The Fall River Historical Commission convened on August 16, 2022. The meeting began with a roll call and the approval of the July 19th minutes. The commission then reviewed several intents to demolish structures, including a brick warehouse at 577-609 Duval Street, a building at 927 Curran Road, and a house at 1091 Globe Street, none of which were on the city's historic registry. They also discussed correspondence regarding properties, noting that they lacked jurisdiction over requests for vinyl siding at 567 3rd Street and 96 French Street, as these properties were not within a local historic district, despite the latter being the oldest house in the city (later corrected to not be the oldest). The commission explored the possibility of Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds to assist homeowners with preservation efforts for properties like 96 French Street. A significant portion of the meeting focused on re-applications for historic tax credits for several properties, including the Adams House, Bradford Durfee Textile School, ILGWU building, Lincoln School, and Notre Dame Rectory. The commission voted to table these applications and schedule a special virtual meeting with the representative from Ryan (formerly McRostie Historic Advisors) to receive presentations on the projects before the August 31st deadline. Old business included updates on 572 High Street (no update), 100 Weaver Street (tabled by ZBA, commission's letter published), and two ongoing enforcement issues in the 40C district: 258-260 Prospect Street, where a homeowner installed an unapproved balustrade, and 710 Rock Street, where a homeowner made unpermitted and non-compliant repairs to a staircase. The commission voted to contact Attorney Ramsey to discuss resolutions for both 40C district cases. Finally, an update was provided on the design guidelines project, revealing that consultant Dominique Hawkins had not received payment for four months, causing a delay, but the Community Preservation Committee (CPC) Chair, John Brandt, was addressing the issue. The meeting adjourned at 6:33 p.m.
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City Officials
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uh good evening everyone um and uh tonight is the uh historical commission meeting on august um um august 16th hello uh 2022.
0:15pursuant 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 those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible may i have a roll call please joyce rodrick's present rick mancini present
0:43please to block present uh connie soul here jason bouchard and iraqi present um okay um the first order is to review i'm sorry the um we have uh one absentee uh member uh that is kristen cantera oliveira um and we have one open seat um available on the commission um so if you have any recommendations we can certainly look at that the first item is to review and approve the minutes from july 19th i thought
1:25elizabeth had sent around i make a motion to oh i i don't have any questions on that's right and i'll suck in that all right uh yep i have a motion in the second uh all in favor aye aye okay uh no do we have no citizen input um i received a few uh of intents to demolish structures from carry in the planning department the first one was 577 to 609 duval street
2:04that is a brick warehouse structure that is not on the city's registry it's not on the historic on the national register but it has been vacant for a number of years i believe it's being demolished to make way for mixed uh structure um it's random adjacent to i forgot the name of the road um turner um so i believe it's a five or six story building that'll about the uh the train tracks that will have um
2:35apartments and ground floor retail as part of the whole waterfront redevelopment so i did inform carrie that it was not on the registry the next one is 927 current road which is in the business business park um and again i told carrie that the building is not on the city's registry um and the next one is 1091 globe street which is i believe a few wonderful one or two houses in from plymouth avenue um
3:08and again told carrie that the house is not on the registry um i think what i might do in the um going forward is to ask carrie for if it's possible if i'm allowed if i'm allowed to uh reasons for demolition um which i think might be helpful so we did receive also a number of correspondence moving on to item number six um the first was 567 3rd street it's a multi-family second empire house
3:43in the corky road district the applicant was requesting to put vinyl siding on the structure this was an email sent to me from kerry ash once again and indicated to her that we don't have any purview on or jurisdiction on houses in that neighborhood because it's not in a local historic district so the next one um 6b 88 south main street the academy building um the the applicant has a request for a sign permit but we
4:23i mentioned the carry that i we will not review it until we have the specs i did not have the specs yet um so we can move that over to once i have those then i'll put it back onto the agenda for the next meeting and in the specs incorporate whether it'll be lighted or not lighted yep um i didn't indicate that to her um let's see 6c uh 5075 north main street in steep brook
4:52this was a phone call that i received from the homeowner she was just requesting information on her property she had called the planning department and they forwarded my number to her and i indicated so i did i spoke with her on the phone just finding out what she wanted to do with the house it's just general maintenance the structure i'm sorry the porch structure needs to be rebuilt in an area she is possibly
5:19looking at residing the house and i did indicate that um we will be eventually rolling out with the design guidelines that would be beneficial to her as to what to choose if she decides to stick with wood i believe the house is um it's a joseph darling designed house to clean in it has shingle siding so she may in turn use shingles or she may may even possibly look at a composite
5:46shingle if that might be the route that she goes and i did forward over i went on to the um the macros database and pulled form b which was surprisingly detailed um so it had only been compiled i think in 2012 or 2013 so i did forward that over to her as well so she had all the necessary back background of the house it was a good phone call
6:13and the next one this was uh this was actually just last week um 96 french street which i believe is called the tory house um in the highlands um so this was a combination email phone call from carrie and kristen um because the homeowner came to the planning department building department to apply for a permit for a vinyl siding um the house was built in 1750 it is the oldest house in the city
6:44the homeowner was told or had informed everyone in the building department that it was not on the uh historic registry um so carrie called me up to ask if to verify and i said it is in fact on the registry it's not in the historic district it's not in the 4dc district it's a few houses away from the border um unfortunately we don't have any jurisdiction on that which
7:12was tough to say because it is such an older it's such an old structure um it actually is not the oldest house in fall river even though it's been labeled as interesting okay yeah it's in steep brook and far down on north main street is actually the oldest house good to know interesting despite the plaque yeah that's just the way it's yeah somebody but still 1750 that's it's a very old 50 plus
7:39years before the city was incorporated yep and they've owned it since 2016. so it makes you wonder why they would want to vinyl side it and it would completely change what all these years so i'm wondering if it's maybe misinformation you know there's flyers out all the time about replacing windows and vinyl siding and how much you save and the house has been meticulously maintained so i'm curious as to
8:10what would make them want to do that um i did ask harry um i suggested to her that we um we would love to meet with the homeowners unfortunately we cannot we cannot require that because they're not under our purview um i did suggest maybe um you know if he had any questions or needed some consulting there was also the fall river preservation society that would i'm sure would gladly
8:35assist and maybe talk talk to him about no vinyl but according to the homeowner the replacement siding which has already been acquired uh looks old so i don't know what they mean by that it's i drove by the house and i it was quick because um uh i was trying to see if it had clappered or if it had shingle i would imagine it has uh shingle um did this okay so
9:04but it's just one of those i can't really deal is is that would a partial uh payment of sorts be applicable to cpa to assist in having the the shingles and the batten boards the corner boards you know all we sanded we painted and and not vinyl cited and cpa said well look maybe we can assist you with a given amount of funds to assist in offsetting the cost i mean that's a
9:41question for that committee i don't know i don't know if we can i don't think they uh they allocate any funds for homeowners well they are shying away from private but it's not you can still apply okay and in this situation with it having the designation that it has and trying to preserve preservation and that's what the cpa is about preserving preservation so that that might be a question that we could pose
10:14short to their chairman and their team members and then invite this couple here on this the homeowner invite them in here and and make some sort of a not a presentation but you know explain to them that there are some options and that i mean a lot of communities not too many around here but they do have a preservation fund available for homeowners because there's really nothing available
10:43nothing if even if your house is on the national register or in the local district there's really yeah it's tax credits and it's all tax credits um which is such a it's for a homeowner that can be a very you know uh mind-boggling route it's overwhelming um and i know some one community i think providence has a uh revolving fund um but that's it's a short-term low-interest loan that they eventually
11:11have to pay back but it's applicable towards historic restoration so um so that was that but i i do like that suggestion about asking the cpa about that even if it's just partial sure um so moving on uh 6e so um this is all forwarded from kristin um the one of the brokers from a firm called ryan it used to be called mcrosti historic advisors they're under a new ownership now these are re-applications
11:48for historic tax credits that they're hoping to get submitted for by the end of this month for the august round of funding and i guess from what i was told kristin would normally just resubmit the letters that have been sent out in the past the broker did mention that there was no significant changes to the applications um but these are all the following ones that are here the first being the adams house and
12:26let's see um which i believe is completed so i think there's usually the uh uh once the building's complete or the project's completed there's the last batch of tax credits that i have to go through same thing with bradford durfee textile school the ilgwu building on third street the only one that i had i had questions on was the lincoln school right off the bat and the notre dame
12:57rectory those were the only two that i had questions on so i'm not sure do we want to go through each one and can we should we go through each one and vote to approve if we should submit another letter of support for these or my i would make a motion that we table table leaves uh because it has always been our stand on historic posture that the individual some represent
13:32the either every one of these would come in make a presentation so that we have an idea where they are at this point we review this paperwork we don't know if the building is completed if it's being changed at all we have no idea so they haven't they have a deadline of august 31st uh or yeah august 31st to get these applications in um so why are we getting it now like right
14:00why didn't get it last month like i'm just curious i don't know um it seems so and i received these from kristin middle of last week i think or um so just simply forward them over to me um so i'm not sure the only one that i know so i know that adam's house i believe is completed the textile school i think is completed um the one across the street is the ilgwu building
14:39um that one's being worked on being worked on as we speak um lincoln school is that's uh that was through david heber i believe um i believe that was just recently acquired i think i think so yeah i don't know anything i don't know where that one stands and that's the first one that jumped out at me that i had a question on because we don't know what what what they're doing
15:06um and then same thing with the notre dame rectory um that's on eastern half again i'm not sure what if any work's been done i know items have been salvaged from the structure um i just don't know what else has been done to to it like how far along they are and that's again the reason why we would always entertain the presentation and that was actually a bored vote uh we made that motion
15:35and we had a vote on it a long time ago probably two years now at least yeah okay um so i mean so i understand the urgency um could we uh if if necessary and just have a special meeting uh once this gets they get notified can we have a special meeting before the end of august maybe we could do a zoom so that it would be easier on them as well
16:08that might be better okay um i can reach out to the representative from ryan and we can i can see if we can get something scheduled between now and the 30th so we can at least get them covered so should we can i have a motion to table these for a special meeting so we can discuss it uh in person with or virtually with um the representative from ryan i will reiterate
16:45that we table this until we can get further communications with these individuals and arrange for either a room or a personal meeting before the end of the month okay my second match have a motion in a second um the next item is 6e let's dash oh sorry 6f that's 162 170 pleasant street um and that's the national register nomination hearing uh for the s course and sons block and this is the letter that i received from
17:33um again from ryan llc um uh dear mr cameron the national register nomination for the s course in suns block 162 to 170 pleasant street fall river massachusetts has been scheduled for consideration by the state review board on wednesday september 14 2022.
17:53federal regulations require that the state historic preservation officer notify property owners of pending review board consideration 30 to 75 days before the date of the meeting so that they make comment on the action the regulations also require that the owner's names and addresses be obtained obtained no more than 90 days before the date of the notification letter we depend on the nominating party to
18:18check local property records and to provide us with up-to-date owner information please complete the attached owner verification form or return it to this office by mail or email by tuesday august 9th and that is uh from ben haley with the national register director for the massachusetts historical commission um so we're within all that time period but uh with the 30 day um but i believe that's just on the on
18:45the building owners behalf and i don't have any objections to i'm surprised it's not even on the register already but i have no objections to um having it listed i think this is probably for tax credit purposes but yeah um that's okay that's okay yeah no this is good i mean they've done that's the this is the cordero's building on the corner so um so do we um do any questions on the letter do we
19:24have any objections to it so that's the correspondence i had on that um okay um let's see and now moving on to old business um uh item 7a do we have an update on 572 high street uh that was the proposal to remove and install 25 new windows no i haven't heard anything
20:03okay um let's see uh next is 7b update on 100 weaver street um that was the proposed demo of the current building and construction of a 160 foot tall residential building um and rick you went to the median lasagna board yes uh and that was stable that was stable okay yes until the next request of the owner and there was a our letter was presented uh but also a copy was given and published
20:38in the forum of the herald along with the preservation society that's good and that's the next meeting for the zba is september i can't remember the date is the 29th i think i'm not sure i'm not sure i know it was september it's definitely in september though okay cool excellent thank you very very much for going over to um thanks for writing the letter oh my pleasure um and uh next is 7c uh update and
21:14discussion on 258 260 prospect street um and that was uh uh it was about to bring you up to speed uh the homeowner um had installed a new ballast rod on their front porch it's a duplex yes it is in the 40c district and there was the permit was given to the homeowner by mistake through the building department they did not consult with the historic district we have sent two letters to certified letters to the homeowner
21:52requesting either that he come before our board to explain or and also to re do bring the porch railing or the balustrade back to what is more historically accurate for the house we haven't received any i think a resolution to this is to actually meet with attorney ramsey um i think uh a discussion needs to be with him to see how we can move forward with this so that we have a resolution
22:28and we do have the power or authorization to establish a fine anywhere up to three hundred dollars i would say to hang on to that even though we had initiated it until there's a meeting with attorney ramsey and i don't know if you want to call a meeting with him and um i'm thinking maybe rick because you were involved so much just the two of you sure yeah okay to make that attempt to resolve yeah
23:05and that's how long has this been going on for long too long that's why i think it's worthwhile having a meeting with him to get resolution okay yeah i don't mind attending if you want me to but i'm just i'm thinking of the people that have been involved
23:32yeah i can i will contact attorney rumsey um and see what we can get going with him let's see what we can do yeah okay awesome um okay uh do we need to approve that um we can make a motion yeah um i make a motion that we contact attorney rumsey to discuss 258 260 prospect street for resolution to go forward have a motion do i have a second also okay
24:13i have a motion in a second uh all in favor aye um next uh item 7d update and discussion on 710 rock street um the homeowners side staircase or side steps uh they were damaged uh in a car accident um the homeowner has not brought the staircase or the steps back to building code and not to well in between that she did not pull a permit to repair and repairs initiated were initiated and
24:59they were not approved by us it's in the 40c um and so the building department did stop the construction of what was being done they were using plastic but anyway so it was stopped and she was supposed to come before us and she did for a zoo meeting but she was in another state and then she was supposed to follow up with us and there's been no follow-up i think that also needs to be discussed
25:36at the same time with attorney rumsey both these properties they're both in the 40c district okay and i remember the zoom meeting or what i think was the zoom meeting or maybe she came in person and was indicating the house across the street has the pvc and i remember we had informed her that that material of the house across the street even though it is in the district it was grant it was material that was
26:04grandfathered in and that replacing items even though they were damaged half they need to fall within the guidelines of the 40c district um and she didn't pull a permit and she yeah exactly that's another another issue okay um and it's so long now that she would be required to pull another permit the other permits is expired the original all right to drive by and i it's just hanging onto the house at this point and
26:35yeah it's not it's not even what's there now it's not even to code so okay um can i get a motion oh i'll make a motion to add that 710 rock street to the discussion uh with attorney rumsey okay i have a motion do i have a second okay i'll suck in there all right um in a second all in favor okay excellent um and uh let's see um next is
27:17do you have any new business that has come up within the last 24 hours at all i do want to um bring up our design guidelines and that we haven't heard from dominique and the preservation society did reach out to her and so i want to update you on that and that just occurred yesterday um so the reason dominique hasn't been in touch with us is because she has not received payment in the last four months
27:50she had submitted her invoice to the cpc and there's been some dialogue between the secretary the cpc and the preservation society and she wasn't aware of any invoice however upon further investigation the preservation society did find out that they do have the invoice they have a couple of invoices and that payment john brandt the chair is taking care of it and assuring that payment to dominique will be going out
28:29i believe in the next couple of weeks it's taking me that long to get so the i don't understand i don't know what happened so i i would assume that the uh whoever handles the disbursement of funds and however that is handled that they must have a schedule of how how often they send payments out but this is four months okay and so that's the reason why we she hasn't reached out to us i'm sure once
29:05she receives this payment it's a matter of it it should be all ready to go okay but that's not the emotional it's not it's it makes us it's embarrassing too yes you know how things how fast things get done i guess but um okay and so we still have how many sections left to approve there's a number um we have a number of sections that still have yet to be there wasn't much
29:35left i don't think no like six-ish some changes some slight changes that were going to be done but i think the bulk of that okay is done the bulk was approved okay yeah um oh yeah we have the email yeah i can forward those two yep do you feel like you're in the dark yeah they're wonderful um yeah she's done this she's done such dominique hawkins h-a-w-k-i-n-s so i don't need to make a phone call at
30:06all or should i make a phone call maybe to i don't know reach out to um the chairman of john brandt john three from the payment has been sent over he did discuss it with jim yesterday so i i do believe he's um he's the one who called the uh disbursement office okay for lack of a better term and conf they confirmed that the invoices have been there so i don't know why
30:37um a disbursement wasn't made i mean yeah i don't know why okay sorry this is the historical society the preservation society jim sol spoke with john grant francis b-r-a-n-d-t um no it would be wonderful to get back on track with that so we can i'd love to have them i just have them i know we have perfect examples that uh you know where they would come in handy um i mean we have our giraffes that are
31:16pretty much it yeah yeah yeah um okay um anything else under new business that came up within the last 24 hours yeah that was actually really quick um so goodness um all right so our next scheduled meeting is tuesday september 20th at 2020 uh 2022 at 6 p.m um i will reach out to um uh to get the meeting set up with ryan a virtual meeting and see what date we can
31:53do um so once i get some dates put out because i think we can just do that whenever but it's up to the schedule of the person that ryan um and then we can go from there for that so may i have a motion to adjourn the meeting it is uh 6 33 pm i'll make a motion to adjourn i have a motion in a second uh all in favor hi excellent um all right and that's
32:26it 6 33 p.m that was fast