March 6, 2008

Council allocates $6,000 for historic commission

NATIONAL AND LOCAL BOUNDARIES. The above map outlines Ritzville’s National Historic District boundaries, which the City of Ritzville formally adopted as the local district. The city has also placed the Adams County Courthouse and the old Ritzville High School on the Ritzville Register of Historic Places.

Stephen McFadden

Publisher

During two consecutive Ritzville City Council meetings Mayor Linda Kadlec has taken a proactive stance in support of the city’s Historic Preservation Commission.

Tuesday Kadlec called on the council to provide $6,000 in funding for the commission to acquire outside assistance for the review and development of design standards and a possible “buffer zone” around the existing historic district boundaries.

In February the council was updated on the commission’s frustration over a number of issues, primarily its inability to obtain clear direction from the city council as to its role in the city and how the commission can enforce historic preservation in the designated downtown area without the presence of council-adopted design standards and governing documents.

The commission was created by the city council, and has since functioned in a formal manner-reviewing renovation and remodeling proposals from those building owners who have buildings that lie inside the historic district boundaries. Projects impacting the exterior of a building in that district have typically been referred to the commission for review prior to the issuance of a building permit. The commission would then consider the project’s compliance with national historic district design standards, and then issue a Certificate of Appropriateness prior to the city issuing a building permit.

The challenge for the commission is the lack of a city ordinance with specific design standards for the district. Without those design standards, the city’s preservation commission has been limited in its ability to ensure the preservation of the city’s historic buildings located inside the district.

During a commission meeting in early February, Megan Duvall from the state’s Department of Archeology and Historic Preservation attended the commission and discussed several options.

Duvall is the agency’s Certified Local Government Coordinator. Ritzville is a Certified Local Government.

“Design review is done before a building permit is issued. The Certificate of Appropriateness is a way to make sure work being done on registered buildings is not changing or harming the historic status,” Duvall said on Feb. 7.

Duvall said the preservation commission and the review process serves as a way to keep an eye on the city’s most important buildings.

“It’s really a good thing for downtown Ritzville,” she said.

During the Feb. 19 city council meeting Kadlec asked the council if it was in support of the preservation commission. By a show of hands the entire council pledged its support for the commission.

Tuesday Kadlec put that pledge to the test when she asked the council to provide funding to begin the process of developing the necessary program to ensure the preservation of the nationally- and locally-designated historic district.

Last summer, during a debate over the installation of a sign at Big Bend Bowl, the council learned that several years ago it had failed to complete the formal adoption of an expanded historic district boundary. At that time the council pledged to revisit the issue and move ahead with a review of the historic district and whether or not the current, existing boundary should be expanded.

The council unanimously approved the $6,000 allocation which will be used to hire two Washington State University graduate students from WSU’s Interdisciplinary Design Institute based in Spokane.

“We have to start somewhere. I don’t want to see this fall through the cracks any longer,” Kadlec said.

Council member Harry Schafer, who served on the commission until being appointed to fill a city council seat, noted the commission has endured a difficult year.

“When we found out the (expanded) local area was not approved it was really deflating, I think, to the commission,” he said. “We found out basically the rug was jerked out from under us.”

Schafer was referring to the city attorney’s discovery that several years ago the city council hadn’t formally adopted a proposed ordinance that would have expanded historic district boundary.

That expanded boundary took in Big Bend Bowl, requiring the bowling center to fall under sign review by the commission even though the building wasn’t old enough to be considered a historic property.

The city council and the commission, during recent years, had functioned on the notion that the historic district boundaries had been formally expanded. The city attorney’s revelation came just before the council considered formal action against the bowling center after the installation of a city without the commission’s approval and a sign permit.

“I feel like we have let the historic commission down long enough,” Kadlec said before calling for a motion on the matter.

Schafer moved to approve the funding and Darrel Koss provided a second to the motion. The measure was unanimously approved.

Kadlec told the council that she had reviewed the city’s finances with Clerk/Treasurer David Grove and that the funds for the effort will come from the city’s general fund.

The mayor plans to use the funding to review a future course of action for the existing historic district and to consider a “buffer zone” that could be established around the outside of the district’s boundary.

The buffer zone could then be used to prevent adjacent property owners from making dramatic changes to their building in a manner that would have a negative impact on the historic structure next to them.

If the city decides to create a buffer zone, that concept will be forwarded to the city’s planning commission for review and a public hearing process before the city council is asked to approve any new ordinances.