Historic Preservation Commission - Regular Meeting

So, if we could please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Oh, thank you. Okay. 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. Texas flag. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge algiance to thee. One state under God, one and indivisible. Thank you.

So, are we going to go ahead and go forward with electing the chair and co-chair at this time? Yes. Okay. Mr. John, I nominate you to be chair. All in favor? No. I. So, we have a new chair, Mr. John Harage. Thank you, Norine. Here goes. I'm going to get this. And um I would like to elect Norleene to be vice chair. I will accept. All in favor? Thank you. Okay. all the formalities. Right. Right.

Um and so from what I understand from a few minutes ago, I believe um on item number one that we're going to uh remove that from the minutes. Yes. And we're going to go ahead and remove that from the minutes. The minutes that we have that we located were from May 27, 1997, but those were done from planning by the planning and zoning uh commission meeting. They do not pertain to the historical uh preservation committee. So, we're going to have to do more research to locate them, the last minutes. Okay. We would like to remove that from the I'm sorry. Okay. So, I' I'd like to make a motion to remove uh item number one from our agenda today. I'll second. All in favor?

I go ahead. I So be it. Okay. Okay. We're here for a public hearing. Uh case file number 2025-01-H. Uh it's a consider a request uh from Ryan Bray uh to erect a new 138 ft cloth canopy over the existing frame at the front of the existing historic landmark building located at 204 North Grant Avenue and it's in council district 1. Thank you very much. You want me to vote? I'll go ahead and present.

Okay. All right. So, um we are here we are here requesting uh on behalf of the applicant proposing modifications to a canopy at 204 North Grant Avenue. Um this is specifically the replacement of the fabric to existing canopy frame at the historic Henderson drug building. Uh currently the frame is in place but there's no canopy uh uh fabric cabin canopy installed. Um, the canopy frame measures approximately 138 square feet and is located above the entrance store facing North Grant Street. The prop proposed canopy fabric will be marine blue in color with the Butler Cohen design and build business branding in white lettering visible on the front of the canopy. The existing canopy frame along with the newly proposed fabric will be 4 feet in height, 23 and 6 feet in width and will extend out six feet on onto the rightway. The applicant's request to install a new canopy will improve and enhance the building's functionality and aesthetics while maintaining its historic integrity. Um, the recommendation from the planning division is staff recommends that the historic preservation commission approves the request for a new 138 foot cloth canopy over the existing frame of a historic landmark building located at 204 North Grant Street. subject to three to four conditions of approval. That the colors, dimensions, and materials of all improvements shall be consistent with the renderings approved by the Historic Preservation Commission. And that the applicant obtains a permit from the building inspections division. That the applicant obtains a street use permit from the Engineering Division of Public Works for to allow the canopy to encroach over the ride of wick. That the applicant is responsible for maintaining the canopy in good condition. and any future removal shall not negatively affect the form integrity of the building in accordance with the 10 with the 10 historic uh criteria. Um I would

like to add that there previously was a similar canopy uh made of cloth at that location. So that what they're doing is they're just replacing that. And I'm here for any questions. Um a couple questions. How long do y'all plan on using the building approximate? Oh. Can we speak to the applicant? I'm so excited. Okay. Um I know I know it's if we say five years, but I mean approximate five, six years. What are we looking at?

Yeah. So, we we currently have a a 5-year lease with the county. The county owns the building. Um we we will be building the courthouse as well. Yes, sir. So, this will kind of serve as our our our West Texas home, but also kind of the mission control for that that master development that's happening downtown Odessa. Um, so right now, I would say just for safe, it's it's 5 years. That's what we're contract contractually obligated to.

With this umbrella fabric that you're using, they have about a 5 to sevenyear lifespan before they start looking rough. Um they say they're going to give you a longer warranty, but we've seen them downtown and that's why part of the downtown that we've done on grants and stuff. Previously, years ago, they would allow that. Then they changed it to it had to be a permanent structure because they said this umbrella is a temporary material because it's going to fade. It's going to start deteriorating and rip. My question, when you leave in five years, I guess you're going to leave your name on it or would it be replaced?

They said it would be removed. you we can we can take it down after 5 years and just leave the frame like it was before. I think the the importance of of what we have there in place is it it kind of speaks to the whether it was original to what 1905 or four or not. Um it it it kind of goes with the building. So, we we didn't want to change what had already been previous there with the Boy Scouts and wanted to kind of limit the amount that we're changing the exterior of this building. You know, all any renovations or any change of anything is just happening on the interior. In fact, on the the first floor, we're trying to keep it as is leaving the lights on the lights the way they were and the tin ceiling and you know, uh the second floor is is

storage.

It it's more commercial. It was commercial to begin with when the Boy Scouts had it. So, that's going to be all offices upstairs. But, in regards to that, if if we need to take it down and and that's what the the city would like us to do. I mean, I if we wrote relocated, I'm I'm the the vice president of our West Texas division. So, if we ever relocated from this building, um we we would want our logo going down anyway to avoid confusion. So, that's probably what happened. Totally off the subject, Mrs. King was asking about your remodeling. I said that to my understanding that I'd heard from Judge Faucet, you're doing a lot of remodeling inside bathrooms and other things. She said there was post office boxes in there at one time.

We are not touching those. Those are those are those are a to go along with like the allure of this building, right? Mhm. It would be completely irresponsible for us to take out something that beautiful in that building. In fact, the the sliding glass door that's underneath there's a little um access to the back side of the the post office boxes. We're leaving that exactly how it was. Um we're leaving the the globe lights that were there. In fact, the lights that the long strip lights that were there, all we're doing is an LED retrofit to them. So, they look exactly like they were when we walked in that building.

Okay. The only thing that we've really done to the building is is what we like to say in construction. We put some lipstick on it. You know, it the the restrooms are going to stay restrooms, but they're going to get new they're going to get get new uh toilets and and sinks and stuff cuz they're very outdated and and they needed to be upgraded. Um the mill work that were in the break room areas were replacing that. So it they're they're nicer and and they weren't really anything that was period correct. It was all stuff that was done in the renovation that the Boy Scouts did in the '9s. So um other than that, we were very conscious about the especially the exterior facade. Okay.

But the interior as well. Okay. That's a long-winded way to say yes, we're keeping those post offices. So that's fine. Do you have any more questions? Thank you. the um window frames, are they being um redone or

they're they're being um any broken single pane windows are being addressed. So the the one on the front of the building that had the Boy Scouts lettering on it, it's cracked. It needs to be replaced, but is going back with single pane window. So we're not upgrading to double pane or anything that wouldn't look period correct. and any of the window frames themselves that may have some rotted out wood um on the interior of the building. What we'll do is we'll just kind of treat those. But going and replacing everything on the exterior would would one we didn't want to get into a situation where that wouldn't be acceptable and and two it'd be a little more of a major undertaking. So we're going to leave everything single pane windows but um it'll have the same look.

Did y'all paint the woodwork on the interior? exterior. On the exterior, no, we didn't. Does it need it? I think it needs a little bit of touchup and you may see us touching it up here and there with the same exact color that's there. I'm okay with some exact colors. Yeah,

you know, we even with the blue, luckily blue's kind of in our logo and the Boy Scouts had blue as well. So, um it hopefully it won't be too shocking to everyone and we try to kept keep it kind of as appropriate as possible when it came to the canopy. But we'd love to look at the building from the outside. Um, we're excited to be a part of the community and and we chose Odessa, Texas as our our our home office for our West Texas projects. Um, so we're excited. Do you have any question? Just as a matter of of interest, um, what about all of the markers that we have in the yard? Are they in the way or?

No, ma'am. We will not be touching any of that. And then on the side of the building, the south side, uh, still has the old sign, drugs or something like that. It's going to stay. So, that's going to stay. In fact, you can see that the Boy Scouts, there's there's four polls right there. The Boy Scouts used to actually have a sign that covered the word drugs. Um, we we think it's it's brings some of the it's cool. The It's just cool, right? So, we won't be putting up a sign over that. In fact, if anything, we might grind down those poles and get them out of the way because they're kind of an eyesore. Um that that used to have a sign on it that covered it so that you can see it a little better. Good. Good.

Okay. You're making her happy. That's what I'm here for. Sounds wonderful. We're just tired of seeing everyone tear down old buildings. We're We're not here for that. I mean, I think what's happening with the courthouse, there's going to be some buildings obviously torn down, but uh we're really excited about the downtown redevelopment and and it's going to bring a lot of life to the the city. Awesome. Any questions? No question. No questions. Are we all good with our sign? I would like to make a motion to for you to move forward with the design of sign that you have presented. Okay. I'll second that. All in favor? All right, we're good. So, pass.

Thank you all so much for your time. We really appreciate it. Thank you. There's no other business. I'm sorry. And there's no other business. And you would need to um make a motion to adjurnn. I'd like to make a motion to adjourn the meeting at 1:44 p.m. I'll second that. All in favor? We're out of here. I think.