Agenda - 04-01-1991 - Laserfiche WebLink

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38 . March 6, 1991 Page 2 160A- 400.5) this reference to a waiting period is made only to designated landmarks, not to all buildings in a historic district. In fact, Section 4.9 of the ordinance (as well as the statutes) say that commissions can waive all or part of the delay period for buildings in districts which have no particular significance or for' which the owner would suffer extreme hardship if made to wait 180 days. Actually, then, it seems to me that there is no required waiting period for all district buildings and the wording in Section 2.10 may need re- thinking. In Section 4.4, which concerns the application for certificates of appropriateness, you allow the staff 30 days in which to formulate a comment on whether or not what is proposed is congruous with the character of the district or the landmark. You note'that this 30 day period can also be extended. This. is entirely up to you, but I wonder if it should really take staff 30 days or more to formulate comments on any application? I don't know how detailed you envision the "investigation and report" being, but many staff comments consist only of a summation of the application, notation of applicable guidelines, a statement of relevant facts from the application, and a recommendation to the commission (including conditions, if appropriate). Most commission procedures simply require that complete applications be submitted somewhere between one and two weeks -prior to the next scheduled commission meeting, and the staff formulates its comments during that time. As I said,, if you want to give yourselves 30 days to work on that you certainly can. You may find that it is not necessary, however. Section 3.3 deals with the preparation of designation reports for landmarks. when we review those reports we look for several - things, most of which you have noted here as,being required. However, we also look for 'a concise statement of exactly what is proposed for designation (i.e. 7 acres, the exterior of the barn, the exterior of the house, etc). It is important that this be clearly stated in the designation ordinance as well. outbuildings which may be included in the designation should also be described, photographed and mapped and it is also important to provide a statement justifying the inclusion of land which may be designated'. in terms of the process for considering applications for designation (sections 3.4 - 3.7), I note that you will notify adjacent property owners by certified mail and provide for public comment three separate times for each application, once for the meeting at which the staff presents the report to the commission, once for the meeting at which the commission makes it recommendation to the Planning Board, and again for the joint public hearing. if your local planning procedures require this extent of public notice and involvement, then this is appropriate. If not, you could simplify things by limiting the public