City of Aurora Preservation Commission met March 15.
Here is the minutes provided by the Commission:
Call To Order:
Mr. Miller called the meeting to order at 7:18 p.m.
Roll Call:
The following Preservation Commission members were present: Fernando Castrejon, Jen Del Debbio, Mike Lord (present by phone), Dan Miller and Al Signorelli. Herman Shelton, Rob Vaughan and Mike Walker called in and excused themselves from the meeting.
Others Present:
The following staff members were present: Jill Morgan and Sue Jackson.
Approval Of Minutes:
18-0196 Approval of the Minutes for the Historic Preservation Commission meeting on February 15, 2018.
A motion was made by Mr. Signorelli, seconded by Mrs. Del Debbio, that the minutes be approved and filed. The motion carried by voice vote.
COA Report:
18-0237 Februray Historic Certificate of Appropriateness Report
There were no questions on the COA report.
Agenda:
18-0226 An Ordinance Amending Chapter 37, entitled "Preservation”, of the Aurora Code of Ordinances to modify certain provisions therein contained
Mrs. Morgan said this is a Text Amendment to the Preservation Ordinance, so it will have to go all the way to City Council for approval. The Mayor’s office reached out to me looking at wanting to pay the Preservation Commission members for attending meetings. We currently pay the Planning Commission, Zoning Board of Appeals, and FoxWalk Design Review Committee, so any of the committees that have some type of regulatory role either to make a final determination or provide recommendations to the Council, as the Planning Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals do. Preservation obviously does as well. So the Mayor’s office reached out to me about that. The Ordinance does not allow compensation, so we do have to remove that from the Ordinance in order to allow compensation. Currently the Planning Commission and ZBA get $75.00 a meeting. It is per each meeting you attend. If the meeting is cancelled, there would be no compensation.
Mr. Miller said that would apply probably to the monthly Commission meeting. I assume that that wouldn’t apply to sub-committee meetings.
Mrs. Morgan said correct. It would just be the Commission.
Mr. Miller said I haven’t collected a reason yet, but I’ll just ask again on the record so it could be in the minutes, at least, that I asked. Is anyone aware of a reason why the Ordinance was originally written to not allow compensation for Commissioners?
Mrs. Morgan said we do not. It could be at the time maybe none of the Commissions received compensation. It might just have been there was a template of another ordinance that we were kind of using as a template and it was in there and it remained. I’m not really certain why.
Mr. Miller said in my informal questioning, I haven’t found of anyone who knows of a reason for that, but at least let it be recorded that I tried to find out what was the reason. We can’t identify one.
Motion Of Approval Was Made By: Al Signorelli
Motion Seconded By: Fernando Castrejon
Ayes: Fernando Castrejon, Jen Del Debbio, Mike Lord, Dan Miller, Al Signorelli
Nays: None
A motion was made by Mr. Signorelli, seconded by Mr. Castrejon, that this agenda item be Forwarded to the Planning & Development Committee, on the agenda for 3/29/2018. The motion carried by voice vote.
Pending
Committee Reports:
A) Grants - Rob Vaughan, Chariman
No report.
B) Near Eastside Historic District - Jennifer Baird-del Debbio, Chairperson
Mrs. Del Debbio said I’ve been speaking to a few neighbors in the neighborhood and I’m closer to getting some people to maybe make a commitment to walk the neighborhood with me. That would be a nice idea. We also have a woman, older, alone, who worked pretty diligently with the State Historical Society maybe or Preservation Society on getting her roof redone, so that might be something I want to give a nod to for her, Carol. She would love that. It would make her week if we could give some type of recognition for that. There was quite a bit of work that went into that roof.
C) Riddle Highlands Historic District - Fernando Castrejon, Chairperson
Has not met.
D) Public Awareness - Dan Miller, Chariman
Mr. Miller said we did meet and discuss the potential properties for historic preservation awards this year, which we intend to hold at a City Council meeting.
Mrs. Morgan said it will be held May 8th at the City Council meeting. It is something that we are trying new this year. The City Council has in the past few years done a lot of recognition of students and other groups at the City Council meeting. Where I used to work we held ours at the County Council meetings, so we are hoping to get some more additional recognition. To follow up on that, we came up with some ideas. I think we have several, possibly a commercial property. The one beside the old Fire Station, the brick re-facing. I still haven’t gone past it. I’ve heard it looks nice. The city worked with the gentleman who took over that property to make sure that was done accurately. So I think we’ll have some good recognition this year.
Mr. Miller said we discussed moving the Expo maybe to the fall.
Mrs. Morgan said yes. It looks like we are going to do it September 29th. I’m looking right now at getting that date confirmed. I just have to go through the city process to get the payment authorized.
Mr. Miller said another reason for that was we were trying not to load up everything in the spring when there is a lot to implement.
Mrs. Morgan said there is with the Mayor’s Award and then trying to get the loans up and moving. We’ll see how it goes in the fall this year and then maybe another year we’ll look at having it in the spring.
Mr. Signorelli said has the number of nominations changed or do we still just have the two?
Mrs. Morgan said we don’t have a set number of awards we give out.
Mr. Signorelli said how many are we looking at to approve for nomination?
Mrs. Morgan said we haven’t actually officially gotten any applications in. I know there was at least 4 or 5 addresses we discussed and then there were a couple of ones that have done some painting. I would say at least 5 to 8, but so far no actual formal applications, so I might have to try to write some of them up. I probably will reach out. If anyone is thinking of a nomination or has an idea of one, if you have any before pictures, I know we kind of want to surprise the homeowners, but if we have to reach out to them to get some before pictures, it just looks really nice at the presentation to be able to have that contrast.
Mr. Signorelli said while you’ve got Mike there, since I’m nominating his property, why don’t you ask him if he has any before pictures? I’m sure he does.
Mrs. Morgan said Mike, Al is wanting to nominate your property, so if you have any before pictures of your house, if you could e-mail them to me that would be great.
Mr. Lord said yes.
Mr. Miller said thanks very much Mike and thanks for doing all that work on the house.
E) Landmarks - Al Signorelli, Chariman
Has not met.
F) FoxWalk Design Review -
We don’t formally have a Chair yet. We suggested maybe Fernando might like to do that.
Mr. Castrejon said I reached out to Charlie and we’re supposed to meet soon.
G) Tanner/Palace Historic District Committee - Dan Miller, Chairperson
Has not met.
Announcements:
Mr. Signorelli said the only thing I might add very quickly is I’m still talking with Jill and we are still thinking about some local landmark designations.
Mr. Miller said we’ve had some rough meetings with vinyl siding and one of our Commissioner’s, Don Truax, sometimes would be a little hot under collar and suggesting to someone that they should try to get out of the Historic District. It is for further discussions. I find that suggestion kind of impractical. I would suggest we just don’t really offer that to people like why don’t you get your area out of the historic district. These districts have been in place for like, I think Palace 19 years and Tanner for 20 years. A lot of investments have been made. While it may be true the City Council can vote to amend any ordinance that they wish to, it seemed that maybe Don offered that when he was maybe a little angry with someone. It just isn’t the right suggestion to make to people. I’ll just offer that.
Mr. Signorelli said that’s absolutely not the right suggestion because it makes it sound that okay if you don’t like a rule or something with your property, there are questions about it or whatever, you just opt out. That’s not the way it works.
Mr. Miller said at this point I think it is impractical, especially with Palace Street that’s had substantial investments. The city spent a lot of money on those entry monuments.
Mr. Signorelli said the time for discussion is not to opt out of a designation that’s already there. The time for the discussion is when the designation is being considered.
Mr. Miller said you ought to consider it when you choose to purchase a home within that district.
Mr. Signorelli said and also that too.
Mrs. Del Debbio said well as far as I’m concerned, new to the Board, I think there is a lot of, well maybe not a lot, but an emotional substantial commitment you make when you are in a historic district and if you are making a commitment, commitments usually mean tradition and tradition means all the ideas and attitudes that Aurora has held for how long. I mean the sign over there is 1857. We’ve got old neighborhoods and I think when you buy into an older neighborhood and a historic district you’re buying into the tradition and the values that the community has and the community has said that they like having historic districts, so maybe just a reminder of how important a historic district is to the past and the future of Aurora.
Mr. Signorelli said well and it is our responsibility to educate people too. They need to understand what it means to be in a historic district.
Mr. Miller said and hopefully what we are doing with the expo will help. I think another mailing maybe is going out this spring, another reminder to people.
Mrs. Morgan said I just mailed it yesterday. You should be getting them in the next few days. I included a flyer about the Mayor’s Awards, including the call for nominations as well as the date, May 8th.
Mr. Signorelli said will you be putting something in the Beacon asking for nominations as well?
Mrs. Morgan said there should have already been something. I was going to reach out to the Voice and see if we can maybe get one in there as well. I tried to hang up posters mostly downtown, at the Historical Society and the coffee shops downtown. It has been on the Aurora, Illinois Here and Now Facebook agendas. I think you were going to post it on Tanner’s log.
Mr. Miller said Scott does the Tanner District Homeowners page. He may have posted that. I don’t remember. There is a Next Door page too. I think that maybe Ramona may have posted it there. She administers that one.
Mrs. Del Debbio said I was hoping that maybe, this is just an idea I had about trying to get some people in the neighborhood to be more aware of, or conscience, of what it means to own a historical home and I was just thinking that maybe there is so much social media and so much polarization and people are so isolated and just staying into their own sense of community. Some people look at the iPad as their community and that’s really the only way they actually communicate with people. So I was hoping that having the Near Eastside Historical Subcommittee or just being somebody who oversees that area, making it more community, making people aware that they were more part of a group, like a neighborhood, like a church group or school neighborhood. We used to have this cleanup day on Earth Day every year with some of the people in my neighborhood. They’ve all kind of aged out or moved out, so this might be another way of making community.
Mrs. Morgan said what you were talking about, you were trying to get people together to walk around the neighborhood. I think that is a great start.
Mr. Signorelli said house walks and/or garden walks are a really good thing. It is 1,000% positive as far as preservation goes because generally the houses are almost always historic. I know there were a couple in years past on the eastside, but I think there are neighborhood groups who might work with the house walk and also the Historical Society. Maybe we can drum up some interest through those groups.
Mr. Miller said I agree with that. Community is good and sometimes people just need to feel they are part of something.
Mr. Signorelli said the thing with the house walk too is you get not only the homeowners, but you get a whole slew of volunteers. There are a lot people that help to make up a house walk, plus it sometimes brings people in from other communities that see some of the wonderful homes that we have here in Aurora. It is a win-win all the way around.
Mr. Castrejon said the community involvement in Riddle Highland is above and beyond. This is not related to historic, but the women have a book club, I think over 30 members. One of our friends just started a men’s book club. We have soup night on Tuesdays all winter along. Wednesday barbeques will kick off in June, so we are good.
Mr. Signorelli said we have a yearly block party.
Mr. Castrejon said I plan personally the block party, which last year was 97 children and 84 adults. It can work. It just takes effort. Someone needs to own a particular event or category. Our last soup night was at the police station. The police hosted. We brought 8 crockpots of soup and miscellaneous sides and then afterwards there was a tour of the police station.
Mr. Signorelli said now does the Near Eastside still have a neighborhood group?
Mrs. Del Debbi said no. We haven’t met for quite a while. Basically we worked our butt off to get rid of the prostitution and the drugs. We achieved our goal so we no longer met. The fence issue brought people out for a while when they restricted what you could use.
Mr. Signorelli said because the Near Eastside for a very long time had a very strong.
Mrs. Del Debbio said yes. Paul Stewart and I, and Tony and Steve Griswold and Larry LaVoi, they were great. We walked at night with the community police officers. It was a lot of work and Pam Bradley and the Bates sisters were wonderful. So if we could bring some of that back that would awesome.
Mr. Signorelli said but you are right though. Neighborhood groups usually become strong and/or formed over a couple of issues like you were talking about and then once those are taken care of interest kind of wanes, which is too bad.
Mrs. Del Debbio said but if you develop a positive interest maybe people will come out, like the flowers and just community upkeep. Maybe that will work. Plus community. I think people really are isolated now. There are a lot of people that work. There is really very little time to meet your neighbors, so maybe if there was a better way to connect they would be more likely to abide by some of these guidelines.
Adjournment:
A motion was made by Mr. Signorelli, seconded by Mr. Castrejon, that the meeting be adjourned. The motion carried by voice vote. Mr. Miller adjourned the meeting at 7:40 p.m.
https://www.aurora-il.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_03152018-1397
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