The El Dorado Historic District Commission discussed educating the public more about the organization, speaking with the city council about a historic property's zoning and elections at its Thursday meeting.
The commission discussed submitting a letter to the city council to postpone a decision on rezoning a property at North Euclid and East 5th Street in the Mahony and Murphy-Hill Residential Historic District from residential to commercial.
Multiple members expressed concern that if the council approves the rezone, it could set a precedence for future properties.
According to Local Ordinance No. 1685, the commission should "periodically review the El Dorado Zoning Ordinance and recommended to the Planning Commission and the City Council any amendments appropriate for the protection and continued use of property within historic districts."
Elizabeth Eggleston, executive director of the EHDC, and out-going chair Linda Rathbun both said this is an issue that needs to be further discussed.
The commissioners also discussed the need to enhance design review guidelines to include more in-depth information for public art, murals, water features and more.
Eggleston brought up the murals on the exterior walls of Hill's Recreation Parlor on East Cedar Street, as well as the Main Street El Dorado Public Art Grant meeting from
Nov. 20. The commissioners also mentioned the public downtown restrooms that were approved by the El Dorado Works Board Tuesday.
According to a News-Times report, the board agreed to up to $65,000 for the restrooms.
Eggleston said it may be best to get ahead of the curve to have clear guidelines in place before requests come in.
She also emphasized the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation guidelines, which are found under Department of Interior regulations, 36 CFR 67.
According to the Standards, "rehabilitation is defined as the act or process of making possible a compatible use for a property through repair, alterations and additions while preserving those portions or features which convey its historical, cultural or architectural values."
The Standards include 10 items that outline a historical property's use, character, changes, materials, repairs over replacements, treatments, archaeological resources and additions.
The commission highlighted items two and six, which read, respectively:
"The historic character of a property will be retained and preserved. The removal of distinctive materials or alteration of features, spaces and spatial relationships that characterize a property will be avoided;" and,
"Deteriorated historic features will be repaired rather than replaced. Where the severity of deterioration requires replacement of a distinctive feature, the new feature will match the old in design, color, texture and, where possible, materials. Replacement of missing features will be substantiated by documents and physical evidence."
Earlier in the meeting, commissioner Diane Murfee said the organization should be more proactive in educating the public in the guidelines for historic properties.
"What we're doing, especially with the COA [Certificate of Appropriateness] we're presented, what we're doing is protecting them — the property owners, rental people, the people who are leasing these historic buildings downtown — we're protecting them from losing their National Register Designation," Murfee said.
Murfee said she has been concerned about this for a while.
Sara Coffman, a guest and resident from the Murphy-Hill Residential Historic District, said this should be a goal for 2020 and begins with educating the public on what the commission itself is and does.
During the meeting, the commission also elected Ken Bridges as the new chair with Teresa Golliher continuing as vice chair.
The commission will hold its next meeting Jan. 9, 2020. All COA requests should be submitted by Dec. 20.