Historic Preservation Board - Regular Meeting

Okay. I'm sorry. I'm just pulling up the

Okay, and then we have a new, you said that we have a new board member?

Okay. All right. Then I'll call the meeting to order. The first, unless there's anything else before we start the meeting. Okay. I haven't heard nothing. We'll do the pledge of allegiance to the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, roll call. Gary Costales, present.

All right, so there's... There's nobody on here that's going to give any sort of testimony or statement, correct?

Okay. Stephen, do you plan to give a statement or any sort of testimony or anything of that nature tonight?

Okay. And I see that the applicant is priority one, the signs.

Okay. Are you able to answer questions and make statements that are binding on priority one signs and the applicant?

Okay, second All those in favor For the record Marcus could you confirm the date to which this item will be continued?

Bye. The next item on the agenda is public comments, new business certificates, or appropriateness discussion. That is, I guess that's related to the applicant, correct?

Okay, so just to further summarize my understanding of the issue, I think Mr. Menendez Might have noticed a condition that perhaps should have gone through the proper procedure for a certificate of appropriateness to be properly flagged. And the city attorney has stated that there's a process in place to address that. Is that correct, Mr. Menendez?

Yeah, I agree. There's not many. So basically there was a change to a historic building that was not like for like, is what you're saying.

Okay. Well, I guess that raises like a second issue because the city attorney raised a remedy for addressing the situation that Mr. Menendez is talking about. But then I guess the second issue is what about the... this property and other properties going forward, I suppose, where something falls through the cracks and there's not a like for like change. What do we deal with that? Is there some kind of retroactive?

I think what Mr. Marcos is saying, the city attorney, that there's now going to be a process in place that might catch your concern. Would you agree with that, Mr. Melendez, or do you think we need to do something else?

Well, I think there's already standards in place. So I think you, go ahead.

Thank you. Well, I think then the first thing that we have to do as a board is to identify the standard that that city official is using and take a look at the language.

Yeah, those are good points. I think it sounds like the primary factor would be how it appears from the front, from the public face. So I think then for the next meeting, we should look at the language that even if it's general, but whatever language governs the touches on the issue with the building officials. Would you agree with that, Mr. Marcos?

I think the second option would, and it sounds a little more complicated, but would be good. But then I think we would also have to have the building officials weigh in on, I guess, the plausibility and the practicality of before we implement anything or make any recommendations, is there a mechanism where we could

Well, I think there's already some guidance out there, which is which governs how we roll on these applicants. So maybe there's some language we can use from there. But if we were to put this on the next agenda, could we have somebody from the building department participate in anything that we discuss so that it works for everybody from a pragmatic standpoint?

Right. Okay. All right. So I guess the first part of Mr. Menendez's concern is taken care of with that. And then the second part is, essentially, it sounds as if there has to be clearer standards of what is like for like. Mr. Menendez, do you think that's a correct assessment?

But does that put more of a burden on property owners, though, if they are making some change that is clearly life for life? I mean, is there any issue with that?

Right, right. And what is an application? What's the definition of an application?

And that would cover, the latter would cover painting, I suppose?

Yeah, I think painting might be a big ticket item or it could have the most impact. So right now, I know you probably just said it, but if somebody wants to change the paint, it's a zoning improvement application or is there any application required?

And for a private house, you're saying it's a zoning improvement permit?

Okay, so and right now zoning improvement permits do come to the board or do not?

I mean, if you just repaint in your house, um, but if that's the terminology.

Yeah, I think just to get off the topic a bit, I think we should probably circulate a list of all the properties that are historic. I think we did that once a while ago, but since we have a lot of new board members, it might be helpful to circulate that. There is also...

And just for the benefit of the new board members, there's actually brochures that list not so much the Cambridge lawns houses, but there's a glossy brochure that we had printed up a few years ago. That's like a guide and a map to all the historically designated properties. And there's been a lot of discussion. I guess I've been on the board the longest and we put that together. We had a lot of discussion about it. And I was told that there's like still like a few thousand of those brochures somewhere on this, you know, that the city has.

Okay, thank you. And I believe the brochure is online now that I think about it.

Yes, that sounds right. It is online, yes. Yeah. Okay. So for the new board members, take a look at that. And I think we should all, myself included, take a look at that just to reacquaint ourselves with the historic properties, because I think it's good to do that periodically. But going back to the issue that we were talking about, so basically, if we have a change which says that all improvements, changes to property, however it's defined, should go through the board. That would take care of the concerns that we've been talking about, including, and we can put in there, including the zip pe

And one thing that we can talk about the next meeting is we had a lot of discussion years ago about how to disseminate those. We talked about putting them in storefronts and the art show and everything. And maybe that's something that we could revisit later. is on the next meeting is public awareness of this brochure, walkthrough history and historical buildings in general. You know, we also talked about having tours and things of that nature. And, you know, nothing really got off the ground in that regard. But my understanding is, and Marcus, do you know how many

Okay. The last item on the agenda is the, um, approval of the minutes from December 15th.

Just as a point of order, I was not at the last meeting. Am I allowed to vote on those minutes?

Okay, I move that we approve the minutes from the December 15th, 2025 meeting. All those in favor? Is there a second? Okay, aye. Okay, the meeting minutes are approved. And I believe that was the last item on the agenda. Okay, I move that we adjourn the meeting.