March 20, 2008

Commission to use city-allocated

funds for review of design ordinance

By Lavonne Saunders

Staff writer

The March 6 meeting of the Ritzville Historic Preservation Commission was addressed by Mayor Linda Kadlec, who delivered the message that the Ritzville City Council, at its March 4 meeting, fully supported the future endeavors of the Commission and appropriated $6,000, which can be used to have one to two Washington State University students help with forming a design standard ordinance. Kadlec said the council would also support the RHPC in its efforts of a buffer zone also.

Commissioner Jennifer Larsen, temporary chairman for this meeting, thanked Mayor Kadlec for the support of the council and stated it was "a step in the right direction ... something we have been waiting for." It will help us get the necessary steps in the right order, she continued.

"Not everybody is in favor of a buffer zone within this town," stated Commissioner Sam Duncan. "I think it is going to have to be rigorously debated because a lot of people fear it is an impediment to energizing the business community and having a viable downtown community. We are not all in favor of a buffer zone."

"Our main focus as a council is the design ordinance," Mayor Kadlec responded.

Duncan stated he believed, after talking with the city attorney Mark DeWulf, the "role of the commission was only to research and suggest but not to review ordinances, enforce ordinances or make ordinances. We are fortunate to have him here to address this."

Duncan commented that if we are in the business of preservation, we should be a resource to help people. If someone wants to restore a building or a church, we are in the business of finding resources and advising what is and what is not historically appropriate according to national guidelines.

DeWulf advised that there are two ways to set the design standards in a historical overlay buffer zone or a historic district. The first way would be for a city to adopt a zoning ordinance and place similar criteria on it. The second way is if an ordinance is already on the books to designate a Historic Preservation Commission, which can designate a second historic district or places. "They both get you to the same end," he said.

According to Duncan, "Our job is to preserve the buildings to make sure they remain historically viable. We are in a historic district. We have failed on every account. They have worked on them but they haven't done it historically. We are spending all our time writing ordinances and not working with them."

Commissioner Ann Olson noted, "We have never had design standards and ordinances for design rules. If someone comes before the commission with a design for a prescribed change, we have no criteria to measure it against to say it is appropriate or not appropriate. There is a lot of work to be done. We have had inconsistent ruling as to what is appropriate or not appropriate. Whether we have an overlay or not, we need to know what the rules are."

"We are looking at design standards, so we need to look at national design standards," said Duncan. "You will find you are not to recreate anything. If you change the molding around a window, you cannot create a fraud and make it look as it did in 1910. You cannot misrepresent it. You cannot create a counterfeit. It has to be obvious that it has been reconstructed and that is the national design standards. You do not create fraud.

"Preservation of the building is paramount. What you hang on the building has nothing to do with whether or not you are preserving the building. If you hang a sign in the mortar and not in the brick you have not destroyed the building. What you hang off the building is immaterial in the preservation content," according to Duncan.

The question of how the commission drafts an ordinance that has teeth in it and is enforceable is the main problem. To that end, two guests were in attendance at the meeting. Dr. Janetta McCoy and Ami Kiefer, a graduate student, of the WSU Spokane Interdisciplinary Design Institute were approached to see if they would be willing to help the commission in their pursuit of design standards.

Kiefer, who has spent the last year researching the Main Street program, explained that their consulting work is done by research of other towns the same size as the project town and looking at what those towns have done to be so successful in the Main Street. The next step is to compare that with the project town to see if it is possible there.

McCoy noted that "this is a great town and it has much going for it. By working with us and researching other towns, it might help others too. We wouldn't come in and say ‘this is what you have to do.' We would say this is what has been done in other towns and maybe we would derive something that would work for you ñ not something you have to do."

The Ritzville Historic Preservation Commission Strategic Plan, dated Sept. 23, 2002, would be one of the components used in the research process. According to Olson, the problems stated in that report are very similar to those today. She believes it would be fair to say the proposed goals still haven't been met so this could be a starting point to move forward.

The plan was funded through a CLG grant and contains, among other things, interviews with building owners and comments made by building owners.

Olson hoped that together with some work that Kiefer will do, we will be able to move forward.

In order to determine what the commission wants Kiefer to do, if she accepts the proposition, it was suggested that each commissioner makes a list of what they feel needs to be accomplished by the grad student. The lists will be put together prior to the next monthly meeting, with the commissioners prioritizing those accomplishments at the next monthly meeting in order to determine the highest priority.

The Ritzville Historic Preservation Commission meets on the first Thursday of the month at 7 p.m. at city hall. The meetings are open to the public.