By Kim McDarison
The Fort Atkinson City Council Thursday approved a third and final reading of an amendment to city code changing the requirements for members serving on the city’s Historic Preservation Commission.
In a memo to council, City Manager Rebecca Houseman LeMire noted that city staff and the commission had been working over the past several months to clarify roles and responsibilities as they related to reviewing projects and approving Certificates of Appropriateness.
Additionally, LeMire wrote, the commission had noted its difficulty in recruiting members to serve on the five-member board.
The body has two vacancies, LeMire stated.
A Historic Preservation Commission or similar body is required, LeMire explained in her memo, because the city has locally-designated historical landmarks.
As stated within the memo, changes approved Thursday include the following:
• The Historic Preservation Commission makes recommendations to the Plan Commission as that is the body that reviews Special Area Design Review requests for parcels in the Downtown Historic Mixed Use Zoning District (DHMU). The state and federally designated downtown historic district is within the DHMU zoning district.
• The commission requires three members of the five-member board to reside in the city.
• The remaining two members may reside up to 20 miles outside the city, provided that each member works within the city, owns property within a historical district, or owns a locally-designated landmark property.
• Changes the membership term from five years to three years.
• Allows each member to serve up to three 3-year terms.
• Clarifies that the Historic Preservation Commission must review projects within the historic district and issue a Certificate of Appropriateness for any exterior change to a building or property that is in a locally-designated district or is a locally-designated landmark.
• For properties within the DHMU zoning district, language clarifies that the Historic Preservation Commission will review Special Area Design Review applications and make recommendations for approval or denial to the Plan Commission.
Language exempts structures built within the last 50 years within the DHMU zoning district due to the large size of the district and the number of buildings within the district that do not have historic value, the memo stated.
Changes further allow for a 45-day review period for the Historic Preservation Commission. If the commission does not make a recommendation within 45 days, the Special Area Design Review application will be forwarded to the Plan Commission without a recommendation.
While there is no fee for Special Area Design Review applications, staff intends to review the requirements in 2022 and recommend that the city council adopt a fee for review of the application with the 2023 Fee Schedule, the memo noted.
An earlier story about proposed changes is here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/historic-preservation-commission-changes-special-area-design-review-fee-considered/.
Hoard Historical Museum, file photo/Chris Spangler.
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