is off topic.

But near here, wasn't there a pharmacy that also had, like, like a like a juice bar inside?

So that was the nutrition cottage that was right next door, I think. Yeah. That was nutrition store, and they had a juice bar in the back.

Mhmm. Mhmm. That's right.

I always think about that when I see this. I used to go in.

Yeah. I loved the nutrition cottage. I went to high school with their daughter. It was the Stow family. So preservation. So this is an example of and we in Delray Beach have been moving houses around for a very long time. The CRA office building was moved, and the building next to it came from the airport. Mister and missus Harden's home, they don't live there now, but it's called the Harden Hart House added to the registry a few years ago. That was moved from West Palm. This was all taken from the

came down the intercoastal on a barge.

These all did. Yes. They all came. It was called a parade of homes, it and was in the newspaper and they all came down the intercoastal to Knowles Park, down off 10th And Federal, and then they were slowly moved in through town. This example is the name of it is escaping me right now. But this I'll show you the house, then we'll come back. This is on the Barrier Islands. Price House, maybe?

No. That was Joyce DeMoose's house.

Yeah. But I think it's officially called The Price.

Oh, could have been. Is it? It was over but that one was on a one a. Yeah.

And so this is a documented Sears kit home. Gary Iliopoulos was involved with this project. It says Sam Ogrin was built and designed by him, but Gary had done some research through the time frame when this was happening and there was belief that it was documented Sears kit home. I don't know. I I think it's associated with Sam Augran and that's its grandeur. But either way, it was moved. I did get a chance. Thankfully, Joyce let me come see it right before she sold it. It's so cute inside. And it's got a really nice size addition on the back.

It's double frontage. That addition accesses Beach Road and has a driveway in the back. But this is an opportunity to show you an example of preservation. So this was individually designated after it was moved. Another example, this is believed to be Sam Oghren's home. His home that he designed and built for himself. It's not listed. It's not protected. But I will say that I watched the owners, do their whatever they did over the time frame that they did it. And I'm thankful that they left it pretty much intact on the exterior.

This is on North Swinton, just North Of Lake Ida Road on the West Side. So now we're gonna talk about some benefits. The Carl Alafonte, we mentioned him in our our comprehensive plan. He wrote an article that stated and this is what his entire belief is based on. You should go to his website, carlalfonte.com.

Pretty cool. Go and visit that. That the greenest building is the one that's already built. And his belief was that essentially his belief is that preservation essentially is a form of sustainability, adaptive reuse of structures, keeps those structures out of the landfill, and reduces our climate change impacts. Right?

So for adaptive reuse, the ultimate effect at the long road here is it's going to help keep our planet cool. And this is taken from our comprehensive preservation is the original pure form of sustainability. So sustainability, we're thinking, reusable grocery bags or electric cars. But I I think we fail to look at how historic preservation really has an impact on our planet, that we are making sure our vitality is in place for future generations. So I encourage you to go read about him.

Read his thoughts. I was on his website again today making sure it was all up to date. There's some really interesting things and articles. Go read what he has to say. It's kind of enlightening.

And why is preservation important? We obviously, the incentives seem like they're more soft incentives once you get out of the tax incentives. Pride of ownership tends to be one of the incentives, that we express to to property owners, but it oftentimes is the person that wants to be a part of the city that they live in. They enjoy owning a piece of that history and becoming a shepherd and a steward for that history. But what does it do for our economy?

It improves our local, regional, state economy through tourism because people come to visit cultural sites. They wanna go to museums. If you think about the trips you've taken, like how many of you have been to Saint Augustine? I think we probably all have. And you're going there architecture, to see the fort, to see the fountain of youth that that Columbus thought he found.

Or not Columbus. De Leon. Thank De you. So it's you're going to visit spaces because you want to learn more about it. You go to the beach to enjoy the beach, but you, a lot of times, go and visit Ireland or Scotland because you want to see the old castles. Right? Or the old construction and architecture. This gentleman that meant to put his name on here, his name is Donovan Ripkima. He came and spoke at our Atlantic Avenue Historic Symposium that we had. So if you want to hear him speak, he spoke there.

It's pretty interesting to listen to him. I've also listened to him at a session that they had at the Delray Beach or the Palm Beach Preservation Foundation. And he his thoughts, what he was doing is, a preservationist and an economist, is he was studying that what was happening in our country over the long decades part of our history, but then all the way up to our recession in the February. And what he was able to find in his research is that property values either stayed where they were or they rose for properties in historic districts or historically designated properties. So his his research interesting.

You can go back and listen to him at the symposium. But he really believed that historic preservation is a central building block for so many things in addition to our economy. And here you can see this graphic pie chart is taken from the state of Florida historic preservation comp plan document. This was done in the late two thousands where they also and this is from that same document. This is from our comp plan.

I took the information from the state and inserted it here. We're looking at billions of dollars brought into our state through heritage tourism and historic preservation. It solidifies jobs in addition to tourism. Trade, you want to go and work on a building, maybe you're a specialty tradesman. The retail industry has implications here in state wealth, jobs and income. It's just amazing when you read all of this information. And we don't think about it in the context of what we're doing. We are thinking about this one little building on Swinton. You know? And we go back.

I now I'm thinking I should have put some of those old pictures, the before and afters after this part right here, so you could see how amazing our city has turned over the years because of historic preservation. So here is our website, delrybeachfl.gov/historic. We'll bring you to the base. You're gonna wanna make sure you click on HP regulations and maps over on the sidebar here. And these icons will link you into all of these documents we've covered tonight.

There's also maps here that you can access as well, if you want to look at graphics. But this is where the LDRs, the DelRig Design Guidelines, the Secretary of Interior Standards, the Comp Plan, all of that's right here. We encourage you to go and look at these documents and get familiar because there is so much on you responsibility wise to continue to be making the decisions that you're making with our board. Does anyone know what this is other than John? Yes. I know Carol and John are nodding. How about Ben or Chris?

No. Mister Powers.

Who's the tall guy?

Parade down in Atlantic. Right?

This is the Saint Patrick's Day parade. Pig. The powers. Was it Mori? Mori. Yep. And the green pig. So you you did used to have a green pig. We're not allowed to do that anymore. But

and The first parade was just him and the pig.

Yeah. Trying to catch it.

This is how I remember Delray Beach as a kid. And this is today. So we greatly appreciate your dedication, your service, listening to me go on tonight and kind of stress the importance of our regulations and our codes. We just want you to be armed with as much information as possible because if the state were here doing a presentation, it would be all focused on defensible decision making. I think at our next meeting, we may have some things that Kelly and I might work on together to bring to you about defensible decision making and your role as a board.

But thank you for your service and your dedication and for doing such a great job. Our next training, November 5. Please, please try to come. If you don't think you can come, let us know in advance, but you can always go back and watch the meeting if you had to. It looks like a fairly light agenda, so it should be similar to the timing as what this is here. But we're gonna cover those flood adaptation standards and kind of give you a short course on that. Any questions?

That was excellent. Thank you. You for that. Thanks.

Yeah, glad that somebody put some statistics and some math behind what and I think I got this line from you that that communities with a stronger commitment to historic preservation also have higher property values. Mhmm. You know, you talk about Palm Beach, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Key West, Saint Augustine, Delray. I mean, it's it's not a chicken or the egg. I mean, the two are are are are linked in. And I I've been telling people that forever and ever, but I'm glad that now there are there are some statistics behind it.

Yes. And it's in the comp plan. Yeah. So if you ever wanted to go look at the numbers a little closer, you can look at them there. But also look at Donovan Ripkima and his website and the research he's done and the studies he's done. I was it was actually myself, Price, and Roger were all at the preservation foundation in Palm Beach the first time I heard him talk. And we all walked out of there kind of like gobsmacked that, wow, I had no idea about historic preservation and its impact on property values. It was amazing. So it's it'd be a good resource. If if you like the numbers, you can go look at his his stuff too. Anything else?

No. I thought thought it was really good. I mean, Delray got lucky too because, you know, a lot of the money in the sixties and seventies and eighties flowed to Boca. They got redeveloped and built up and people left Delray alone. And then when it got rediscovered, there was already some guidelines in place.

I love that way of looking at it that we got lucky that they walked

Yeah. I mean, were they were talking about four lane in Atlantic all the way to the beach. Yeah. There was, you know, the big box over in Old School Square. There's all kinds of

Right. Before he

laning Swinton even. That was under discussion.

He talked to me a bit about and Swinton technically is designated as historic Swinton Avenue, although it doesn't fall under any kind of historic purview of the board. But talking with Roy Simon the year before he passed, he was telling me a bit. And we were trying to figure out how we could help the colony replace their awnings without DOT requiring some type of agreement because that's what was happening. And I was like, just do it. No. But Roy, he was telling me about his experience with Atlantic Avenue back when DOT was looking at widening it even more than they did. And I can't imagine what the fronts of those buildings would have looked like if they'd taken any more. So

Personally, I still think they should get rid of the parking. Just widen the sidewalk. But it's just me.

Anytime I go I I go to a city, a historic old town I mean, the one that comes to memory for me most recently is Thomasville, Georgia. There's a few others, but they still have the diagonal parking Mhmm. Along their roads. It's a little tricky crossing those roads even though they're not as busy as ours. They're it's just still broader.

You know? But I always thought if they didn't get rid of the parking, why not put at least like in front of the Colony, Atlantic Crossing, all the way to the bridge, like a landscaped median. Kinda bring the road a little feel a little smaller, which is what they did. Big changes to Federal back in the nineties and early two thousands. They really made Federal Highway feel more narrow, more pedestrian friendly. So it wasn't such a big expanse to get across.

On Clematis, they brought the street level to the sidewalk level. Mhmm. So it it slows traffic down because it you feel like your the people are right there. Yeah. So that's a traffic calming technique. And it makes it makes the it's not expanding the space, but it makes it feel like you have more space.

It does. Although the Makes feel

more pedestrian, but also the cars don't have a curb and they sometimes end up on the sidewalk.

They've put a lot of bollards in. Think it was unintended.

Actually get hit.

Yes. I think it was unintended consequence of the design was they had to protect the pedestrians some way so it became vertical bollards planters. Does

look really good though.

Yeah. It does. Yeah.

It could be lighting too, the bollard. So it serves two purposes. True.

Well, thank you all.

Sounds great. Do we have any other comments or items or anything like that?

Just that our next meeting is November 5, so it's just two weeks from now. You'll be getting an agenda in the next week or so Any on

board member comments? I've got a comment. You know, we've been getting all these ask for forgiveness applicants.

Rather than asking for permission.

And I think a lot of them know that they probably shouldn't do it because these people already had an approval. They already knew what they were approved for as a I'm I'm meeting the applicant today as as an example. But they went ahead and did it anyway. There's also a contractor out there that is going ahead and installing something without a permit in hand. Mhmm. And I don't know what to do about this. I mean, I've been thinking about it, but it's almost like you you have to make these contractors like, you gotta hit them hit them with something.

Well, there that is a that is a violation of statute. Right? That and and it would, I think, be an enforce very,

very,

understand why that's not enforced. And and and maybe it's who's got the responsibility for for actually filing that complaint because the the I I think what it would take is is is somebody filing a complaint against that contractor's license because it's very serious. It's serious.

It's costly to the owner. Because now this owner maybe they were told they could do it or I'm not sure, but it's costing someone money to do it.

You want to be development friendly with that and you want them to improve their property because they are undertaking something. But they I don't I don't I just don't understand the mentality of why they feel they can go outside all these boundaries that that have already been established.

Well, case in point is the property on this Northeast Corner of Lake Ida and second, Alice Beck's old property. And, you know, they came before us. We said no or come back with a better plan, and they did it anyway. And I don't think there's been any repercussions on it, so I don't know. I know it's being handled through code enforcement. But

Yeah. I know it's super frustrating, but I you know, it it is something that has to be handled on the code enforcement or potentially building site as well. Mhmm. And all I can say while you're up here is you just have to treat it like as if it was before you the first time, before they did it. You know?

Not give them any benefit or any negative about it and just treat it. Because it will like, because the code enforcement board is the one that is the, I mean, their ideal position is compliance. So they are the ones that are trying to get the people into compliance, but a tool that they use to do that is through fines. So they you know

I mean, do when when they're applying for these applications, is there like, do do you staff as do you guys approach them and say, hey. Look. If you do anything, x, you know, this will happen?

Like, So we do this all the time. We explain from beginning to end how it's important that they not do the work prior to having a permit in hand. It's always at the top of our list to discuss. And while Kelly may stop me, am gonna say, as a board, it's up to you to decide what's okay and what's not for the legitimacy of that structure. Right?

So if you decide that doesn't meet our code requirements, it you know, it I think we've had some instances in the past where the board's like, wow. It's gonna be expensive to replace all those windows. That's not the consideration that you're charged with. You're charged with, is this an appropriate alteration for this house? Whether it's been done or not isn't the point. It's is it appropriate? So at at some point, there's going to be a straw that's going to break the camel's back. An example project.

I just think that a peep know, if if it was just if people knew more about this or they, you know, the contractors themselves knew. Particularly Maybe it's not the applicants. Maybe it's contractors. I don't know. But can do just this a

single out specific applicants. But the ones that tend to do it the most have been warned not to do it and they do it anyway. That is what we found. As far as the one on second, we've had meetings recently. There are holds on permits that they can't have COs for. So because of this. And so they want to come into compliance because they want those COs. So there's some things that I've been able to do, but it has to be done through code enforcement. And they are coming forward is what they've said. And I'm you know, I've said you've said it before, but Three years Two are we gonna see it?

You know, at at what point? So I think there's some controls, but Carol, when I started, it was a free for all of people doing work without permits. It was just a free for all.

Yeah. I don't understand.

So I I mean, puts

us in a bad I mean, it puts us all in a bad position, and it it doesn't happen. This isn't just a little bit. This happens every single meeting.

Oh, yeah.

We're the guy. That's why I'm just speaking up about it because we don't wanna be in that we don't wanna be in that position either. Even though I know we're we're supposed to do what we gotta do. And we do do what we gotta do, but it's frustrating.

I don't think the fines

are too

in my opinion. They're reversible and irreparable. It's what? $15,000 fine. I don't think that's enough.

Think Bus doing business these days.

I think it's just the cost of you wrap that into the cost of the project. And if it's 1%, maybe. In some instances, so what?

So There are certain things that are, like, defined by statute, by code, by you know, so it it just depends on what is, you know, appropriate.

Alright. We're exactly at 07:00, so I'm gonna

That's it? It's only seven?

Call us adjourned if anybody has any objections. That's good. Thank you so much. Alright.