(A) Site alteration permit. Site alteration permit shall be required for any alteration of any designated heritage preservation site. The Commission shall review and approve or disapprove the city’s issuance of a site alteration permit to do any of the following in a heritage preservation site in the city. In addition to any other specifics the Zoning Administrator may require, the site alteration permit application shall be accompanied by detailed plans including a property plan, building elevations and design details and materials as necessary to evaluate the request. Besides the site alteration permit, regular city permits shall be required. The following are subject to a site alteration permit:
(1) Painting, architectural details and other related exterior alterations;
(2) Addition or deletion of awnings, shutters, canopies and similar appurtenances;
(3) Application or use of exterior materials of a different kind, type, color, texture than those already in use which will substantially cover one or more sides of the structure. This provision applies to roofing as well as siding;
(4) Signs;
(5) Construction of a new building or auxiliary structure;
(6) Any addition to or alteration of an existing structure which increases the square footage in the structure or otherwise alters its size, height, contour or outline;
(7) Change or alteration of a structure’s architectural style;
(8) Alteration of a roof line; and
(9) Demolition in whole or in part. This does not apply to structures required to be demolished in accordance with M.S. Ch. 463 (Building Line Easements; Building Regulations; and Hazardous Buildings), as it may be amended from time to time.
(B) City actions. The Commission shall review and make recommendations to the City Council concerning city activity that could change the nature or appearance of a heritage preservation site.
(C) Preservation program. All decisions of the Commission with respect to this section shall be in accordance with the approved program for the rehabilitation of each heritage preservation site. The Secretary of the Interior Standards for Rehabilitation shall be used to evaluate applications for site alteration permits as follows.
(1) The historic character of a property shall be retained and preserved. The removal of distinctive materials or alteration of features, spaces and spatial relationships that characterize a property shall be avoided.
(2) Each property shall be recognized as a physical record of its time, place and use. Changes that create a false sense of historical development, such as adding conjectural features or elements from other historic properties, shall not be undertaken.
(3) Changes to a property that have acquired historic significance in their own right shall be retained and preserved.
(4) Distinctive materials, features, finishes and construction techniques or examples of craftsmanship that characterize a property shall be preserved.
(5) Deteriorated historic features shall be repaired rather than replaced. Where the severity of deterioration requires replacement of a distinctive feature, the new feature shall match the old in design, color, texture and, where possible, materials. Replacement of missing features shall be substantiated by documentary and physical evidence.
(6) Chemical or physical treatments, if appropriate, shall be undertaken using the gentlest means possible. Treatments that cause damage to historic materials shall not be used.
(7) New additions, exterior alterations or related new construction shall not destroy historic materials, features and spatial relationships that characterize the property. The new work shall be differentiated from the old and shall be compatible with the historic materials, features, size, scale and proportion, and massing to protect the integrity of the property and its environment.
(8) New additions and adjacent or related new construction shall be undertaken in such a manner that if removed in the future the essential form and integrity of the historic property and its environment would be unimpaired.