HISTORIC DISTRICT COMMISSION
Public Meeting
August 23, 2006
Judge Welsh Hearing Room
3:30 p.m.
Members Present: Polly Burnell, Nathan Butera, John
Dowd, Marcene
Marcoux,
Carol Neal, and E. Clothier Tepper.
Members Absent: None
Staff: Doug
Taylor and Maxine Notaro.
At the onset of the meeting,
corrections were made to July 26th minutes. The corrections were given to Maxine who
evidently typed the July 26th minutes.
The Historic District
Commission will consider the following applications:
Administrative Reviews 3:30 pm
150 Commercial Street
A discussion was held about a property at 150 Commercial
Street. The front door is wrong. Doug says the back part of the building is really
a demolition. Maybe we should post
them. Nathan asked, "There are no
plans filed? Is there a fine for
historic?" Doug Taylor
said that the plan is just a build back.
Technically this should have been a demolition delay. The Building Inspector asked Historic what
they suggested? A $300/day fine or a
stop work order? A stop work order was
decided upon.
227-229 Commercial Street – Scott Ravelson purchased the building and he felt
the Commissioners were enthused about the plan that he originally presented in
January. He had very little time to
present his case before the main meeting convened at 4:00 p.m. He has five alternatives and wanted
direction from Historic as to how to proceed.
Marcene wants total redo of the plans so that the Commission can have
something to follow rather than the myriad of plans and redos on a page-by-page
basis that Scott was presenting. Scott
maintained that it could it be helpful to get feedback. John & Clo were confused as to what exactly
was being planned. Mr. Ravelson said
that it’s going to be an upscale building.
Marcene said she would like
to go back to the original plan and doesn’t need all the many plan
revisions. He has a package that he can
leave with everybody. He gave out one new
page to everyone. The presentation was
very confusing to all. He informed the
group that he had traveled 3 hours to present this and insisted on getting
direction from the board.
Public Hearing 4:00 p.m.
2006-57 (Continued from August 09,
2006)
Application by Neal Kimball on behalf of Julie
Schecter for a Certificate to be issued
in accordance with the Provincetown Historic District Commission established
under the General By-Laws, Chapter 15 of the Town of Provincetown. The
applicant seeks approval to construct a new two-story single family dwelling on
a vacant lot at the property located at 207A
Bradford Street, Provincetown, MA.
This case was continued yet
again.
2006-59 (Continued from August 09,
2006)
Application by John DeSouza on behalf of Richard
Bready c/o Parker Thompson for a
Certificate to be issued in accordance with the Provincetown Historic District
Commission established under the General By-Laws, Chapter 15 of the Town of
Provincetown. The applicant seeks approval to modify gambrel style dormer on
the east shed roof, remove exterior stairs on the east and add boxed bay
window, remove all exterior stairs on the south side and replace some existing
decks with sun porches and bay windows, add skylights to the tower roof,
replace cricket dormer (south) with hip roof door and window arrangement, add
new door hood (west side), new fenestration with custom windows at the property
located at 531 Commercial Street,
Provincetown, MA.
Nathan Butera stepped down
on this case. The applicant believes
the house will be attractive regardless of whether the windows will have 2 over
2 or 1 over 1. Marcene explained to her
that the last time we heard the case we were incorrectly using the old
guidelines since the state by-laws were changed at the end of July. Now the Commission must apply the new
guidelines to her case. Marcene did raise the guideline issue at the last
meeting. The town counsel, in its
advice, did say that it was a complex situation, but that the applicant must be
informed about the changes in the State By-Laws. The new guidelines offer more choices. Marcene thinks the applicant has more leniency in design with the
new guidelines. The applicant said that she would have preferred 6 over 6
windows – but she can accept 2 over 2.
John Dowd noted that everything that the Commissioners asked for has
been addressed.
Motion:
Accept the plan for 531 Commercial Street as presented.
Motion: John
Dowd Seconded: Carol Neal
Vote: 5-0-1 ab (Nathan B)
2006-61
Application by Mary Ellen Henry for a Certificate to be issued in accordance with the
Provincetown Historic District Commission established under the General
By-Laws, Chapter 15 of the Town of Provincetown. The applicant seeks approval
to replace old cedar shingles with certain teed asphalt weather wood shingles
and to add four skylights at the property located at 50 Commercial Street, Provincetown, MA.
Carol Neal asked to have the
plan resubmitted with the drawing listing the elevation and exactly where the
skylights will be on the roof.
Motion:
Approve the shingling of the roof but the case for the skylights
requires a resubmission of a drawing showing the elevation and exact position
of the skylights. This portion of the plan will be continued until the
September 22nd meeting.
Motion:
Nathan Butera Seconded: Marcene Marcoux Vote: unanimous.
2006-62
Application by Timothy Harrington for a Certificate to be issued in accordance with the
Provincetown Historic District Commission established under the General
By-Laws, Chapter 15 of the Town of Provincetown. The applicant seeks approval
to replace the former deck on the front elevation with a smaller full height
porch detailed to match the building at the property located at 96 Commercial Street, Provincetown, MA.
Because the owner was out of
town he requested that the case be rescheduled to the September 22, 2006
meeting.
Motion:
Reschedule 2006-62 for the September 22, 2006 meeting.
Motion:
Nathan Butera Seconded: Marcene Marcoux Vote: unanimous.
150 Commercial St – Doug Taylor announced to the group that he was instituting a Stop
Work order for this property. The front
door issue still remains unresolved and a demolition has happened in the rear
of the property. "We don’t know
what it looked like prior to the demolition or what they are doing."
2006-63
Application by Eric Schultz and Stephen Amsden for a Certificate to be issued in accordance with the
Provincetown Historic District Commission established under the General
By-Laws, Chapter 15 of the Town of Provincetown. The applicant seeks approval
to add a shed dormer to both the North and South roof of the cottage at the
property located at 10 Washington
Avenue, Provincetown, MA.
Eric Schultz owns Unit 1 and
he wants to add one shed dormer on the South roof. Maxine noted that there is a letter in the file regarding this
application. The letter was from
Attorney Jamie Viera and stated that the applicant didn’t pay for these plans
and any favorable action from the Historic group will be subject to "a lot
of legalese." Viera suggested that
Eric could withdraw his application without prejudice. Neal Kimball evidently did the
drawings. Eric said he had asked about
the drawings when he bought the property from Vernon Brown and Vernon said
there was no problem. Doug suggested
that maybe this application should be postponed since it’s a gray area and was
part of a verbal agreement.
Sally Metcalfe who resides
at 8 Law Street (an abutter) said that Vernon Brown had asked for dormers and
it was denied. Marcene Marcoux
remembered that all the neighbors were against big changes that had been proposed.
David Chambers who resides
at 12 Washington Avenue sent in a letter in support of the project.
Sally Metcalfe asked the
Commissioners if it had been denied because it was a garage? "Did you deny it on that
basis?" Doug said that the group
could approve it without drawings. John
Dowd would like to move things on rather than delaying the person any longer.
Marcene went back to the
minutes of the original case to see what exactly was done. "It bothers me
that we made a decision and then it comes back to us."
Carol Neal wants to stay
consistent with her original decision.
Motion:
Accept the application as presented.
Motion: Polly
Burnell Seconded: Nathan Butera Vote: unanimous.
Motion:
Adjourn the meeting at 4:45 p.m.
Motion: John
Dowd Seconded: Carol Neal Vote: unanimous.
After the adjournment Scott
Ravelson again asked to be heard for just a few minutes, citing the fact that
he had traveled for three hours. He
wanted to explain that he was attempting to design a "porte-cochere"
for the front of his building at 229 Commercial Street. John Dowd pointed out that a porte-cochere
was originally for carriages to pass underneath and that wasn't the purpose of
the design. Scott went on to say that
he really cares about the building and wants to design it in a very special
way. The discussion then - rather than
design oriented - became philosophical.
John's suggestion was to
wrap a frieze around the building acting as a balustrade. The horizontal line of the dental molding should
be consistent and not stepped down (or up) for half of the front of the
building.
The discussion was
distracting because Mr. Ravelson's dog who was either impatient or hungry
barked quite a few times. The final
suggestion was from John Dowd who indicated that perhaps an architect should be
asked to look at the building and design something architecturally
correct. This concluded the extra 30
minutes that this applicant was given.
The unofficial meeting concluded at 5:15p.
Respectfully submitted,
Evelyn
Gaudiano
E.
Rogers Gaudiano
Approved by _____________________________ on
____________, 2006.
John
Dowd, Chair