Council rewrote Historical Resource Board charter and threw it
to planning commission
Members of San Juan Bautista’s volunteer Historical Resources
Board are angry that the City Council is trying to usurp their
authority by rewriting the HRB zoning ordinance
– without informing them of the changes.
Council rewrote Historical Resource Board charter and threw it to planning commission
Members of San Juan Bautista’s volunteer Historical Resources Board are angry that the City Council is trying to usurp their authority by rewriting the HRB zoning ordinance – without informing them of the changes.
The city’s stance, say local leaders, is that they can’t afford to allow the HRB to be involved in certain planning upgrades anymore, and would rather that people who want to make changes to their historic buildings in one of the oldest cities in the state do so solely through the town’s planning commission and council. City Manager Jan McClintock explained that it’s costing the city too much money to use staff time to review applications that include reviews from the HRB.
“There’s only a certain amount of money in the coffers,” McClintock said. “I’ve already done major budget cutting here at City Hall, and it’s going to be a hard pill for people to swallow. We can’t live on wishful thinking.”
Members of the HRB, consisting of a half dozen volunteer citizens, call the attempted bypass of their group outrageous and say the changes made to their charter are rash and ill conceived. They told planning commissioners and other city administrators Tuesday night that they didn’t appreciate the back-door tactic used in the attempt to diminish the group’s power.
“I don’t understand why these problems weren’t brought before the Historic Resources Board before now,” said HRB member Georgiana Gularte, as she spoke before the commission. “I’m confounded by the idea that the City Council has done this. All that we did in the eight years of the past was for naught?”
The Historical Resources Board was created in the late 1990s and was born of the Cultural Resources Board, the latter formed in 1979. The HRB works with the town Planning Commission to make sure that historic structures throughout the town – and there are many – don’t get razed and that owners maintain the historic integrity of buildings 50 years old or older. HRB members meet with property owners who need to repaint or reinforce their buildings, encourage them to choose historic colors from a special palette and use historically correct building materials. In the past several years, the group has spent thousands of hours compiling an inventory of the town’s most precious historical structures, and continues to do so.
Yet from the beginning, the group has had a testy relationship with the planning commission over power. The two entities settled their differences in the past several years. When the HRB specified its role in a charter; it seemed to appease city officials and the HRB alike.
But on Monday, the group got word that city staff – under direction of the council – rewrote their ordinance in the General Plan, and that the Planning Commission was on the verge of adopting the new staff-penned version, which is full of strike-outs, particularly in the section under “Demolitions.” And preventing demolitions is one of the reasons why the HRB formed in the first place.
On Wednesday afternoon, just hours before the commission met, HRB member Rebecca McGovern was once again haunting City Hall in a scramble to obtain copies of the new charter.
McGovern believes the city council is doing this to get back at her for trying to organize a recall on two council members – Art Medina and Chuck Geiger – last year. She didn’t hold back during public input at the commissioners’ meeting.
“The HRB is the most important part of city administration,” McGovern said from the podium. “Each member has a background. In fact, we don’t need the City Council because we’re always correcting their mistakes. We are willing to fight for this. We are devoted to saving this town as it is. If you can’t do that, then head for Gilroy.”
Councilman Chuck Geiger laughed when asked if the unsuccessful recall on him had colored his or any other council member’s decision to rein in the HRB. He also said that it was Council Member Priscilla Hill and Mayor Dan Reed who brought up the issue with the HRB – not he and Medina – but that the entire council supports the decision. The HRB, he said, costs the city some $25,000 to $30,000 a year for clerical work, planner hours, and even to pay CMAP to broadcast their meetings.
“A lot of people are concerned that they are overstepping their authority,” Geiger said. “They are supposed to be advisory and yet they are trying to micro-manage every project in the city. The HRB has evolved into this giant elephant, a police group, an extra layer of bureaucracy that prevents people from getting things done. Becky [McGovern] shouldn’t be out there telling what color people need to paint their door, like a little cop. We’d like to see them go to people who have historic buildings falling apart and help them, help them get grants to save that history. It’s causing people to be frustrated.”
McClintock explained that council members also don’t believe all properties within city limits should come under the scrutiny of the HRB, and that the group should concern themselves with structures that fall within the town’s “Historic District,” which is basically the main drag on Third Street.
“This is what the City Council discussed with me,” McClintock said. “An example is, why should [the new] CreekBridge [cluster of homes] go through the HRB, since CreekBridge doesn’t have anything to do with the historical aspects of the town?”
Members of the HRB in the audience were appalled by the comment. The group has worked with developers over the years to ensure that new buildings have some semblance of historic character to fit in with the rest of the town.
“We feel the entire town is historic,” said HRB member Cara Vonk. “It should be vetted by both the HRB and the Planning Commission.”
“It’s vetted by the Planning Commission,” said McClintock, who is well acquainted with the town’s General Plan.
“This is all penny wise and pound foolish,” Vonk replied.
Resident and HRB member Susan Brady echoed her sentiments.
“I’m concerned we would consider forfeiting out history for present-day budget concerns,” Brady said.
Planning Commissioner Matthew Sundt didn’t seem convinced that the HRB was a necessary entity.
“Is it necessary to go through not one but two review processes?” Sundt said rhetorically. “It’s a streamlining issue, a cost saving issue, to the applicant and the city.”
But HRB members say that their group saves applicants time, and in some cases money, and that if anything, going through the planning commission is much more cumbersome for an applicant if he or she doesn’t consult first with the HRB.
“Before the HRB, it took me two years to go through the planning process,” said resident and HRB member Ted Thoeny. “There’s a lot of people in this town that love it. This town is worth preserving. Wait on the Demolition portion [of the re-written charter]. The HRB is to take some of the pressure off you. We have meetings with the people.”
McClintock said she was just as passionate about preserving the heritage of the town as everyone attending the meeting. But she also lamented that city staff had to spend a lot of time “doing clerical work” for the HRB when they could be busy “going after grants.”
“And some business owners say, if they have a leaky roof, ‘We don’t want to touch it,'” McClintock said, inferring that business owners don’t want to make upgrades because they don’t want to hassle with the HRB.
Vonk said her group is not a hindrance to the repair process, but rather helpful, and that it is the planning commission that ties up applicants in red tape.
“If someone comes in with the same old ugly paint job, that’s not what we want,” Vonk said. “And vinyl windows? We had a gentleman who wanted to put in historical materials, including cedar shingles. He got a big runaround from the planning commission, but we helped him get it right. And it looks fabulous.”
Resident Tony Boch, who served as a planning commissioner for 10 years, seemed to side with the council on the matter.
“I apologize for the remarks made here,” Boch said. “I don’t think we really need an Historical Resources Board. No one seems to understand budget concerns. You can’t get blood out of a rock.”
Not everyone on the commission was against the HRB. Commissioner Michael Ostowski seemed to be sympathetic.
“Structures get knocked down,” Ostowski said. “We’ve lost historical homes and you can’t bring them back.”
Commissioner Rick Edge said he thought it would be prudent to wait until September to adapt any changes in the HRB authority, when the group is expected to finish their long-in-the-making historic inventory.
The commission directed staff to make minor changes in the rewritten ordinance, and though no vote was taken, they commissioners said they would take up the matter again at their next meeting in May.
