1.28.2025 Historical Commission

all right um good evening everyone I'd like to call tonight's meeting of the Fall rubber historical commission uh to start it um it is Tuesday January 28th 2025 it is 6:02 p.m. um pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings

or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by the those present and are deemed uh acknowledged and permissible um and the meeting itself is being recorded on Fall River government TV which will be available on their YouTube page following the meeting um may I get a roll call please Rick Mancini present Jason buard nqi present Connie Soul present Jonathan Lima

present thank you U we are missing um Ashley Duna Elizabeth the block and Joyce Rodricks we do not have any open seats um so item number one on the agenda we do have to review and approve the minutes from December 17th 2024 I did send that in an email uh that night uh on December 17th um were there any questions on it at all no no motion to approve motion by John I'll second the

motion by Connie thank you uh to approve the minutes from December 17th roll call Rick Rick manen yes Jason Bard Rocky yes Connie Soul yes yes and John yes okay thank you all right so approve that thank you um is there any citizens input um I did receive a notice of intent to demolish uh 631 Airport Road uh demolition permit for a wind turbine um it is not on the on the register of

significant structures um but just for consistency carry does let me know when there is a demolition permit um so that's not on the register um under correspondences I did include in the folder in the files that I sent um correspondence from Massachusetts historical commission uh dat of January 8th 2025 received on January 15th 2025 regarding the um I'm going to mispronounce this uh Le letine Lincoln

grammar school the grammar uh Lincoln School on is that cherry or Pine Street pine pine stre oh Pine Street thank you um so the owners of that are proceeding through the national register nomination uh or uh yeah National register nomination of that property um so this was just standard correspondence from the MHC to the owner we do get included on it for any comments that they have um

so that process is ongoing for that which is that's encouraging so that means that they're likely also going after um historic tax credit funds um so that's good um was there any questions on number three um number four on correspondences an email from the licensing department dated January 8th 2025 uh regarding uh any possible exterior design regulations for a residential structure located at 909

High Street um I did inform Carrie the property is outside of the Highlands National register District uh within a block um there are no design regulations on that particular property um which I believe it was on the market so um and then for item five uh another email from the licensing department dated December 23rd 2024 uh an inquiry into the historic status of a structure located at 475 to

483 North Belmont Street and again that property is outside of any historic district it's not listed on the register of significant structures um for new business um so at our last meeting um one of the items that we were that I brought up we um to create a letter um for an annual letter that would be mailed out to homeowners or Property Owners within the highlands 40c the local historic district um I did include

um it is in your packet so that letter was not in the folder unfortunately um so because I was not complete with it um so if since we don't have time to review this letter I would also like to get additional feedback from people so I don't know if this is something we should table we can table it to the next meeting I make a motion to table the letter to the property owners to our

next historic I'll second that motion okay all right so I have a motion by Connie second in by Rick to table item six to our next meeting in February uh roll call votes Rick Rick Mani yes H yes John yes and Jason buard and Rocky yes right thank you um item seven is to review a draft welcome letter template for new Property Owners within the highlands 40c uh local historic district

which I did include in the link to all the files um I do have a copy of that in your stack here um where there any questions regarding or comments I thought it was excellent actually okay nice job um so that it's something that as we see properties that may um come on the market and ultimately sell it's just something that we have to keep in mind of when that happens um

this uh was spurred from a property on Rock Street that uh transferred I believe in November or December um um and uh the real estate agent was fantastic and did the due diligence and actually contacted um uh uh the licensing department to get clarification or verification if that house was in the lhd um which we don't get a lot of um so but so it a letter like this will ultimately go to those

homeowners with a copy of the design guidelines a printed copy um even though it's online I think it's better just to have a printed copy um and then that way they have our email address if there's any questions for any permitting um I would imagine that house will likely need some exterior work eventually um so yeah this is great you want you need a motion on this to uh have this

accepted so um yeah were there any do you have any comments on no I I think it's a great job thank you thank you um one thing to um about the letter so I will if it's approved um I will forward it over to um Corporation Council just so they can review it um just as a courtesy just so they're aware and I'll also let the mayor know since this name is on the um on our

letterhead so I will include them as well just so they're aware and as well as um Dan agar who's um in charge of the planning engineering department so we could make that as part of the motion m okay all right I I'll make a motion that we accept this letter and that we send it to our U uh councel and to our department of engineering Dan AGA for review and comment thank you I'll second that

motion thank you all right so I have a motion by Rick seconded by Connie to send this letter template over to Corporation Council of the mayor and uh the planning department for review um before looking un official um roll call vote Rick Rick man yes Connie yes John yes and Jason rard Rocky yes thank you um the annual reports item number eight is not complete yet it is done or

just about done I will have that ready for a February meeting so it was just a matter of bringing up all the letters that were sent out um over the past year so um so I will have that in February um and nothing for the register of significant structures um under old business uh number nine Olstead Park adoption this is the park on Highland Avenue Maple Street and High Street Rick

do you have an update on that yeah well uh the bottom line is uh from Nancy Smith that uh a letter should be written in detail uh as to what any or an IND individual or a group or wants to do in that particular Park and what their intentions are and what they would do to to to enhance the the property and then it would be presented to the board Park

Board and then it would be open for discussion and and uh and acknowledged uh the those those the two Parx that the one on U um uh Belmont the corner of Belmont and Highland Avenue also those both were taken care of by a local uh well he's he's a he lives in the city but it's a uh architectural U uh landscape architect and he would he was taken care of that up until a couple of

years back um and uh but he he's no longer doing that I spoken to him directly and so it uh it does remain open and available so even the one on Prospect Belmont that one I thought that one was already adopted Yeah by home in no no that's not fully adopted they just take care of the front portion of it oh where the little Monument is exactly okay yeah where where it's where it's

fenced in okay yeah yeah I didn't know that yeah it's the the the the grass and all other they're still taken care of by the parks department are we allowed to I don't want to say solicit but like ask the area nonprofits that might be interested so the one on Prospect Belmont little theaters there and then on uh Highland High Maple that's the Historical Society um I don't know if that's

something that even the school the school Department's over there too but I don't know if that's something that we're allowed to do to see if there would be I know like in the past that um the preservation Society did cleanups at both the parks and did some we the signage that's up there now that was done through the preservation society and through with um d actually created that black and white

sign that's there now uh the welcome to the historic Islands cuz the sign that was there before really kind of rotted away so some things were done you know like the gravel path not the gravel like the blue stone and um the preservation Society was following the blueprints from uh Olstead okay designs um and and slowly like the the Cherry what do they call them cherry blossom yeah as they

deteriorate they would be replaced with what was appropriately supposed to be there like I think it was Oaks and right I think I can't I can't recall right now but and I think those files um so that's thead National Historic Site I think up in Brooklyn um believe most of their their contents are all digitized now oh oh yeah you can find it online and that's how we that's how the preservation Society knew um like what

went where and why the cherry trees were actually they don't belong there and they kind of self-destruct after a while yeah I did speak to the chairman of the park board also and uh it's present to the park board and describe what you want to do what your intentions are and they are hestad Park so you would just generate a I mean the design guidelines I mean the designs the hestad original designs are still available

and it would be great we you know the preservation Society started doing that but um I think being able to just through time return it back to that it would be a great plan to follow that it could be just continue like a ma like almost like a master plan for them and I can't see where this is my personal opinion but I cannot see where uh the P Board would be

objective to having a private individual or group or some other organization want to take care of that uh you know as long as we present to them properly with with you know with with dedicated uh commitment I don't think that would be an issue okay great thank you thank you um so I will reach out to so this was presented to uh to us from a property owner um in the

4C um I will email them back and let them know what we heard from the park board Park Sports so they can make that determination if they want to be involved in that process um okay that's good great good good cool excellent thank you very much that's that that's fantastic it sounds like it's fairly easy too um okay um so with that said on number nine um item number 10 the Steep

Rook by res or a formb update yeah that's moving along uh with my last uh Interac with Laura uh all of the Steep Brook forms have been completed and it's again it's being combined with the bio Reserve uh forms so that should be presented uh looks like probably uh April you know no later than May in that in that time frame and what I'd like to do is uh get maybe get a full

presentation at one of our meetings here uh we could also get Mike larier involved in that because he's been spearheading the bio Reserve so we could have the meeting at one of our historic meetings if that's appropriate to this board yeah I think so yeah absolutely uh much like when uh the students for Mar Williams were back last year yeah ni and and and not trying to back up but they're going to present to

us when the professor she's on sabatical and once she's gets back in the spring she's going to present also for that last section that they did for us so it would be really nice awesome great thank you um all right just got those thanks Rick thank you very much for that um okay thank you um item number 11 um the highlands local historic district expansion um the second round of surveys

were sent out um not the second round sorry the um electronic no not those yet those uh so the seven the 17 additional properties that we had voted back in October um those Surs were sent out I had asked Carrie if anything came back in yet she didn't think so but um this is last week when I had ask her so I can I'll ask her again tomorrow and see if

anything came back um but those did I saw them go to the mailbox so so they're out um so regarding um the electronic um survey um I'm planning on sending that out at the end of February because the 17 that were sent out um have a end of February date for submitting the paper one back so between now and then um I would like to I'll send you the link to

it um so if there's any additional questions or features that we can add to it that would be uh this is the time to add to it um I know that there are some questions from CPC over the Simplicity of the survey um which I had addressed to the CPC um chair via email that there is um what do you call it uh the survey was copied directly from um the site from the yeah

from the MHC so yeah yeah okay okay and that had to do with the voting process so the voting has transpired and I'll give you an update in a moment when you're ready for that yeah I'm ready for that um so that's yeah so regarding uh CPC so what happened with CPC uh the CPC was Voting transpired last evening and the funding for the form BS was approved so it was approved for

$69,000 U and that will be next step will be going to it was unanimous ly approved by the way and that will be going to the city council for uh final approval and the awarding should transpire sometime in you know March or so oh that's great yeah um thank you and so that's thank you that's a great update so that's um so John just so I think you're aware um the preservation

Society had applied for a grant through CPC um that will fund the um the hiring of a consultant that will um basically uh perform the form BS that need to be done um in the past when the lhd was created or the study committee was established in 2014 all the surveys were done through volunteer work with the preservation Society they were the ones spearheading it um but it's the detail

the the research that's involved is quite detailed um it takes a lot of time um and we're looking at you know anywhere from 50 onward of additional properties potentially um so and this is a part of a larger effort too in the city uh for art board um because a lot of the formb surveys that were done in the early 1980s a lot of them have not been updated and eventually we'll as we

want to have those updated across other neighborhoods like hay row or wherever um so that will you know we will have to go through this whole process again for um updating the form makes sense yeah um great excellent so any other questions on no all right um yeah um we had already uh uh good evening um we had already gone through citizen input but do you have any did

you want to add anything to this is the historical commission meeting oh never probably in the wrong place then you probably want to be we're supposed to we're here for our driveway to get approved that city council upstairs upstairs Flor Flor just take take the stair here right upstairs all right good luck thanks for appearing um we could have approved the driveway just for yeah uh city city council uh is

manages uh CP Cuts yeah yes yeah um like oh um because I didn't think we had anything on the the agenda that was uh um all right so regarding everything set for number 11 on Highlands um do you know actually just jumping back on number 11 do you were there any comments about the surveys that we the mailed out surveys that we have done already no no okay no no comments no no discussions

whatsoever not not a concern with the CPC all right and one thing too about um the funding um that the preservation Society uh was successful in getting with the CPC um that um the consultant will attend one or two however meetings that we will have ultimately have um we have to have public meetings with um the residents within the expansion area so once we have an idea once the survey

start coming back I think we'll have a much better turnout with the responses with the electronic one yeah um so the draft letter I'm not quite done with it but it has um a QR code they'll get a letter in the mail they can scan the QR code and brings them right to the Google form yeah I think that'll work a lot better so it just will people don't mail

much I know know and it's just easy click and we sent out when I was working with Perry to send out the paper surveys like we sent the return envelope with the stamp on it with it's self addressed so it's ready to go but didn't really get anything yeah yeah so I think this will be much better um all right so that said um is there any questions on anything any

comments All right so our next meeting is our next meeting is on Tuesday February 18th at 6: pm. um that Monday is a holiday um I did already secure this room for that day I know there was an issue last week because of Martin Luther King Jr day um in the room being um booked so but I did make make sure that all of our meeting dates are secured um so that said um this is an

early night I'll make a motion oh yeah uh so making a motion to adjourn at 6:24 I'll make a motion to adjourn second I'll second that thank you all right so motion to adjourn uh by Connie seconded by John at 6:24 p.m. we will meet on Tuesday February 18th 2025 roll call Rick Rick manini yes Connie yes John yes and Jason CH rocki yes right thank you thank you good night yeah thank you and good night

evening um okay thank you we