Heritage Preservation Commission - Regular Meeting

Alright.

Alright. Really? Those online, can you hear us okay?

Yeah. We we gotcha. We can hear. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Alright. I am going to call this order this meeting to order. It is Thursday, 01/29/2026 at 6PM. This is the meeting of the Heritage Preservation Commission. This is a special meeting last week. We postponed the meeting due to weather, so thank you for your flexibility. All members of the commission are present except for Natalie Hennigan. Ellie, looks like she stepped out.

That's

true. Just a moment. She'll be back. Alright. First up, we have the approval of the 11/20/2025 meeting minutes.

I'll move to approve. Minutes is written. Motion to approve the minutes. Is there a second? Second. The motion was made by by Laura Bowden, second by John Ryman. Any discussion on the minutes? Okay. I see no discussion. The motion on the floor is to approve the 11/20/2025 meeting minutes. All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye. That is unanimously approved. Next agenda item is 26 dash zero zero three zero, the annual code of ethics policy review. Everybody of our local government commits to this every single year. And so as the first first meeting of the month, we will do that.

And do we usually do unanimous consent?

I think it's mostly just

It's

I don't think there's ever been a motion. It's just Okay. Ensuring that everybody has read it and everybody has agreed to it.

Okay. So we're gonna do this by unanimous consent. So everyone, by raising your right hand, you will promise to either read it if you have not or that you have read it already. K? I see no objection then. Everyone agrees to doing so. Thank you. Alright. Next, we have 26Dash0063 nomination of the Professional Arts Building on the Mayo campus located at 615 10th Street South to be designated as a local historic landmark. You have before you the nomination.

First, gonna hand it over to Tim to overview the nomination process, and we'll proceed from there.

The process?

I like to always start by reminding everybody what happens this meeting and next meeting

Okay.

Briefly.

So the, I don't know what I did with the screen up there. So, typically, nominations are a two step process. The first meeting is it looks at least two meetings of the historic preserve or Heritage Preservation Commission. The first meeting is where the commission, reviews the nomination and ensures completeness and that it is a complete application or if they decide that any additional material or information is needed based upon what criteria it is being nominated for. And so that's where discussion would occur.

It is not typically a public hearing, but there is usually typically allow for the applicant and or property owner to speak, on this item at this time as well.

Should the commission decide that it is a complete nomination and no additional information is needed, then they can move to accept the nomination and then hold the public hearing in the following month, or commission can decide that additional material is needed to support whatever criteria has been nominated under and request that additional material is, found, and it can be brought back to the next meeting at that time. And then should public hearing is held at the following meeting or whatever meeting that is occurs, that's where we if I notice it as staff, I notice it to the public. I send a certified letter to the property owner, and then a public hearing is held where members of the public can speak for or against said nomination. And at that time, afterwards, the commission can decide either to nominate it as a local landmark or deny it. And should it be, a move to approve as a local landmark, that's where it becomes locally designated.

The applicant and or property owner or some the property owner themselves can they have thirty days to appeal that decision to the council, and they would go right to the council if they do.

Perfect.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah.

Okay. Let me just pull up my agenda. So, Tim, remind me on Robert's rules for this one. We want discussion before, you know, people make a motion or not, but we can't have opinion necessarily before a motion is on the floor. So how do you usually I can't remember. It's been a while.

I don't.

I Do you wanna overview the nomination first?

I see I can give it, or you can turn it over right to the applicant who prepared it to give an it's I don't haven't typically in the past given any sort of review on this.

Okay.

Though I will I mean, but I was kind of we talked about this last time when we were discussing nominations. I mean, overall, as staff, what I would say is that this is a very I felt this is a very thorough nomination. They did a great, and, typically, this is, in my opinion, how you would see normally formatting how nominations would go, There's a very thorough description of the existing building, all the facades, and its condition, and then it talks about its history, of the building itself, from when it was constructed to present day, and then it goes into the detail of the the criteria it was nominated under and why, and then and then the supporting facts from the earlier part of the documents support why it should be nominated under those under those items. And it's supported with a lot of citations and a really thorough bibliography. It has a lot of pictures associated with it, documenting it as well.

And in this particular case, there was copies of the original blueprints that were associated with it.

At this time, I'm happy for to invite the applicant or the the Nominator. The nominator if you would like to talk about the nomination.

Sure. Thank you. My name is Mark Zeller. I'm the president of the Preservation Alliance of La Crosse. We chose to nominate this building after receiving quite a few comments, phone calls, emails, etcetera, from the community trying to stop the demolition of St.

Ann's, and we discovered that demolition permit had already been issued for that building. So our response to the community was that we would nominate this building instead of that. So that's how we came upon nominating the Professional Arts Building, which was originally the nursing school for Franciscan Hospital. I felt that there were two criteria that this building fit really well with for the nomination. Basically, it's associated with the events that have made significant contribution to LaProsse's history.

Obviously, one of the biggest nursing schools in the region and one of the longest lasting. And if you go through this whole nomination, this three year nursing program that began before this building was constructed, but this building was constructed to house that nursing program, transitioned all the way through into today's present day nursing program at the Terrible University. That's when the state switched from wanting a three year nursing degree to a four year bachelor at nursing degree. It basically was an all in one nursing school. You had classrooms.

You had laboratories, and then you had the dorms and the living borders on the upper floors of this building. So it was basically self contained, designed by one of La Crosse's greatest architects who were known for their school design all across the Upper Midwest with his apartment. Did find original blueprints for this building, so we were able to confirm that. And interesting story with how the building was built. Basically, the sisters of the border were trying to form a partnership.

I believe it was with Grandview Hospital. Mhmm. And that all fell through when the founder of Grandview passed away suddenly in the middle of negotiations. And at that point, they had part of a new building because they were getting pressured by the state of Wisconsin to have adequate facilities or get rid of the nursing school. So they chose to construct this building to keep their nursing school program alive and well.

And so that continued all the way up until the early nineteen seventies when more and more classes were being held at the turbo, and eventually, the whole program just shifted over to Viterbo. And this building then continued as office space. There were various health care providers in here. There was even a dentist at some point. So the building continued to be used for health care and administration and all the way up through the current day.

The outside retains a exemplary amount of historic building fabric. The masonry is in excellent condition. The front entry has had some minor changes, but all the stonework is still there and still visible. It does have new windows, and a few windows have been removed. But for the most part, the original window openings are still all in the original configuration and original sizes. There was an addition put on the back, I believe, in the nineteen seventies that I had to go through my nomination to see that, but that does not obscure the primary facade. So I guess if anyone has any other specific questions about the building, I felt that this retained an extremely high degree of historic integrity.

Was the gymnasium built at

the same time? Yes. That was original. Part of the original? That was the north Wing. So it's two stories in height, but it's only a one story building because they had a double height space there for the gymnasium slash auditory.

And what's the gymnasium house? Is still gymnasium?

Or I have not been in the building recently, so I don't know. But the the building itself, that part is there.

You're by it tonight, Yeah.

Very well designed building, very well constructed. The original blueprint's called over concrete frame with masonry walls, so something that can last five hundred plus years, and it's taken care of. Okay.

So we can have questions. Any questions? I know Eric had one. Does the nomination include that addition?

Yes. I did mention the the addition in the nomination.

Other questions?

I thought it was a very thorough nomination. A lot of research we had. Did not sit down and write that in an hour.

Mhmm. That one is a

lot more.

Appreciate that.

It's weird.

I I do have a question, if if I may.

That's a lot, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead.

Yeah. So Can

state your name too just so some people can

see it on screen?

Of of course. Yeah. So I'm Rich Hetland. I'm, of course, representing Mayo Clinic with regards to this facility here. One question I have, does the commission take into account the, I guess, the status or finish of the inside of the building when proposing to put any of these buildings on this list?

Do you wanna take that?

That depends on whether the interior of the building is contributing to the building's historic significance. Right? So if you had some sort of Queen Anne house and part of part of what you find in Queen Anne houses are these wood the woodwork and the spindles and the very sort of intricate staircases that go up it and things of that nature. Generally speaking, then, and in terms of preservation, they could be taken into consideration. Typically, here in La Crosse, we'd not usually because we, as a commission, do not have any purview or jurisdiction on the interior of buildings, only the exterior.

So, typically, that is not necessarily taken into consideration when nominating buildings because we don't we we don't have any powers of reviewing them anyway when changes are made, if that makes sense.

Nope. It does.

So But it just depends on a case by case basis. But, primarily, we have not.

Sure. So, and I guess the reason I ask is just understanding maybe, you know, my experience with nationally recognized historic properties and maybe even this isn't the case necessarily either, but when looking to add a property to the national list, I don't know or can't recall if there's a requirement that the interior of that facility be similar or in kind with kind of that historical preservation, right? So if you have a property that isn't or on the exterior is kind of has been preserved. If the inside hasn't actually been maintained in that same capacity, I don't know if that warrants, restriction from that list. And maybe from what I'm hearing from you, Tim, is that really isn't taken into account when you guys are considering these buildings.

Yeah. On a national register, I would say, again, it's a case by case basis. It just depends on how much of the interior is contributing to the reason why it's being nominated in the first place. Right? And even on a National Register scale, that's honorary only. And so, if it does make it to the National Register, you know, the interior has been considered or not considered, you know, in that capacity anyway. Where it would really come into play is if it's on the National Register and that property is trying to take advantage of historic, state and federal historic tax credits, then changes made to the interior or wanting to be made in the interior come into play in that fashion.

Understood. Yep. That sounds that sounds that sounds correct. Okay. Well, I guess I I don't want, you know, my presence here to indicate, you know, that Mayo Clinic, of course, has any plans whatsoever to demolish this building.

This is an opportunity for us, obviously, to monitor this process. And I don't know if this is the the the forum to understand, you know, what the, implications of the of the building being added to that list would would do for us from a, you know, from a usage standpoint, right, if, work is ever done on the inside. Right? But those are some of the things that that we'd like to kind of understand, learn a little bit more about. So we just don't exactly, you know, what what we're capable of doing with respect to future use of that building.

Sure. Rich, yeah, you can absolutely get clarification on that here. So as Tim mentioned, local designation does not control what you do on the inside of the building. Even my understanding is potentially, like, on the outside. It's just that they would have a a layer of review to make sure that whatever they do with the building is appropriate.

Yeah. So any anything that requires a building permit for the exterior of the building would need review and approval by this body prior to getting your building permit to the exterior only.

Would that include, like, the grounds itself? Like, not necessarily the building, but, you know, let's just say site work.

No. Because if you were to like, landscaping, you mean, or something? Like, they wanna plant a tree? No. Because that wouldn't re that wouldn't require a building permit. We're really talking about the building itself, at least in this instance.

Sounds good. Thanks for that clarification.

Of course. Okay. So, Rich, and if you have others that are here with Mayo, we, as mentioned, can hear from the person who nominated the property and also the the owners or the representatives of the building. So I know you've spoke a little bit, but you or others are welcome to speak as well if you are interested.

This is Gordon Howie. I'm I work with Rich. I'm with Mayo Clinic Health System, and I guess I would too like to acknowledge the author of that document really did their homework and was very thorough, very impressive. And and right now, to Rich's point, we're just sort of navigating the process. We love the building. We've been actually putting a lot of money into it and really no really no plans to do anything but other than occupy it for the rest of my career for sure. So, again, we're just here to to kinda follow the process and and see where it leads us. Thanks for the opportunity.

Sure. Thank you.

And and just to add to, Rich, a question about what it means in terms of review, the larger purview this body has is demolition. So if you wanted to demolish this building in the future, you would have to get what's called a certificate of appropriateness and review and permission from this body to do so, ahead of time. So that's that's also a large protection that that designation has.

Yeah. Thanks for that clarification, Tim. And just to confirm then, so that would be if we would be required to go through that that process that you had just indicated if this were to be designated, or is that kinda regardless?

If it was designated. Got it. Then, yes, any sort of plans to demolish that building would have to be approved by this body to demolish it. And there's a set of criteria we have in our code of what you they would be reviewing your request by.

Sounds good. Thank you.

Yeah. Let's see. Gordon, you had mentioned that you've put a lot of money onto the inside of the building. I personally have been inside. I'm the council member for the district, which, Mayo is within. So I've been to all the floors and seen the incredible work that's been done and the investments that have been made. But if you wanna share a little bit more about that for you know, this decision isn't isn't based on the interior, but it's always nice to know about the investment that you're making in your buildings.

Sure. I can briefly discuss kinda some of the immediate future is that we we we still plan to obviously fit out some more space with the imminent demolition of of Saint Francis. We need places to put them, and the Professional Arts Building would fit nicely. We moved all of our administrative offices. We moved a bunch of other nonclinical departments into that building.

And to do that, we've had to renovate. We've upgraded elevators and utility infrastructure. So, you know, we're in it for the long haul. And where Rich and I kinda get interested in is, you know, what how what the status is when once we're gone, how do our successors navigate this if, you know, fifty years from from now, they do have to make plans to move on from that building. It served its purpose. But like I said, for in the immediate and near future, we continue to occupy it, and we'll probably continue to add more departments into that building. Hope that answers what you were asking.

Yeah. Absolutely. There was also another question earlier about what is in the addition. I think it was called the gym.

The gym makes

it different. I think it's

the gym is original. There's a nineteen seventies addition Edition. The back of the main stair.

Okay.

Well, the old gym is actually an employee fitness center right now, And the addition, I think Rich, is that where that dentist office is?

No. The addition well, potentially. I do know for certain that the addition includes that second elevator in the back there. So that allows kind of that east it would be the east access, the elevator that allows you, obviously, access to, you know, all the floors. And this doesn't mean much to you that are on the call, but, really, that's where all of our break rooms currently

Yes.

Come out where the where that expansion piece is.

Okay. Yep. That helps.

I think the primary driver of of that expansion was to get that second elevator in that building for better maneuvering throughout.

Sure. Okay. Other questions?

I I was curious, and maybe this was covered and I missed it, but there seems to be a bridge going into that building. What is to come of that? Assuming that's coming down, that connection.

Correct. That will Hey.

Go ahead, Mitch.

You got it.

Okay. Yeah. So with the, forthcoming plans for, demolishing Saint Francis Building, that Skyway, which is the connector, between Saint Francis Building and, Professional Arts Building, that, of course, will need to come down with the, the raising of of that, old hospital.

Mhmm.

And that Skyway was excluded from the NIH. That's what

I thought. I just wanted to make sure that was brought up. Yeah.

Yeah. Good question. Other questions? Comments? Eric?

Will the building owner be obligated to fill in

the opening from the Skyway with original style materials? Is that not part of our No. No.

That's a good question. Yeah. When you remove the Skyway and the infill project, does it there'll probably be some minor review by this body about how you're proposing to infill the hole that's left? Yeah. So that that's a good example of, like, things that would be reviewed by this this body if if designated.

Sure. And I think it would be our intent to match as closely as possible so it doesn't look like a so it looks thoughtful.

Certainly. We don't wanna see, like, a mid century modern infill to that style of building.

Vinyl siding. We vinyl siding. Yeah.

Vinyl siding. Yeah. That's true.

Yeah. I was thinking a a big big piece of glazing there.

Yeah.

Alright. Well, thank you both. Certainly, you're welcome to to speak up again, but we appreciate you being here and and part of this process. So, again, the the review of the nomination is based on merit, and so that's the decision the first part of the decision that is tonight. And then should we move forward, then there'll be a public hearing for the public and anyone else to come voice their opposition or support.

Okay. If you all don't have any more discussion, then by all means, feel free to make a motion. To clarify, Tim, any guidance on the clarity of the motion?

Usually, the motion is either to referring for more additional information to be gathered or deny or accept the nomination and and hold a public hearing at the following monthly meeting. Okay. Something like that.

Okay. I would propose a motion to, accept it as written and hold a public hearing next month.

Okay.

Second.

Motion was made by John Ryman, second by Jim Gallagher. Any discussion? This is where you can state your opinions, by the

way, if you wish to. Who seconded that? Jim? Yeah. Okay. Jim, yes.

So I have a personal connection to this because my grandfather was chief of staff at this time and was intricately involved with the Mayo family, Gunderson family, to organize his teaching school in La Crosse. And Gunderson subsequently did one that got demolished, their building.

Mhmm.

We've seen so many buildings over the years get demolished in La Crosse that have history. So I think it's very important to keep this building because it has a story of the camaraderie of all the hospitals that are in La Crosse as well as the one in Rochester. So I think it's very important that we keep this. And because it has a good history, and there is a lot of good nuances and new training techniques that the nursing students did. They started cataloging and charting a lot of information that wasn't done before.

There's a lot of, you know, new technology and or I should say new techniques that they started using, and that transitioned over to Gunderson as well. So I think it's vitally important that we keep it. I love that they're redoing the inside. Keep the outside integrity so the history can be told, but yet update the interior. So I think, of course, I'm a 100% for it, and I'm sure my grandfather would want it that way as well.

Thank you, Ellie. Mhmm. Other comments? I'll make one as the council member for the district. The district in general and really the whole city has so much architectural and cultural significance.

It's really nice to see this building invested in. I think the fabric of the whole district can change really quickly. And so having this building standing next to houses and neighborhoods that were built in the same era is really nice for the the continuity of the fabric of the neighborhood. And certainly, we also in the neighborhood appreciate having a neighborhood hospital. It's really remarkable when my neighbor, an ER doc at at Mayo, can just walk to go to work, or families can, like, darn near walk to go have a baby.

So it's it's really wonderful to know that the Mayo campus is open to preserving such an incredible building like this. And I can imagine that investing in buildings is very, very expensive, and we appreciate your your investment and contribution. And I know that the neighbors do as well. So thank you. Alright. Anyone else wish to speak? The motion on the floor is to accept as written and move to public hearing next month. Oh, there we go. Okay. Alright. I see none then. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. That was unanimously approved.

So, Rich and Gordon, I believe Tim will be in touch just to or I guess you can say right here, we'll see you next month at the the next month's meeting.

Yeah. I'm to send a certified letter, like, stating the public hearing to the property owner, and I was informed to send it to your facilities manager. And I have his name written down. That was who, Jennifer Livingston. I know there's more to her name than that. I forgot the rest of it. She told me to send it. And then, of course, your attorney that I talked with as well, which might have been Gordon, actually, but or somebody. So I I get directions to send that, but if they're and they're gonna forward along accordingly. So

Okay.

Is that is that okay unless there's somebody else you want me to send that to?

No. That's perfect. Okay.

Perfect. Thank you.

Thank you both

a lot. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you both. And thank you, Marcus, as well. Appreciate your time.

No problem.

Very detailed.

It's the things that I know are.

Alright. The last item on our agenda is a discussion on the historic certificate initiative. And, Tim, do you wanna open this up?

I will turn it over to Mr. Ryman, commissioner Ryman, as this was, his idea and his his

He's all

wanted to bring into the commission.

Cool. I've only been on commission a short time, though. One of the things that I've noticed about LaCrosse, it seems like LaCrosse is always reactive from putting out fires. And I that I would like us to do something a little bit more proactive. And I know that when I was teaching, one of the best things that I did in teaching was unexpected positive notes home to parents. And I got more mileage out of that out of anything I did in my career. Something as simple as an unexpected note that your child put forth extra effort or something along those lines, those kids and those families remember that forever. And I heard about generations. You know? I mean, I literally had students or I had their parent and grandparent, believe it or not, and they would talk about such things.

So I think we could look at people who are doing things on their own. What well, the catalyst for this was was I was driving down Cass Street about six months ago, and there's a historic home there that put a really top notch roof on the house, about the 1,700 block. And it wasn't just an asphalt roof. It was like a maybe a Tudor brick style home. And they put a tile looking metal roof on there, and I thought, my god.

It's that classy. And it took about a week to put that roof on there. I didn't think it'd be nice if us, the historic preservation commission, one day just knocked on that door, and I'd be happy to volunteer to do this. If anyone wants to join me, they can. And just give them a simple token of our appreciation, laminated certificates, something like that that they could frame in the wall, thanking them for preserving their property in appreciation. And the nomination process could be relatively loose. It doesn't have to be anything, you know, hoity toity or highfalutin. Mhmm. But just to just to remind people that, hey. We're watching, and we appreciate what you're doing for our city.

So I don't know if that's something you guys would want to do. If it steps in someone's toes, it does something else. I don't know. But I just like to do something like that. I think it would really would help our image. So people would just see us as, oh, we're these ogres stopping you from tearing down these buildings, but, actually, we do care about the integrity of the, city and appreciate people who understand that ethic. So I don't know what you guys think.

Yeah. So we're gonna have to help. That's a great idea. Do you think

it would be just for listed buildings or for, quote, historic Well, it should

be any property in town.

I mean, you know, like I was talking to Tim, I noticed that are you guys familiar with that big yellow house across from the the country club? The old country club?

Yeah. They painted it.

They repainted that house. And my gosh. That house was really falling in disrepair. Yeah. They did a nice job painting that home.

Right on Vine and mostly Boulevard. Or not Vine. It would be

Pioneer Vine or one up there.

Okay. Yellow one with the green shutter.

Yes. Oh, yes. I've

been since I was a kid.

Exactly. And they've kept everything. The yellow is still the same yellow.

Perfect yellow. Yep. Perfect. So just a, hey. Thank you for doing that. And then, you know, you get that, and then neighbors talk to neighbors. And next thing you know, neighbors start fixing their house up. It really could have

Oh, a yeah. That's for sure.

Snowball effect.

Oh my shit. Yeah.

Yeah. So, I mean, that's what I'm thinking of. It's just little things. And it doesn't have to be a lot. You know, if we do one here and there, I think it would help. We don't we don't have, like, a budget, do we?

So it has to be kind of simple. I have a little certificate.

Comes out of our department budget, but we're just talking about Depends on how many you wanna do throughout the year is really what it is.

It's right across

the street.

Yeah. That's the look right there. Yeah. Now it looks bright yellow again. It So I love

that house.

That's actually in a national register district.

Okay. Well, did a good job with it. Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah. So I don't know.

You you do this, and I'm asking because this could be an older picture, but you give them a certificate,

and then they're all, oh, we need to spruce up the shrubs.

Anything Watching. No. You're right.

It's like a snowball.

For sure.

Yeah. I mean, I just think it's it's a little token of thing. It doesn't have to be much. No. But I think it could do a lot of good, I think, for preserving history in the city.

Yeah. People like compliments.

Yeah. Well,

what Brendan Franklin say, the flattered is never disagrees with the flatterer.

There you go. Mhmm. You could even so first of all, what a great idea. I love that. Thank you, John. I also noticed that house with reroofing. My we actually drove by, and my husband's like, why is there a giant porta potty on the side of the road? And I was like, maybe because they're gonna reroof the house and be there for a while. Yeah. But, yeah, this is obviously just the start of an idea, but there's a number of things we could probably investigate in terms of, like, form. I could even imagine, like, nice hand signed letters with, like, a stamp on it or something. Yeah. It could be anything. You could sign it,

and then anyone could volunteer to knock on the door and just say, here. Here you go. Yeah. And I don't personally, I don't care about PR and all that nonsense. If the city wants to bring the cameras, I don't care about that. I just think it'd be nice to Yeah. Be able to do that.

Yeah. It it could be also a way just to bring awareness Mhmm. Which we've talked about a lot in the past. They probably know about the significance of their home, but many places don't really know the full story, just know that it has cool architecture, and just doing little things like this can really bring awareness and interest into the history, which is definitely a good thing.

I don't know cost much.

Your committee would know if we would do this too.

Yeah. We have our awards out of them every year. Yeah. We don't wanna step on that. You know? Yeah. We usually do it for a recently completed major overhaul. Yeah.

Mhmm. These are about small things, maybe. Yeah. Mhmm. Yeah. But this is just, like, small gestures, like, deciding to restore your beautiful front door instead of buying a brand new one that doesn't look very nice. Or, like, thanks for not putting vinyl on that beautiful house. We realize paintings weren't worth it. But Cool. I love it. So what should the next steps be? That's this that's sort of like It's

a killer. Right? We had all So I think I'm gonna give Tim more word.

No. It's it's fine. I I think what I I think, generally, what we need to know for something like this would be, like, what is what are we actually giving them?

Mhmm.

What is it if it's a certificate, what's it gonna say?

Sure.

And then how is there some mechanism for determining who gets it?

Process.

Process Mhmm. For determining it. Right? And how many do you wanna give out? I mean, do you want it to be special and it's not given out very often, or do you wanna give out, like, once a month? Or I don't know. You know what I mean? I think it's just if all of sudden we're giving out 300 of them in, like, a week, maybe it gets less special.

Oh, does that

I'm being facetious, but I'm just throwing it out there.

Effective if you overdo it. Mhmm. Right. It has to be unexpected.

Yeah.

Doesn't have to be much, but it has to be spontaneous. Yep.

Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah.

And, you know, maybe on a quarter, we look at doing it you know, people can submit, and we choose 20 houses a quarter or something like that. I'm throwing off numbers.

Mhmm. Mhmm.

But, again, the probability of having that much work done, you know, it it may only be that there's 10 houses a year that we notice that have something done.

So I think those are the things I feel like would be the first things we need to like, what are we giving them? What's it gonna say if it's some sort of their certificate? And then the manner of giving it to them and the process for selecting houses.

And do you need someone to write that all down?

You're volunteering.

Fine. Yeah. I got nothing else to do.

No. That's fine.

I Do you

see all building permits?

No. I do not.

Because is there a way that we could get a flag on a building permit, like, you know, an existing structure? Like, they're, you know, putting a new roof on like, that house they had to get a building permit for that. You know? Or I guess you don't need one for painting.

I mean, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds Yeah. Hundreds of permits a minute a month.

I'm thinking of trying to Yeah. Settle it down a little bit. So

I feel like AI do it. I feel like it might be more rather than scouring building permits, to me, I feel like the stuff that you notice.

Like, notice People just

house with the roof, it makes it almost more like, if it's one that you've actually noticed, then that makes it more Yeah.

Yeah. That's what it's special. Noticed it or somebody told somebody in the spot and then brought it up. And then I I can come up with a process, but what's in my head is

that Yeah.

Anyone's noticed, we'll bring it to this. We quietly talk. Well, of course, then it's not a surprise to talk about it.

Well, how many people? No.

But whatever. So you risk somebody finding out. Cats out of the bag. But it it is simple stuff.

Well, I mean, I don't know. Yeah. I mean, the media would be the one potentially. But, I mean,

Not the broad

essentially It's not that many It would just be just it's yeah. Here. So Right. Right. Right. That's what I mean. I mean

Okay.

You know, the

thing would be is

I don't know how we get away from that.

We have more people paying attention to the meetings.

Sure.

Again, so it could generate positive for this committee too.

And then it's is it inappropriate or inappropriate if people wanna send me ideas on how what I should write up, or is that a violation of the ethics in public meeting?

I think to avoid anybody worrying about that, send it to me, and I can forward it all to you.

Yeah. So in case of anything you want me to do, send it to Tim. They'll forward it to me. Mhmm. And we're all in the up and up. Mhmm. And I'll have it ready. Next meeting, you said really busy.

We have a lot we're gonna have

a lot

in next month's

in two months, I can present it.

Sure. Yeah.

Alright. Because it's not pressing. We have more pressing matters before us.

Yeah. We're gonna have public hearing for this item. Those of you who weren't hearing I said it, we're gonna have another nomination got sent to me. Somebody's potentially, you might have even another one depending. So we could potentially have two more nominations for the first step, at least one, maybe two. And then we wanna have the larger discussion on dimensional and delay ordinance K. The update on that with the new draft and, hopefully, discussion from hopefully, I'll have feedback from the other departments by then too. But

Is there a draft we'll see before that meeting? So

Yeah. I'll get it. That'd be Yeah. Hopefully. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's the intent. Yeah. I won't be it'll be, like, with the agenda I sent you.

Right. Yeah. No.

So I try to do my best to get that too as soon as I can.

But You do a good job, Tim. Thanks.

I I should give you guys more time sometimes.

My my thought was to for each of us to try to identify three properties that seem to have been improved in a historically friendly way and take photographs if that's not a bad thing to

do. Sure.

And then set aside some meeting time to throw up the pictures and have a conversation about them.

If if that's how you wanna do it. I mean, the impression I got, and correct me if I'm wrong, John, but was also like, maybe there's a month where you just didn't see anything that captured your attention, but and that's okay. That's exactly right. But but if there is one that caught your attention, you're like, you know what? This this is even my neighbor. I just drove by. He's in the grocery store, and then bring it. So Yeah. Doesn't necessarily mean you have to go out looking for it is kind of the impression I got.

A bit extemporaneous. Yep. I think that'd be best. Mhmm. You don't wanna get people you don't wanna be looking for it.

Mhmm.

No. And I don't and that's not genuine. Things you find spontaneously is more genuine in my view.

I was gonna ask Mackenzie, like, do you think that would be something maybe the other council members would be kind of interested in just, in an informal way? Hey. If you notice a neighbor that did something nice, you know, to a property, why don't we get a high five or something? You know? Yeah. Like I mean, I was sort of thinking that, like, this could and certainly, like, we could start really simple. Mhmm. You know? Like, just keep it simple, see how it goes, and see what we learn. But I I feel like people come up to me as council members and are like, wow. Did you see that house?

Oh, great.

It's really, like, brightened up that parter. You know? That's been, like, nearly condemned forever, and then someone bought it and totally restored it or whatever. So it could be an opportunity for community members Absolutely. You know, to, like, talk about their own community. And, you know, like, we could you know, always in the name of, like, keeping it simple, but we have online submission forms. If we could put out a a note to the community and say, hey. Sure. Are you noticing people in your community investing in their properties, x y z?

Yeah. You should have a link on that same webpage so we could nominate a property for this.

You could. You could. I'm not

recommending this, but hints of making a contest out

of it. Yeah. I don't want that.

Yeah. It it does. But goes beyond our budget. I'm mostly just in, like, thinking about what you're saying is, like, how could people complement the efforts of others?

Complement is just the right word.

It's it's like it's like giving a shout out where

Yep. Mhmm.

It's noticed. So

I mean, word-of-mouth is pretty powerful. Yeah.

It is. Yeah. And I definitely get that. Like, even if, like, a a city does a project, you know, and, like, invests in a existing house, then I get neighbors that are like, oh my gosh. That house is, like, revitalized.

Blah blah blah.

Mhmm. And so noticing things like that is really cool. And so many people in our neighborhoods, like, pick up garbage and do whatever, and they notice, like, a like a house is repainted. Or

This is morphed into larger Well know?

I'm not I'm just trying to get across, like, the feeling, I guess Mhmm. By explaining, like, this this does happen. But I think it would be a nice gesture to even just send a letter Yeah. Or something simple. You know what I mean? So it's a great idea. I appreciate bringing

Send your ideas to Tim. I'll consolidate it in two more weeks. Yeah.

I'll send I'll send out an email too for you too as a reminder.

I'm happy to do it.

Alright. Thank you, John. Other than that, we're at the end of our agenda. Feels like it's been longer than forty five minutes. So if there's no objection, I'll adjourn the meeting. Seeing and hearing then, we are adjourned. Thank you all.