HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/20/2014 Work SessionCity of Springfield
Work Meeting
MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF
THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD
MONDAY OCTOBER 20, 2014
The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Library Meeting Room, 225 Fifth Street,
Springfield, Oregon, on Monday October 20 at 6:00 p.m., with Mayor Lundberg presiding.
ATTENDANCE
Present were Mayor Lundberg and Councilors VanGordon, Wylie, Moore, Ralston, and Woodrow.
Also present were City Manager Gino Grimaldi, Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery, City Attorney
Mary Bridget Smith, City Recorder Amy Sowa and members of the staff.
1. Joint Historic Commission Meeting
City Council Operating Procedures Section IV 6.4 states that Commission member liaisons are
responsible for making an annual report of the Commission's activities to the City Council. This
meeting fulfills that requirement.
In 2009, the City Council and Springfield Historic Commission established a new schedule for
communication to better align Commission activities with Council goals and other City initiatives,
resulting in biennial joint work sessions. The Historic Commission applies for Certified Local
Government grant funding from the State Historic Preservation Office to support its activities and
matches that financial support with in-kind staff and volunteer time.
Every four years, the National Park Service asks that State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPO) visit
with its partners to talk about their programs. In September, SHPO conducted its audit of the
Springfield Certified Local Government (CLG) program. Attachment 1 outlines SHPO's assessment
of the program.
Since the last joint Council/Historic Commission work session (September 2012), the Historic
Commission applied for and received $13,000 in grant funds to support its activities from April 2014 -
August 2015. The Commission will report to Council on its accomplishments from the last joint
meeting to date, present the findings of a community survey on Historic Preservation that the
Commission conducted in Summer 2014, and initiate a conversation regarding observed limitations of
Springfield's Historic Overlay District in ensuring efficient and effective implementation of the City's
historic preservation policies.
Historic Commission member Kuri Gill presented the topic. She thanked the Council for having them
here to share what the Historic Commission has been doing over the last year. The Historic
Commission received $13,800 in Certified Local Government (CLG) grant funds which was matched
1 for 1 with staff and volunteer time for the time period between April 1, 2012 and August 31, 2013.
During the current year, they received another CLG grant in the amount of $13,000 for the time period
between April 1, 2014 and August 31, 2015.
Ms. Gill noted the following accomplishments between October 2012 and today:
1. Reviewed proposals for modifications to historic properties
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2. Completed Reconnaissance Level Survey of Willamette Heights Neighborhood
3. Supported and promoted the Cottage Grove CLG wood window workshop for contractors
4. Completed five Intensive Level Surveys of downtown buildings
5. Updated the Historic Commission website
6. Repaired and replaced Washburne District signs
7. Attend local, regional, national conferences / workshops
8. Continued survey/inventory of Springfield's pre -1915 historic properties
9. Passed CLG Audit
10. Conducted a survey regarding the value of Springfield's historic properties and the historic
code
Ms. Gill noted that Historic Commission members took their own personal time to attend the
conferences (Item 7 above). Springfield has the highest attendance rate of all of the commissions
throughout the state. All survey work has also been done by members using their own personal time.
In order to be a Certified Local Government, the Historic Commission is required to be audited every
four years to make sure they still meet the required responsibilities (Item 9 above). The review (audit)
occurred a little over a month ago. Springfield meets the minimum requirements, but there was a lot of
conversation about the design review process and the code that is in place for the historic properties,
including enforcement of the code. The CLG recommended some code revisions.
Ms. Gill reviewed the survey results (Item 10 above):
• 215 respondents
• 85% live in or own property in Springfield
• 55% own historic property
• 47% own property in the Washburne Historic District
• 24% have used the design and review process
• 87% agreed or strongly agreed that Springfield's history is important to its future
• 77% agreed that City Council should prioritize preservation
• 24% (38 respondents) had used the process
• 75% agreed or strongly agreed that City staff was helpful
• Only 36% agreed or strongly agreed the process is easy
• Washburne Historic District Process Clarity and Helpfulness Scale
• Only 14% agreed or strongly agreed that design requirements should be more strict
• The value of historic places and buildings is noted below:
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There is a clear value of historic places in Springfield and a clear value of the historic nature of the
Washburne neighborhood. Based on the response regarding the process, it was suggested the code be
revised to make the process clearer and easier. She noted that staff support time for the Historic
Commission had been reduced. With less support, the process is slower and communication more
challenging. Having a clearer, more streamlined process will be helpful for staff.
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Councilor Moore asked if there are ways to help homeowners with the costs to meet the requirements.
Ms. Gill said there are resources available.
Ms. Gill thanks Tara Jones and Molly Markarian for their staff support. Other commissions in the state
don't have the support they have in Springfield, so they appreciate the help they do have. The
Commission would like to talk to the Council about their Council liaison (vacant since Councilor
Brew left office), the survey situation and code revision.
Mayor Lundberg said once they had a full Council, she will re -assign them to the committees near the
end of the year. They are waiting for the election results.
Ms. Gill said they would love to have someone with interest or knowledge of the district, and is
willing and able to attend the meetings and read through the materials.
Historic Commission member Dannie Helm said she in the three years since she had been on the
commission, she had not met the Council liaison. They missed having that connection.
Mayor Lundberg said she wasn't aware the last liaison was not able to attend. It was likely due to
scheduling.
Ms. Gill said the next meeting will be on the 4h Tuesday of November. They will meet next in
January.
Mayor Lundberg said she would make sure the new liaison attended the next available meeting after
assigned, likely in January.
Ms. Gill responded to Councilor Moore's question about comments to the survey. They had 70
respondents provide comments which were very helpful. One of the biggest issues is the materials
required on historic homes. There are a lot of pressures and opportunities in the area of energy
efficiency, and historic homes can be very energy efficient with the right improvements. The
Commission needs to work on education about that topic. They did offer a grant program and no one
applied, so they will work on better outreach. They found that people aren't clear who they are in the
neighborhood and whether or not they have to go through a process when doing alterations to their
buildings. Part of the outreach will include more specific mailings to provide clarity for people about
what is expected. They will also engage people if they are able to move forward with a code revision
process.
Ms. Helm said the survey was available on the website. They had included on the survey information
about the CLG workshop which was well received.
Councilor Woodrow asked how the code revisions took place.
Ms. Gill said staff time is needed to prepare the amendments for review by the Planning Commission
and City Council. It will go through the normal City process. The biggest concerns are clarity of the
process and ability for staff to make objective decisions. There are three types of review and it is not
always clear what review is needed for each project. Type I review should be able to happen with staff
and not have to come before the Commission, but the code language is still very objective making it
challenging for staff to make those decisions. If the code could be designed so those Type I decisions
are much more objective, that provides a quicker process for the homeowner and for staff. Type III
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review are more subjective and will come to the Commission. Those are some ideas of how the
process might be improved. They also want to make sure enforcement is able to happen with these
projects. They would like to open it up to other incentives (i.e. grant programs, etc.) to encourage
people to go through the process.
Ms. Helm said there are a lot of educational aspects that can come from the code revisions. Some
cities are developing one-page handouts that can be provided at the counter for Type I projects that
make it clear and efficient. There is also an opportunity to bring emergency preparedness and disaster
planning into the code revisions.
Ms. Gill said they would like to have the Council agree with doing code revisions and support staff to
take on that task. They can use grant funds for part of that if it is helpful.
Councilor Ralston asked when that code section was last revised.
Ms. Markarian said that part of the code was established in 1987 and has not been revised since then.
Councilor Ralston said it was time to be updated.
Mayor Lundberg asked the city manager about funding.
Mr. Grimaldi said it was a resource issue as staff is currently full utilized with the work at hand. To
add this would mean that something else would take longer to complete or stopped.
Mayor Lundberg asked if there was potential to get a contract with someone with expertise.
Mr. Grimaldi said they could look at that, but it will still use staff time. They can look at this during
the budget season. In the coming year, staff will provide the Budget Committee with a list of things
they think they should be doing and get feedback. They can add this to that list.
Councilor Moore asked about the review of properties in the Washburne historic district.
Mr. Grimaldi said that review was done and an outline of the preliminary work will be in an upcoming
Communication Packet.
Councilor Moore asked if that review had anything to do with the code revisions being requested
tonight.
Ms. Gill said it does somewhat relate to it as zoning would be considered in the code revisions.
Councilor Ralston said he would like to keep this in-house rather than contract. He supposed the
Historic Commission had already reviewed other codes to see what they want.
Councilor VanGordon asked when the revisions could be done if it was added after other staff work is
completed.
Mr. Grimaldi said currently staff is working on Metro Plan issues, Glenwood code amendments,
downtown design standards, and several Main Street projects.
Mr. Goodwin said without additional resources, it would be a couple of years before they could
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dedicate staff to provide support for the code revisions requested.
Councilor VanGordon asked if they could take the approach of fixing some easy things now to make
the process significantly better.
Ms. Gill said they could possibly do a couple of things that could make things easier, but they would
not want to do something without involving the neighbors.
Councilor VanGordon said the revisions need to be done, but he would like to hear about simple
things that could be done in the meantime.
Councilor Woodrow said she had a concern about doing things now that might have a short-term
impact. She feels any changes need to be looked at in context of how they relate with each other.
Isolating them might be difficult and not serve the purpose or bring about the desired end result. She
was supportive of adding this to the list of projects so they can put it in context with other things
during the budget process.
Councilor Moore asked if there is an opportunity to take what other communities have in their code to
make it easier. She realizes it takes staff time, but perhaps the Commission could look over other
cities' codes and make suggestions.
Councilor Wylie said because the code is failing preservation, and we are dealing with important
historic buildings, we may lose aspects of some of those buildings if they can't do something now. It is
not a good idea to wait a couple of years. Maybe the Commission could research other codes and find
things that could be changed in our code, so we didn't lose those buildings. As Springfield has grown,
it's important to preserve our historic district. We need to find a way to get to it sooner.
Ms. Helm said sections of the code were interconnected so they did need to be very careful. They
would want to plan their work around this as it would become their primary task. They want to work
with the Council to make sure they are on the same page.
Mayor Lundberg said she knew staff would have to take their time to provide information to the
Commission. The first task is to create a to-do list outlining what part the Historic Commission can
take on, such as getting a list of what other communities are doing, and what part staff will need to
take on. It may mean that the Historic Commission starts to meet monthly rather than every other
month.
Mr. Grimaldi said it needs to be scoped out. They will do that before presenting to it to the Budget
Committee.
Mayor Lundberg said they need to be realistic. The City has very large projects our staff is currently
working on including the urban growth boundary (UGB) expansion and Glenwood Refinement Plan.
She asked staff to get something lined up for review by the Budget Committee.
Councilor Wylie said they could possibly look into hiring a graduate student to help work on this with
minimum staff time; someone knowledgeable and excited about the project.
Mayor Lundberg said currently people (in the Historic District) are doing their own thing. We need to
find a way to embrace the historic areas in the community and encourage participation. Everyone has a
sense of preservation and it is important to Council. She will get a Council liaison assigned to the
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Historic Commission as soon as possible.
Ms. Helm said they appreciate the impact it has on staff. They hope it will alleviate the impact on staff
in the long-term.
Mayor Lundberg said they want to be helpful to community members. Council appreciated the Ms.
Gill and Ms. Helm for attending tonight.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 6:45 p.m.
Minutes Recorder — Amy Sowa
Christine L. Lundberg
Mayor
Attest:
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Amy Sowa
City Recorder
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