Historic Preservation Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

There we go. Start with

Gonna stop the video? Oh, I meant to just

k. There we go.

Okay. You're good. Okay. Today is 04/28/2025, and I am calling the Erie Historic Preservation Advisory Board meeting to order. I actually have a gavel.

Pledge?

And pledge allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic of which he stands. Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I'm surprised in a in a public, we get to say under under God. So, Madam secretary, roll call, please.

Mike Turner.

Here.

Andrea Art. Here. Melanie Fuller. Cesar Jimenez.

Here.

And I see council members Brian O'Connor, Kenan Neal, and

Pessarah Mendy.

Pence.

Oh, there's Laura.

Oh, there's Larry.

Yep.

Perfect. Gary Brennan is also here,

and Laura Thomas. Hey. Hello, Laura. Present.

Okay. I know I didn't get this out till late Friday, but

Nice day.

Did everybody have does everybody have an opportunity to review the minutes? I mean, the agenda? Yes. Do I have a motion?

I motion to approve the agenda.

Second? Cesar seconds. Okay. Melanie motioned and Cesar seconded to approve the agenda as written. All in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Okay. I see I messed it up because it says February 24. It should be March 24. I'm sorry.

So I need to make a motion to amend the

Yeah. Amend the minutes. I'm sorry.

So I motion to amend the agenda under item four a to be the approval of March.

I didn't even see that. March.

The one for the last

time.

It was also March 24. Yeah.

March 24 instead of February 24. Second?

Second.

Okay. Melanie has motion that we amend the minutes because it says February instead of March under approval of minutes. Laura seconded. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Thank you. Everybody read the minutes?

Yes.

May I have a motion?

I so I so move.

The minutes. Okay. Second?

Second.

Okay. Deandrea has motion that we approve the minutes as written, seconded by Lara. All in favor? Aye. No. I don't think there is, but do you see anybody waiting?

Nope. And I I I think the way I understand it from Michelle, we won't ever expect any other participants online. They have to come in person. But this is really just for our for the recording purposes.

So Alright. Okay. Thanks. So, yeah, we're good. Okay. On the events, Arbor Day went very well. We had a pretty good turnout, and I would thank Deandrea and Laura for both being there. Yeah. And Brian, counselor O'Connor Right. Brian brought he had a friend of his that was supposed to toss candy at the Christmas parade, but they weren't allowed to. So we he donated peppermint. You know?

He he bought 80 pounds of candy. So

we asked if I wanted

if if I wanted any more.

I said it was

a success. We'd to feed it. Yeah. 20 pound box.

So it'll be put to you

in good use. It's what was it? Like, 20 pounds? That each box is 22. Yeah. Four boxes.

Yeah. Goodness.

So we have lots of candy.

Sorry. Discussion last month about what type of candy we

Yeah. Okay. So it's a must.

Yeah. There we go. We got it for free. So

Saving your tax dollars. Exactly. K.

Alright. The town fair.

And we also passed out a lot of those walking brochures.

Oh, yeah. The the washing brochures went out. We ran through all of the gym stall out of the coal dust.

I have

I still have a box.

Yeah. A large box. But we ran it, and we almost ran out of the blue book. So and they said, how much does this cost? We say free.

Yeah.

If you ever print another one of the books, the other Jim Stall book has sections on what what the streets are named after.

Yeah.

Where the other one doesn't. Yeah. So I've I've said residents say, oh, know, my street is named this. Well, did you know it's named after coal

mine? Right.

Oh. That's neat. Yeah. Well, that's Yeah.

All the streets in Erie Commons are named after miners.

The ones in in Country Meadows are named after the you know, first members of Erie. So

the only difference is is on Zodo Street, the guy's name was actually z a d o, Zedo.

And it's golden.

Thank you. So if you look at the if you look at the streets in Hirakum and then go and look at the monument, you'll see the names.

See?

Yeah.

Okay. The town fair is May 17. We will need I I would like to have help. It's not so hard to set it up. It's just I'm I'm exhausted tearing down.

It shouldn't be there.

No. I was thinking about you. I was like, oh my god. I feel awful I have to leave, but I'm also worthless with the baby strap to me to

keep So,

yeah, I feel like even if it's just volunteers of any just for setup and tear down to

Yeah. Because I got the town did something. They went over to the the softball fields or the baseball fields, and I don't know what they were doing. But there were eerie people there, and they grabbed them to send them over to help move all those tables. And one of them helped me take the tent, and she was taller. So was so she could help grab the top things. And I actually hurt my arm reaching.

So We need to do a sign up for something. Yeah.

Remind me what time. It's ten till when?

Well, we have to set up we have to set up by eight. Okay. Okay. Have to be there early. Yeah. You've done it before with DEI. Right?

Once, but we didn't have a ten. We shared with another Yeah.

But we but you have to be there early.

Yeah.

Because after eight, they're not gonna let you in.

And what is the event time? It's ten till Four.

It's it's ten to four, but you have to be set up. What is it? Eight or 08:30?

Just thinking about tearing. Eight.

Because they will not let you down. You can't pull your car down down the street after 08:00.

And if Deandrea and I are busy that morning, it's graduation. I have a reservation.

And Yeah.

But we I can be there for teardown.

Okay. Yeah. If somebody can help me teardown, that's all I need. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm sure there's kids that need volunteer. I think they could Yeah. Go up in the room.

And then for the airfare, that is on a Sunday.

And what time is that at?

I don't know exactly yet. Okay. But last year, there was well, you would they the airborne decided they would do it every two years because it's so much work. So this year and that's gonna be September 7. And last year, our booth was right next to the band.

Bring your place.

And so every time me everybody come talking to her, I just scream at them. So let me just I hope we don't get it like that this year. So Okay.

Just you should ask. Just ask. Just ask them. Yeah.

You know? Don't put me next to the The tree board wasn't near Yeah. The band, I think. Yeah.

They have a hard time hearing anyway.

Let's And then on just two weeks later will be biscuit dairy.

We're gonna have it this year.

Yes.

We're not was a question that I got a couple times at Arbor Day. Are we really having biscuit day? Yes. Missed it. And so I No.

A lot of people were upset.

Yes.

There were actually two reasons why it didn't happen if you didn't know. Number one, Arie was supposed to do a some roadwork and it didn't happen. And then Matt and I forget and his wife, I forget her name. Sorry. They run blackjack. Oh. And they were at a wedding that day.

So I didn't catch up.

So for those two reasons and they they have to get approval for the restaurants and stuff like that. So that's why they couldn't shift to a different vendor.

Department.

Yeah. But but knowing that Briggs said,

oh, we're gonna take and

then they didn't do anything. That

Well, I told them to be sure to email the council to tell them that we're

Yeah. Yeah.

I passed the buck on that.

The message was well received because I've I've had at least a 100 people approach me. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm sure, Brian, you've had a lot approach here. Yep. Yeah. Brian and I were actually there at Sandy's.

Okay.

Yeah. So

The plan.

Well, yeah, we were the only two that was there.

Yeah. Yeah.

You and I were the three board and h pair were the only ones there.

In historic preservation. No. Historical society.

Alright. Historical thing.

Yeah. Yeah.

It's Fairfax. It's tripping you. The cool thing.

But they actually left early.

So but

So the airfare supposedly ten to two.

Thank you. Ten ten

to two? Ten to two. That's according to the town calendar.

September. And what is air the

town fair again, the actual hours? I know 8AM is set up, but it's ten to four. Ten to four. Okay.

And the parking is gonna be quite a ways away. So if I get to park relatively close because I have the stuff. Right? But it if you don't get there early

Which is fine.

Yeah. Because it's probably 5,000 people will be there. It's well attended. So biscuit day, you know, I'll be running biscuits. So I have the stuff, and I'll bring it. And I'll take it home, but I won't be in the booth that day.

Yes. I can be there. I should be able to help.

At at least until eleven.

They're with my Prairie Bonnet house.

Yeah. That's not a problem. Yeah.

It's good something. Grandmother.

Yeah. It's a visor. Do

you so I've got these two metal Yeah. Units, two by six. Yeah. If you need them, they just live in my garage most of the year.

Yeah. Because I was gonna but because you told me that in this event, for everyday, I couldn't use them.

We yeah. We had to.

Yeah. Right. So if they're if they're available for town fair yeah. Sure.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And in

the meantime, we can discuss what we're gonna do. I may It actually turned out pretty well, but I had a I actually made I actually made one. So yeah.

Made one what?

The the board I made to hang the pictures.

Oh, yes. Right. I don't know name.

But it would be better for those big pictures to be on a thing instead of swinging in the wind.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Stood there and it was like Yeah. I

just did. You should have good time.

No. We do what we can. Hey. Thanks, Brian.

Yeah. No worries. Yeah.

Is there

a time yet for biscuit day? Is it

ten to It's usually ten to four.

No. It's, like, ten to It's eight to twelve, I think. It's just Oh, biscuit day.

I'm sorry. I was thinking I don't care.

Because it's over by noon. Yeah.

Eight to noon. Yeah.

And I'm typically running biscuits till 10:30, 11:00. I used to cook the ground sausage, but I don't do that anymore. I did that for six years. So

I made biscuits one year. It was a lot of fun.

Well, we don't roll them anymore.

Yeah. I was rolling them.

Yeah. So was I. I've done it. So, yeah, one year, I spent four and a half hours cooking sausage, and they sent me over to roll biscuits because now they're frozen. So

Okay. Great. Thank you.

Okay. And sorry. For the town fair, I heard we stopped some books. Did we wanna distribute them there? What do we wanna do for the

Yeah. We're gonna get probably use up the rest of our books.

Box?

Yeah.

A fixed that's

Oh, you do?

Kind. It's I don't know how many books, but it's about the songs.

Well well, you We

probably have maybe 50 or something.

Yeah. We'll probably run out.

Yeah.

Because we we got them for the 100 and fiftieth. Yeah. And he still had a lot left over.

Yeah. Eight to twelve. Biscuit day. September 20.

Will we need to order more for any of the other events?

I don't know about you know, maybe biscuit day if we said about that.

We do need more walking brochures printed.

Yeah. That's Rachel.

Think I can just email her right now.

I'm glad that I'd like you to know, I'm glad that everybody's here. Yeah. I'm happy everybody's here. Except Rachel. Except Rachel. Except Rachel. But but Rachel let me know she wasn't gonna be here. So Yeah. Yeah. Okay. On the old business

budget Let's see if I can figure out

the screen share. We don't have to spend money on candy.

True. Yeah. Yeah. $50

or whatever.

How much was left?

Oh, not much. Really? Yeah. I had I had to reef I had to refill the bowl. Okay. Yeah.

Alright. I'll see

if I can get one. The parents walked by, but the kids were locked on.

Yeah. Yeah.

The kids bring I wasn't sure because they were, you know, red and white.

Well, the kids saw they they they know what it is, and they had lock on. That's awesome.

So for budget, still no expenditures. I did wanna note, though, I had been quoting you guys as saying, I thought the budget was 5,000. But when I actually asked finance for this budget report, it's $4,000 this year.

That's what I have heard. Okay. With 4,000. I apologize for misstating

that. Yeah.

So it is 4,000, unfortunately. Mhmm. But, yeah, it's sorry. That's kind of a simple budget report, but I have asked Deborah. I guess you know Deborah probably. Yeah. Hopefully, they give me a budget snapshot every month now, so it'll be a little more detailed than this is looking.

But And then I can include it in the meeting packet. Yeah. Yep. Oh, okay. And then I talked to a couple people at the Arbiter Fair about landmarking, and a couple people are thinking about it. Just know that each plaque is a thousand dollars. And that was and that was last year. So who knows this year? But I have a contact at the factory now, so I don't have to go through a local. I can just talk to him now.

That's great.

Yeah. So and he's got our artwork and everything. So and he's in Pennsylvania. There's nobody in Colorado in our local that will do a sand finish. Okay. For Aneel, if you don't understand a sand finish, it's it's not smooth and clear. It's kinda bumpy. And you know what I yeah. You've seen them. That's called a sand finish.

Excellent. And nobody here and if you ever go to if you ever run Wells, just stop and look at the town hall, the old town hall, you'll see it there. But that's but we've tried Mike, Katernik, and I and other people for a couple years tried to find somebody locally and just nobody will do the tooling for it because we don't do enough.

Makes sense.

So we have to go back east for it because they do a lot.

Do we need the plaque to make everything complete as far as landmarking a building, or can we landmark a building just not have the aesthetics of the

plaque? We the nomination go goes in, and then it gets approved by the town council. So we can do it. It's just the plaque is just something to put up there to show that it's been done. So it's after the fact if that answers your, you know, your question.

Yeah. I just wanna know if our budget determines how many landmarks we do per year.

Well, the issue with landmarking is the nomination form has to come from the property owner.

Mhmm.

Alright? And then that's that's the first requirement. And the second and then it's has it been surveyed? So those are the first two re requirements. So if it's been surveyed, then we ask the then we ask the the property owner, would you landmark? And 370 Bridge is a good example. 370 Bridge is the Agnew Hotel was Erie's first hotel. And it also had it turned into a brothel and everything else. But I've talked to Rob and I said, Rob, I need I wanna landmark your property. He said, no.

My wife will not be told what to do. And so he brought her to the booth couple years ago. No. Last year at the town ferry brought her, and she said, nope. We'll not be told what to do. So I says, don't care about the inside or your garden. I don't care. Nope. So that's what I'm and the Venevich house, the the one with the big wooden fence. He was a moonshiner. That's where how he made his money. But so yep. So he got a moonshiner and a brothel across the street.

How's your feeling? What? One fuels the other.

Yeah. And they were on the same block, just opposite corner. So that's

So so far, it hasn't necessarily been Something factor. Got it. Yeah. I just think last year, we had three properties in one year.

Got it.

And because we had spent a fair amount of budget on the con on what like, the tail end of the contract with someone doing surveys in our phase two.

Yeah. The the phase two survey.

We were a little tight last year, but

Yeah. We barely made it.

Yeah. That didn't necessarily stop us. I guess we, one one of them was late enough in the year that it would have been fine if we weren't able to afford it in that year's budget to just put it on to the next year. It's not, like, a regulatory requirement that we get the sign.

Actually, that's what I was my main question is from.

Was your question, just to clarify, is do we have to spend a thousand dollars on the flax, or can we find another supplier, or do they have to all look exactly the same?

They have to yeah.

Is that why we're spending a thousand dollars?

Yeah. Because we can't The requirement for a circle. Yeah. It's not a requirement. We could change, but then it would look funny. No.

Alright. How much would you save? I don't know. I mean, you'll that page. It might be it might be worth looking into. Yeah.

I'm under but I don't what you're

I was trying to

out a little bit.

How many exactly we have? How many properties are

13.

13.

That's what I thought. Because I was gonna say 13 compared to the rest of the houses that might potentially happen.

But our board here has landmark four. Alright? And that's the most that's been done in the previous five in the previous ten years.

Right. Well, that's, I guess, what we're

gonna do. That is

it if we find someone who can do it for $500 and we can

Without the sand and finish. Right.

And we

It's a it's a work the change.

Yeah. So We're gonna And and then against it. So, you know, people around around here looked into it, but nobody wants to do the tooling for something they're gonna use once every three or four years. Sure. Yeah. That's that's the other issue. These people already have our Which is the tooling?

You guys start doing? Yeah. You can make some

money. Yeah. I had no idea. You

know, I don't get a breakdown. Maybe just tell me how much it costs.

So you know? I think the follow-up question too is this something that the board should take on as an expense? It seems like maybe this talent should pick up that expense. If it is

Well, technically, yeah. Technically, it does.

You know what I'm saying? Like, not from our bucket. Yeah.

What what line item do you wanna put it under? So but I don't think we have a if something happened and we needed more more money, I don't think we would have trouble getting it from the board. So HPAB, fortunately, has a very good relationship with the town council. So

Maybe worth investigating still, though. Yeah. Anyone else in the country or maybe somewhere?

Surrounding towns where they get

their plaques? We have tried everybody in Colorado.

Offices. Yeah.

We spent a lot of time trying

to find another supplier. Yeah.

Melanie was was a but part of it, and so she's been on board for three years now. And for years, we we try. We just can't.

You know? Okay. We'll get to it. Mhmm. Good to know.

Yeah. Okay. It it it was a good thing. Can we find somebody locally? So Yeah. Because it would be cheaper.

If we I mean, what we didn't try before was if we change the design, could we find somebody? Because we were trying to find somebody to match

The sand finish. Yes.

So it is an open question. If we could find someone to change the design, would it save us some money? I think we could evaluate that. Yeah. Yeah. There's not that unfortunately, there's

not that many people that make these.

Yeah. Oh, I'm sure.

Yeah.

Not the exterior, you know, that aren't gonna hold up for

Quality.

Yeah. Yeah. It it it's bronze. So

You can print a couple. Yeah.

Exactly. Yeah. It's heavy.

Mean, birds buy some too, but they're not buying the round with the logo and so I don't know if that

Now this is a big 12 by 12 square.

It's square?

I thought it was the round

it's the square one.

It's the square one. It's the big square one.

Okay.

If it was the little round one, we'd have no problem. Okay. But this is the big bronze square one. Okay. And that's why it's a thousand dollars. Okay.

But I think maybe we cross the

bridge when we come to it of how many

Yeah. Yeah.

Looking to landmark and evaluate the supplier and Yeah.

Design modifications, see if it is.

Yeah. The the thing is is grants. You know, people wanna grant to help. They can get up to $5,000, but they can't apply for it unless they're landmarked. So okay.

We pushed a lot. We had a couple questions, Lara and I. And fortunately, she was there to talk more eloquently than I did. But we had questions on historic district. We had people who were down who were old town residents, and we asked them that question, you know, do you want a three store building next to your house? And Noah and they said, well, we're thinking about doing it. Yes. Yeah. Was this this

weekend or at the town for the

No. The oh, Harvard Day. Okay.

I sent a couple your way.

Yeah. Because they were bending my ear about it.

Yeah. How old? And you think we should go talk to them.

Yeah. So they are all and these were younger families that had bought an older home knowing it was historic. And they were well for it, but they also cautioned us that people have been here forty, fifty years are gonna stick their spear in the ground.

They are, and they may not because the the couple that I spoke with Yeah. The conversation started off with an absolute no until I went into further depth. I need more details about it. Oh, yeah. Maybe we do because we're having issues with neighbors. Yeah. And so I said, well, then make sure to go talk to you.

Yeah. I had one guy said all he wants to do is give a can of paint to somebody to go paint her house.

Might have been the same person.

Yeah. And he was and he was younger, but he says, you know, but there is no HOA. So, you know, so there's nothing. One house looks fine, the next one doesn't. There's nothing you can do about that. But from our standpoint, we don't care what the property looks like. We just care about the building.

So just to back up a little, Mike and I were there at the presentation to the board, and we discussed this Mhmm. With with the board of the council members. And I think the council is focused on kind of getting a a holistic approach to the town in general with

the new board and Yeah. I mean, everything. But thanks thanks to Brian, he did an offline with with Andrew and explained to him what was going on and goes, oh, so now he understands.

So I yeah. I don't think we have the board the council's full approval to go yet,

but maybe later Well, all all we wanted was to let them know what we were gonna do since we work at the behest of the town council. Right. We can't do something without council knowing about it.

Well, yes. It's good for council to know because, you know, it's come it we just have a heads up.

Yes. And and that's what we did, but it bringing it up just shocked him. Yeah. You know? And he's learning. Yeah. Because, you know, mayor Moore what was it? Ten years ago when he was mayor, this wasn't even a thought.

But he did offer that maybe we have a question in the survey that goes out Yeah. Later this year. So

But that's not useful. Right? Like, why would somebody else?

Right. Right. Yeah. Not the district. It's not the whole town.

Right? Saying, like, this is specific to this part of the town.

So we presented the idea to to mayor Moore and the council members. And yeah.

It didn't go over quite as easy as I thought it had. But it

I mean, I think there wasn't an understanding. Yeah. There was smart. This is all this is basically Yeah. Historic preservation. Mhmm. Basically, at least counts as I'm sure, go ahead and and And this is engage with the residents and bring that feedback back to council. Yeah. It's and correct me if I'm wrong. No.

That that's what it is. Like, a 100 people.

Mhmm, about what it is. So could we get your approval to maybe do a survey of some sort just an informal survey of Which one? Old town residents at the town fair or something. Right. Well, maybe biscuit days.

Biscuit I was gonna say, let me I I can probably enlighten a little bit to some of this conversation. So Harry and I met with, Josh Campbell, who's the senior strategic planner for Town of Erie, and he is working on a historical town strategic plan. And I I just wanna caution, like, we can't do anything without full Right. Erie's Town of Erie support financially. It's not even and $4,000 is, like, in the wind for this project.

Yeah.

So I think that's just kind of reality number one is that it's gonna have to be a at large, effort. But I also spoke with, History Colorado with a couple different people. And one in particular was really giving me the rundown of, like, how this works. And and I think that's what we need to just be really cognizant or cautious of. There are two different ways you can approach this this whole thing.

One is the, is basically the state, plan, and that you can't put any limitations on anyone on their house. So they can demolish it. They can they can change anything they want in the house, but they can still vote to say, want a historic district under these whatever these Parameters. Parameters are. And parameters, I mean, not that they're putting on themselves with the house, but, like, you know, from Perry to Evans from Main

Street.

But really, it's kind of an in name only, But we need that because the state is the only one that can provide grants. So it's like we want that's a big benefit. That's why people would vote for it because they wanna have access to the grant money that could potentially help their business or their their home. We also would wanna, for sure, a minimum, do two districts. You would wanna do a business district, and then you wanna do a residential one. You wouldn't want to combine them for some also, tax benefit recency just gets complicates things. The and now, you know, that's where I hesitate. And I I know I said this to to you, Mike. I was like, woah. Woah.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves that if you don't want a three story building line, right, we have to create our own local historic district, and we choose what those parameters are. They could either be exactly what we feel is under the certificate of what is the name? Appropriateness. Or we may designate, like, these are the certain things that we don't want to happen as a town. We don't wanna see properties raised.

I think that's one of the biggest ones. Right? We're scared to death to see a property from 1874 of the founding just get torn down and something thrown in its place. So I think we have to decide as a board if we are going to do one that is a local historic district that actually puts parameters on the homeowners of what they can or cannot do to their property similar to what we do with the independent houses, that we have to decide how far reaching that is because I think that would determine how much people would engage and accept it. And maybe we wouldn't go as far as they are for the the

In the end of

the Yeah. That we would want to see, you know, certain things happen, but we wouldn't necessarily go as far as that because we wanna get the district at all.

Yeah. One of the issues that I was when I took over as chairman that I was faced with is previous administrations follow the secretary of interior got guidelines, they wouldn't give up on it. You know, they stuck their spear in the ground and says, no. This is it. And it created a huge

Here we are.

And, you know, and it created this huge between the board, HPAB, and the town. Yeah. So one of the things we first had to do was change the attitude towards us, and we've been able to do that to some extent. And then and so we had to get past that. And now we've been able to change that, and you find out that you read the secretary or the interior, but it's managed by the National Park Service.

And then National Park Service document is not as restrictive as secretary of the interior document. So the National Park Service document actually states you can use if materials aren't available, you already use alternative material alternate material. And so that's where the composite because you can't get the wood anymore. You can't get the artisans to do it anymore. They're just too expensive.

So a lot of people around have done composite. 370 Bridge is a good example. It looks great. It looks like wood, but we all know it's it's either, you know, composite or cement board. So and it looks great. And so that is authorized. And so we've said over and over and over again, all you can use different materials as long as they look like wood. Vinyl and aluminum is not approved.

So That's those are the kind of things where we would have to determine, you know, where where's the hard line, where where do we have some wiggle room, where we're we're saying we want the district enough to where we don't want to alienate so many people because we're putting so many restrictions on it as opposed to saying, like, okay. We'll allow x, y, and z, blah blah blah. So we kind of get to create the parameters from from a local standpoint, but we we would want to, I mean, I would assume because duplicating efforts on something like this would be ridiculous. We would want to walk this path simultaneously of of getting both the states, which is the 51% approval. And I'm assuming we would just go with the same thing, the 51% for a local one, and and make sure that we are getting both of those approvals, but it's it I'm working on I've got more documents at home.

This was my most recent printing of things at the library today. But it just is trying to currently create a digestible document that is that is beneficial to the homeowners so that they don't read it and immediately go.

All we wanna do is for the home to maintain its historic characteristics.

Sure. Yeah.

So I don't understand the on is there anything from the state that we can kind of, say this after and not have anything specific to local?

So for the state, there are certain things that they do want to see for for their approval of the historic district. So, yes, there

So can we just say that as a reason not add more to it to keep it simple?

To to a certain extent, yes. But, again, if when you vote for the state so, like, what what they are looking for, we could have those same criteria, but it does not have the authority. And that's where the local would come in and saying that we don't, you know, we don't want you to alter x, y, and z, but they can still do it under the state. That doesn't matter. So I guess, yes, we could still have the same parameters, so to say, as the state, but we are more enforcing of it from the local

The the reason why I'm asking state is it might be a little more broader and more easier for people to accept The more we put restrictions, they're not specific restrictions. Right? Like, let's say there is some town which is famous for something, and we always have been that. But right now, we are saying the fence and exterior needs to be, but there is no unique character.

Right. And I think that's where it's a little complicated is that it is fairly restrictive for the state to approve. Like, not everyone gets approved. I'm pretty sure Lafayette no. No. No. Who was it?

Some It was Lewisville, rather.

Lewisville, yeah, in the eighties got didn't didn't get approved. So you still they have You

know why?

I was trying to ask if I can get their their report, if I can get it.

I saw some that that they didn't want to call it historical. My thoughts might be wrong.

I know. Well, I know that they went through the process, they were not approved.

They did.

And I think the thing is that you though there's high standards for it, it's just after the fact not enforceable, which is a little weird, if that makes any sense. Like, if they are if you're gonna have the historic district they want, and that's something we would need to decide as well. You know? Technically, the homes all the way up to eight to sorry. 1975 could be a part of this historic district because it's within the fifty year period. Do we consider a house built in 1971 to be of consequence? Maybe because we still had mines that were active as

Yeah. You

you couldn't

even have

paved streets. We didn't have paved. So I mean, we could argue, but that's the thing too. I know I was looking, and one of the guys I was talking to at History Colorado, what they did is, I have the name of the neighborhood written down somewhere, Curtis Park in, Denver. They kinda cobbled together a historic different historic districts, so they didn't just do one big one all at once. They did you know, let's just say we decided to do Holbrook from from Evans to Anderson or something. Yeah. I you know? And then we decided, okay. Now we'll move over to to Pierce.

So now you know? So you don't have to necessarily do it all at once. And sometimes that can be a little easier, or you could designate because Business versus residential. Well, business versus residential for sure, but maybe, like, all of the houses in this area are mostly and I I have all those that data now sort of. There were about 50 properties out of the 410 that I couldn't quite get data on yet.

I'm hoping to dig a little deeper. But you could say, like, this area is definitely eighteen seventies to 18 nineties, and that's what we're what we're preserving under these three meters for that. But this area is more close world far two or whatever and for whatever reason the house is

Well, on unfortunately, there's a 104 properties in Old Town that are nineteen thirty and older. And so when we did our selection, we broke down to 25. There were some that were excluded because of aluminum or vinyl siding. So they were automatically excluded, but the initial construction was before 1930. And, unfortunately, they're not concentrated.

Right. It is. It's not.

I can all over the town. Yes.

It's not a great pattern. I would say Hallbrook's kind of the oldest. Yeah. Pretty pretty fair to say that. But

Pierce has got them, and Maine has got them, and the street

has one.

Yeah.

But, yeah, from eighteen seventies to nineteen thirties, I technically have a 100 no. That is not right. There's no way that's right. 187 properties. Actually, no. That's correct. 187 properties are are eighteen seventies to nineteen thirties. And of the total properties, again, I have 411. That number may be off a little bit because things are imperfect. 246 are technically contributing from a near standpoint.

Like you said, once they get in there and start looking at other components, they're that number's gonna drop, but 60% approximately are contributing.

The source of this information is from the town records?

This is me pulling records from yes.

There's a property portal on the Weld County, and you can go on a property portal. Unfortunately, it's not very detailed. And so if you wanna go past what it is there, then you're ended out at the county assessor.

Well and that's what I need to do for these other 50 properties is is dig a little deeper to see exactly what's going on there. And, I mean, this information is even just available, like, on Zillow. They just populate when the year was built. And so I did that for a lot of them because I wanted I'll I can send this to everyone after the fact, but every property you click on, you get a picture. So you just know, like, oh, I now I know that's what house we're talking about.

So, anyways, I I feel like this is so tough, but it's like coming here, it's it's like I know we're all relatively on the same plan, and I'm I hope to get this one or two pager put together. Like I said, I'm working through these documents. But what I understand from the state is that we can start collecting signatures at any time. Those do not run out, so to say, unless they move. So we there is no, like, timeline from our standpoint that we can't start having those conversations.

And I would say the biggest thing I was recommended, you know, I met Stephanie, Lindsay? I don't know. The woman who was with her husband that came over.

Yeah.

And they were very much into this. I would love to find more couples like that or more individuals like that, because I think our biggest bet is going to be having the people who live there talk to their own President residency community going having, like, an event, like, in the bigger room at Gold Mine. I know we've mentioned that. Like, just having these things where we can come and talk, they can ask the questions, they can be informed. History Colorado says they will bring the liaison in to answer questions from there to explain.

So I just think the that's our way to move forward with this. It's not necessarily for the people to come to us at, like, the at the town fair or whatnot. I mean, we should have answers, and people can come talk to us, but we need to go.

You need that personal engagement.

We need

to go.

Just wonder if you shouldn't have sort of of what would be acceptable restrictions that they would put on themselves. Oh. Maximum height of two stories or, like, you know Yeah. Acceptable to than not using character.

Yeah. What would you not and not like?

Yeah. Right. Mhmm. And see if you can get their buy into creating Right.

Exactly. So they decide what this looks like.

What does this mean to them? Right.

Yeah. I think after this I think after all these after all these fairs are are over after September, since people are not gonna be out and about really in the wintertime, maybe we can, during January, February time frame, put a couple town meetings together, get people together, and and actually get them engaged about what they're gonna do. But and I think that's a good idea.

Yeah. Because one thing with service is we could send it out, but

it didn't have a there's no plan of the thing. You're right. I forgot about that.

And they don't know what happens if it is yes, what restrictions or no. It's another Right. More details. More details. And if you if we can bring them in, like, talk to you, then I solve them.

The what what I got from the we met with council was we're not quite quite ready for this. Let's revisit in the fall and then go from there. But maybe I misunderstood.

You did.

And then I emailed.

Oh, good. Yes. We don't we don't need a study session. This is, yeah, HPAD's job Right. To to do this research, engage the interest, and come to us with with with yes. We have buy. I think, two, when do you wanna put this on the ballot? November '26?

It's it's actually not a ballot initiative.

So how how is it

It's just collecting the signatures signatures and and and making sure that the people who sign match the the the property on them.

Who does this? The clerk's office? Then is the the

That again, that's

kind It's a door to door thing.

Well, exactly. But someone's gotta be the one that says, okay. Okay. This is Yeah.

Enough. Was signatures. This is And yeah.

I've walked this town several times and Yeah. You know, I'll see somebody standing on the porch and they'll talk to me. Others were, go away. You know, it's You're gonna get the difference. Yeah.

It it's approval for for I mean, it's a lot of work, but it's approval for then history Colorado and the state and interior, like, for them then to do what they do, and then I could all not mean Jack because it may not get approved. So, Laura That's great. That's great. In terms

of the process, can you do you know have you

done enough research to know how many signatures we would need and then what happens?

I I think it would be how depending on what we say the actual district is.

Uh-huh.

You know, I know we have talked about the Briggs domain, Perry to Evans, that we would have to say that. That's approximately 411. So if you were to do 51% of that, that's essentially 400 or sorry. 201. Okay. So we need

to 206. Sorry. So 206. Yeah. Right.

No. Okay. Yeah.

And then once we so assuming we got 51% of the signatures, then what happens?

So I have the preliminary property evaluation form. This is essentially what gets filled out for them for

the Applicants?

Yeah. Well, not for the applicants. Like, this is what you do for an individual or for a historic district. So it's like gets filled out as a district understanding. And, you know, we can fill that out and start the this is the preliminary, and that they start to come back to us with more questions, more needs. This is literally just from a survey standpoint, probably $50,000.

And so who's they? They're talking about they with that form. Is that history of Colorado? Is that the state? Okay. History of Colorado. Which is which is why I'm saying it has to be a town thing. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Actually, you just see it's gonna come down.

And

that's where it comes down to, okay, this is where. Because then then we would have to go before the town and this is this is where where we are. We've got x number of people that agree agree to it. Now if you get the state to do it and come in and survey and do anything, this is what it's gonna cost. But we're probably a year and a half, two years away from them.

Fair enough. Mhmm.

Yeah. That's why so if so, yeah, as Laura is describing, there's forms and reports and things that you submit to the state and, I guess, the history of Colorado, and they'd probably help with the national parks if if we were trying to do a national register designation too. Or to enact the local historic district, I think once once you have the signatures, the there would probably be some work for the town clerk to verify

Yeah.

Mhmm. Signatures and things like that. And then I believe it's enacted by ordinance, so we would draft up an ordinance that sort of adds on to what we have for the we have a a short amount of language in our code right now for the process for, like, designating landmarks and how we go about certificates of appropriateness and those kind of things. So it would be sort of a a new section on that enacting a a local historic district. And so it sort of describe the boundaries of it. And then, ultimately, an ordinate as an ordinance, it would have to go to planning commission and ultimately town council for approval. So

k.

And then

So, yeah, I don't I don't think it necessarily has to go on a ballot or or coincide with an election. That would just be enacted as an ordinance. Okay. Yep.

Gotcha. And that's where so the the amended ordinance right now that I've I've worked my worked through is specifically for the state. This local thing, again, would be something we would be Oh, okay. Onto itself.

Mhmm. Gotcha.

It's a

lot. That makes sense. Yeah.

And I and as a board, I would like to say thank you for all the work that you have done.

Yeah. You have. I

I I knew that you are the right person for this. And because of what you do as a producer. So and she's yeah. When I saw she was a producer and everything, and she worked with the public, and I said and she said she would do it. And

And she's regretting

it. She's

all like, but you have a 17 old at home. I also I I worked as, I would head up, elections, and and oversee the people who would go and knock on doors to do the campaigns for this kind of stuff. That's what this is ultimately gonna take because we will get some of the people who are really into this to come to some of these community events or whatnot, but that's not gonna be it.

Mhmm. So

we we truly and I truly appreciate it.

No problem.

This is a huge deal, and and we knew when we started it a year ago that we were looking at two, three years. Yeah. It's just not something you can do overnight.

So And we also have to do, like, multiple approaches, maybe brochures and website. Curious media. Yeah. Have people come in directly.

Yeah. We need to start putting it putting things out on social media. But

Yeah. That's so that's what I said. I'm taking all of this now and and cobbling it into something that is digestible because right now, it is it it's too much. Like, there's so many different documents that this pulls from that

are

that are impactful. And and I'll probably start sending out more emails just to to give people some ideas. But I I think that's where, again, we have to make a decision more on this local standpoint, what what that means. And hopefully, some of these documents that I've created that we can start to drill down and

Well, that's questions that we can ask as people see us at at the town fairs, that they see us at biscuit day, the questions that we can ask them, you know, what would be a stumbling block to you?

Exactly. So that's where that survey component and that's where I know Josh can be helpful to the senior strategic planner because some of the things they're doing, if we're able to utilize and piggyback on some of the stuff they're already putting out there to to touch base with just the old town Eerie folks, it's gonna be huge. Mhmm. Because we just don't have the resources. We need we need what the town's already doing.

Quick question. So you're framing the two proposals of what type of historic district we you would wanna become, and then we're also fielding questions in our events. But this doesn't sound like we have a a solid plan. Which one comes first? Are we doing everything in tandem? And then what does the city council wanna see in form, like, data? What are we looking for to move forward towards next step?

They wanna see a plan.

Your your plan.

Well, so I think what's happening right this moment is education for every. I think that's Okay. So number one is just creating the educational components that can be shared both with town council, with the residents, business owners, whatnot. That's just an understanding of what this even is. And in conjunction with that, then hopefully getting feedback on what parameters they would be willing to set up themselves. That, I think, is the secondary thing. It's kinda drilling down more specifically what that local district means or looks like. And then third would be actually creating what that is and starting to get the signatures of people. There's gonna be some people who are like, I don't care what it is. Yes.

And then there's gonna be people where we're gonna have to him and all.

Yeah. I just feel like these events are a good opportunity to, like, have that targeted conversation with them, get emails like, hey. Just to keep you in the loop, this is what, like, do you would you wanna be a part of, like, our email Yeah. Or something like that. Actually,

and that's

what I would love to do is if they're in Old Towne area, like, got that one gal contact information as yes to if but only if they're in Old Towne area. That's the thing.

Mhmm. Yeah.

It doesn't matter if you live in Colliers, Sandler, where it's like I mean, we we love the idea of the support. And if you know anyone, talk to you know?

But Yeah.

But it doesn't really move the needle for what

we're Could you could you maybe put, like, a white page information, something together before biscuit days? Biscuit day for sure. Yes. Yes. Like an informational

Yeah. Like, I would love to have as much information as possible for

Well, no. We don't need as we don't need all the information. But

like like, different ways of accessing it. If it's something that, like, it's it's a No.

It's overview of what historical district is just to pass out,

just to give to me.

Yeah. No. I can I that I mean, technically, I already have, like, what a historic district is? I think it's more that people are gonna have questions about what

what does it mean for what does it mean for me? Yeah. That's

where they even before they even know what restrictions they would be okay with, they need to understand what is it. Yeah.

It might be good to have talking points for TempFair. Totally. What are the benefits?

Like Yeah. Why would I That's only three weeks from Yeah.

That actually I I already have that. I've I've sent that out in previous emails for to everyone here. Mhmm. So if if I but I'm happy to resend it again that it's just basically a a a bullet point of what a historic district is, what that means, and how that affects. Right. Even just what was I sent you for for

Yeah.

For the presentation explains in a nutshell, like, what it is.

Yeah. Actually, what For for the town fair, I would like to see those bulletized.

Yeah. Can do.

Yeah. Okay. So from

the council perspective, what we need is, like, what's the plan? What is the historic Mhmm. What is the plan? Mhmm. And how did we approach people? What is the result? And what are the next steps? Like, okay. Is it an ordinance? Or is it an application?

Put this timeline together. I I think that'll be helpful.

Yeah. But yeah. Susan, we're still looking at miss anything about that. To two years. Yeah. You know, this is as you can see, there's so much information.

Yeah. And that that was a question. Like, if if we really feel like this is a huge priority for the the board, maybe we should limit the the scope of our, you know, general businesses, one item.

And the general business.

What the cost will ask is how much will it cost?

Oh, yeah. Okay. Fine. Yeah.

Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. I I think if you're talking about the residents, it helps preserve the small town feel.

Mhmm. That is a big deal for these people. That's why a lot of these families are moving here because it's not a small town feel.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think with more time that passes, we keep losing more sites, and I think it is a time component. So for me, it seems like this is a priority. I know we've talked about it in different meetings. I just feel like we never had an actionable plan of what comes next from from this specific item, and it'd

probably help.

The time yeah. But but also dividing the work and just maybe jumping lane on on specific things that we can all pitch in. But just wanna get more clarity on, like, what is our vision here for this.

I appreciate that.

Yeah. I I can see, like, two, three buckets. One is just the strategy of their plan. Second one is how do we reach out? Engagement of people.

Correct. Yeah.

Third one is, like, kind of combining everything and put it in.

That's a really good idea, by the way.

Yeah. Just especially with the events to your point after September, October, things died down a bit and then, you know yeah.

Yeah. May 17 and September 7, September 28. If we can use two of the moments at least.

Yeah. Yeah. Because the the events are stacked one on top of the other. And then, you know, during the summer, and then after that, then pretty much everybody goes dark.

Yeah.

Mhmm. Even e even the farmers market goes away. So

No. We have two events at least, like, town fair and biscuit day to, like Mhmm. Time was very decently spaced.

Yeah. The the airfare is probably not gonna be a place to do it because there's there'll be people from all over. So Right. Yeah.

Biscuit Day is here. You'll find more people. Yeah.

The town fair is on me is downtown. You'll get more airfare. The Biscuit Day is downtown. So yeah.

Yeah. So and then statically, like, attack some questions if we may, and then push, like, a bigger agenda for Yeah. Except the one because we'll be more

I think they it

may be,

helpful to get as many people that we encounter through our Old Towne Erie residents just to try to if they're willing to give their name and email address or some sort of contact information and just say, hey. We would love to think your brain on this. No decisions have been made. Nothing. You know, we're we're we're in the preliminary investigative portion of this because I just don't wanna scare people saying Yeah. Do you wanna do this? Are you afraid of this? What do you you know, I think we just need to say, like, we're just gathering information right now, and we want you to to impact this. So if you're willing just to give us your contact information so we could reach out at some point, that'd be glorious.

Yeah. I would do a as something we can write them a letter. I've got all the names and addresses. Everybody in Old Town most everybody in Old Town doesn't have a mailbox. They all go to the post office.

Right.

So I have a list that associates an address with a PO box. Wow. Mhmm. Okay. So I have that.

Great. Yeah.

They they can put a QR so that they can register and give their email and phone number?

Right. Some either if they want a handwrite or if they want they wanna do a QR code or something that just is collecting their their name that's saying, hey. Wanna chat. Because I think that's that's any anything we say that a decision has been made or this or that, I think that's where anyone's gonna get scared and say

Mhmm. Yeah. Mhmm.

What about putting a page on the town's website on the historic preservation? Yeah.

That'd be great.

And then just basic information.

Even that bulleted list that you're putting together, Laura, you can put that on there.

Yeah.

Little information. Yeah. You might have heard. Click here for info or even just put it there in the text, information about historic district.

Yeah. FAQs.

Yeah. Exactly.

Alright. Thank you, everybody. Yeah. I you know, this is a huge thing, and it's and, again, I appreciate all the work because now we're to a point that we're basically getting understanding of what we have to do. Okay. Planning report.

Nothing really new. The couple of things that we've talked about lately. I know the rental depot that's later in our agenda. So but but no big movement on that application. That's been fairly quiet. It hasn't technically been withdrawn, but there hasn't been any recent dollar activity on that stuff. Yeah. Nothing imminent is happening there. And then the town gateway project that potentially impacts EagleMind, That also has run on some delays, there's no imminent action.

I I'm I'm seeing the picture of saving the tower. Yep. Oh, okay. But I wanna I would like a couple footings as well because all the because all of the plan all the I'm sorry. I call them footings, but I'm talking about the buildings. Those, like, concrete Yes. Panels? Yeah. The foundations are still there. I would like a little a couple of those foundations.

So instead of just putting a circle around the tower, they cannot build on it anyway. Right? They can make it a parking lot. That's what they did with the community center. They made the parking lot over Garfield Number 1. Yeah. So but I don't know if you knew that or not. So the parking lot is over. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. When they started to dig, they hit wood. Oops. Yeah. So so that's why it's set back so far.

And then across the street, the town center's set back because that's Garfield 2. If you guys didn't know, that's