HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION HEARING MINUTES JANUARY 23, 2014 Commissioners Scott Winnette, Chairman Robert Jones, Vice Chairman Stephen Parnes Tim Wesolek Michael Simons Brian Dylus (not present) Rebecca Cybularz Chase Tydings, Alternate Aldermanic Representative Donna Kuzemchak Staff Lisa Mroszczyk Murphy, Historic Preservation Planner Christina Martinkosky, Historic Preservation Planner Scott Waxter, Assistant City Attorney Matt Davis, Manager of Comprehensive Planning Shannon Pyles, HPC Administrative Assistant I. Call to Order Mr. Winnette called the meeting to order at 6:00 P.M. He stated that the technical qualifications of the Commission and the staff are on file with the City of Frederick and are made a part of each and every case before the Commission. He also noted that the Frederick City Historic Preservation Commission uses the Guidelines adopted by the Mayor and Board of Aldermen and the Secretary of the Interior s Standards for Rehabilitation published by the U. S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, and these Guidelines are made a part of each and every case. All cases were duly advertised in the Frederick News Post in accordance with Section 301 of the Land Management Code. II. Public Hearing Swearing In Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the responses given and statements made in this hearing before the Historic Preservation Commission will be the whole truth and nothing but the truth? If so, answer I do. III. Announcements Ms. Murphy announced that on February 11, 2014 there will be a Tax Credit Workshop and there will be representatives from the Maryland Historical Trust here talking about the homeowner tax credit. She went on to say the City staff will be there to talk about the City property tax credit for historic 1
preservation. She also announced that on February 25, 2014 the Commission will be holding a special workshop to talk about draft guidelines for individual properties and small districts. She announced that nomination forms for the Preservation Awards are due on March 14, 2014 and you can find the nomination forms on the City s website. She also announced that the Winter 2014 Historic Preservation Commission newsletter will be posted on the City s website in the following week. IV. Approval of Minutes 1. January 8, 2014 Site Visit Minutes Motion: Scott Winnette moved to approve the January 8, 2014 site visit minutes as written. 2. January 9, 2014 Hearing/Workshop Minutes Motion: Scott Winnette moved to approve the January 9, 2014 hearing and workshop minutes as written. V. HPC Business 3. Request for Demolition Review 800 Tollhouse Avenue Motion: Scott Winnette moved to not initiate 800 Tollhouse Avenue into the historic designation process. Second: Timothy Wesolek 4. Request for Demolition Review 1705 N. Market Street (Coca-Cola Bottling Plant) Public Comment Tricia Beisler, with Catoctin Overlook, LLC, stated that they have been in multi-family housing since 1985 and have financed over 300,000 apartments or over 25 billion dollars in loans to date. She went on to say that her husband, Mark Beisler, is the current chair of the Multi-Family Council of the Mortgage Bankers Association and he is the previous chair of Fannie-Mae Multi-Family DUS Advisory Council and a previous board member and treasurer of the Waterford Foundation which helps with preservation and education efforts in Waterford. She said that way back she worked for a health care research firm in the District [of Columbia] and has spent the last many years raising their children and actively volunteering in many of their local non-profits as well as served in leadership positions for many boards there. She added that they are very community-minded and that they take their roles as community members very seriously. She went on to say that in the last couple of years they made the decision that they would like to transition from financing other people s projects to becoming owner s themselves of multi-family housing. She stated that their redevelopment deal in downtown Leesburg, VA with their 2
business partner they preserved an original stone home and they designed 19 units of age restricted housing. She said that they worked closely with the town of Leesburg and really listened to them to find out what they needed for that part of the community. She added that the project is in the process of being bid out but they already have a waiting list of over 30 people that are interested in 19 units once they can be listed. She said that they bought a couple of rental units in Frederick and have remodeled and rented those out with one of them being in Frederick Town Village and a lot of the work was done by them. She said that it was going back and forth to that property that made the Coca-Cola property catch her eye and at that point they were looking to purchase or construct an apartment building and she thought it would be so much fun to re-purpose the building and bring life back to it. She stated that luckily for them, Coke is totally supportive of them doing that as well as leaving the Coke sign on the front of the building and maintaining the entire front façade. She went on to say that they signed a contract with them and as far as their architect they looked to a firm that is based in Dallas called Humphries and they are a national leader in multi-family designs and adaptive reuse that fit and looks out for the best interest of both the owners and the community. She said that they have designed many adaptive uses of buildings including mills and factories with great success. She went on to say that they asked them to do a land use study and a proposed site plan keeping the front façade and the Coke sign in place and they had the suggestion of moving the main entrance for the housing portion to the back of the property so that way the attention on the street side will remain the Coke sign and architectural detailing on the front of the property. She added that when they were doing the land use study they were very surprised at the amount of commercial and retail space that was shown. She said that their goal was always multi-family housing but because of the zoning of the property and the rules in Frederick they will probably be required to have quite a bit of commercial and retail space. She stated that if they have the support of the City they are very excited to meet with the NAC Committee to determine some of those needs and some of the things she is interested in looking into are elder or child care or meeting space for non-profits. She said that they and Coke believe an overlay is not appropriate for this property and as far as the National Register Criteria A the property is not in any way associated with events that made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history. She stated that while they all agree that Coke is near and dear to our hearts that does not make this building significant. She added that we do not preserve and regulate every Ford plant or dealership in the country and it is not appropriate or feasible. She said that as far as National Register Criteria C the only distinctive characteristics of the building are the Coke sign itself and the Art Deco elements on the front and left side of the main building. She added that the back or right sides of the building have those elements and the warehouse does not have any of those elements at all. She went to say that the building was actually not constructed during the Art Deco period which began with the World War I and ended with the World War II. She said that Coke did build a lot of buildings during the Art Deco period notable in Winchester in 1939 and the thought is that they probably just reused or adapted those plans coming out of the war. She stated that they feel like placing an overlay over this property due to its Art Deco elements would be equivalent and maybe set a precedent for being able to place an overlay on a building that has those same elements built today or any other time. She said that if they are able to move forward with their plans the front portion of the main building will be retained and they are even open to consider a façade easement in place of a historic overlay. Andrew DiPasquale, working with Catoctin Overlook, LLC, stated that he has worked with Coca-Cola in the past and he has been attached to this particular piece of property since 2005 or about that time with the comprehensive planning in 2005. He went on to say that he thought it would be appropriate for him to explain some of the context as well as speak to why they are before the Commission. He said that having been attached to the project since 2005 he spent countless hours working with staff through rezoning processes and respective opportunities for this property and at every turn been met with difficulties. He stated that they are in the early stages of this project but what is proposed does not materially impact the integrity of the structure or what it is that everyone is seeking to preserve and as Ms. Beisler spoke to their goal in all of this is to maintain all of the integrity of the structure and what everyone else has come to know and love as the Coca-Cola building. He went on to say that he does not think this was necessarily 3
the intent of the demolition delay ordinance. He said that his understanding of the intent was to certainly at least delay quick demolition of projects that are historically significant along with allowing the Commission the opportunity to review them and take a historical inventory to determine if they are indeed historic and preserve and protect them. He stated that in their case they are not in any sort of near term demolition and unfortunately the way that the process happens when they reached out to staff to get some preliminary comments on their direction to make sure their efforts were headed in the right direction for this project it triggered a requirement to file for the request for demolition review application. He added that they do not intend to demolish anything at any point in the near term and quite frankly no demolition will or can occur until they have made it through several more months of entitlements, processes and approvals. He stated that they are seeking a mixed use zoning overlay and a number of layered approvals before it makes any sense at all to disturb any portion of the building but if and when that time does come it will be a very small portion of the rear of the building and the warehousing area to the back which serves no meaningful purpose to anyone. He said that having tried to foster something in this building since 2005 they have been unable and no one has come to the table with any legitimate suggestions and now here we are in 2014 with a willing and able buyer with a very exciting plan and all of a sudden they are left very concerned about the future prospects of the building with this contract purchaser and the reality is any contract purchaser is going to a fairly finite feasibility period and a very finite period to determine what they can successful do with the property and whether or not their project is going to be cost prohibited. He stated that unfortunately if they are hit with the implementation of a historic overlay district at this early stage it n t only expectation ally increase the entitlements process it will necessarily expectation ally increase the cost associated with what they intend to do. Joan Porter, member of the Frederick Preservation Trust, stated that it is in this official capacity that she would like to speak to the Commission about the importance of initiating the designation of the former Coca-Cola Bottling Plant site as eligible for preservation overlay designation. She went on to ask the Commission to consider the following, the site has played a significant role in our local and national community, the plant served as a place of employment of the national brand from 1947 through 2007, the site includes one of Fredericks largest and most prominent examples of very late use of Art Deco architecture design as recognized by the City in its 2010 Comprehensive Plan. She stated that the Art Deco architectural style is a distinctive Coca-Cola Bottling Plant design found in a number of mid- Atlantic towns and cities. She said that the building company in Maryland, Davis and Plat Incorporated under the direction or architecture of Dorraine S. Plat designed and constructed several similar plants in the area and these include a 1936 addition of the Washington, DC Bottling Works, a plant in Charlottesville, VA and one in Winchester, VA. She went on to say that these have been identified in the National Register of Historic Places program which is the official list of our nation s historic places deemed worthy of preservation. She added that the site was featured in the Frederick Magazine s 10 Most Endangered Sites in 2013 which is a list created to bring awareness to the community of the risk of losing significant elements of Frederick s history. She stated that accordingly they encourage the HPC to pursue this local designation. Mary Boswell, Executive Director of the Historical Society of Frederick County, stated that she served on the Historic District Commission in Franklin, NH for many years as well as serving on the State Historic Resources Council for the state of NH for many years. She went on to say that she recently learned about the former Coca-Cola Bottling Plant site and she wanted to speak on behalf of initiating its designation as eligible for historic preservation overlay designation. She said that demolition on this site will diminish its historic significance and will impact Rose Hill and programs that are provided there. Dale Dowling, resident of the City of Frederick, stated that she came to talk about the fact that even Coca- Cola admits that this is one or maybe one of a few buildings that they have that is still in primarily its original shape and she urged all of us as we talk about designation to take into consideration the fact that when you have a structure that is a type structure or a style of structure that is the only one that is left it is 4
incumbent on all of us to very carefully review whether we want to put an overlay on the structure. She went on to say that the kind of slowing down that this process will give the Commission and the City the opportunity to look at how important this building is. She said that she was not prepared nor does she think any of the other people tonight to go into a discussion about National Register criteria and in fact someone who runs the National Register volunteered to come to talk about the importance of this building and how it meets the criteria but they felt that would be premature in the discussion. She stated that as a PhD architectural historian that has been doing preservation and architecture for 30 years the fact that this was an Art Deco design that was possibly produced during the war or before the war does not make it an exception and not valuable and not part of a national trend because of the Depression and World War II plans for churches, commercial buildings, houses, and government buildings stopped because of lack of funds during the Depression as well as lack of materials that went to the war efforts. She went on to say that the fact that this building was delayed and has used a plan that came before World War II puts it exactly in the trend of what was happening nationally and makes it an example of what was an important piece of architectural and cultural history of the World War and post-war period. Motion: Scott Winnette moved to initiate 1705 N. Market Street for historic designation beginning that process. Second: Robert Jones VI. Consent Items There were no consent agenda items. VII. Cases to be Heard 4. HPC14-01 124 N. Market Street Phil Bowers Amendments to previous approval Jim Mills, agent Christina Martinkosky Ms. Martinkosky entered the entire staff report into the record. Motion: Robert Jones moved to approve the application in accordance with drawings A101, A201, and A301 dated 12/16/2013. The addition will be constructed with the following materials: Steel-look aluminum window system from Graham Architectural Products (Series 6700) Large horizontal bifolding doors from Solar Innovations Single-leaf glass and aluminum doors from Kawneer Door hardware will be the Athens style from Schlage in an oil rubbed bronze finish. Wood and glass doors, transom and sidelights for the large, brick arched opening on the south elevation Corrugated and flush metal siding with a cor-ten steel finish Stained wood pergola Wrought iron railing around the new deck/patio to feature the same design that was approved for the north stair Deck/patio flooring will be made of: 5
o Trinity Tile Hardwood series, color not yet determined (6 by 24 ) o Kaswell flooring end block wood flooring, color/species not yet determined Roof to be covered in EDPM rubber roofing system from Firestone. 2000 skylight from Kawneer (to imitate a monitor roof) This approval should be granted with the understanding that the following conditions be met: Product information must submitted for staff review for the new wood and glass door, transom, and sidelights that will infill the arched opening on the south (side) elevation. That a color sample and hardware product information is submitted for staff review for the awning system located at the pergola. A photograph, drawing, or product information is submitted for staff review for the deck/patio railing system. Color/species information must be submitted on Trinity porcelain tile (Hardwood Series) AND/OR Kaswell end block wood flooring, for stafflevel review. Second: Timothy Wesolek The meeting was adjourned at approximately 7:00 PM. Respectfully Submitted, Shannon Pyles, Administrative Assistant 6