(A) (1) A permit shall be obtained before any work affecting the exterior appearance of a resource is performed within a historic district or, if required under division (D) below, work affecting the interior arrangements of a resource is performed within a historic district. The person, individual, partnership, firm, corporation, organization, institution, or agency of government proposing to do that work shall file an application for a permit with the Building Inspector.
(2) (a) Upon receipt of an application, the Building Inspector shall immediately refer the application, together with all required supporting materials that make the application complete, to the Commission.
(b) A permit shall not be issued and proposed work shall not proceed until the Commission acted on the application by issuing a certificate of appropriateness or a notice to proceed as prescribed in this chapter. A Commission shall not issue a certificate of appropriateness unless the applicant certifies in the application that the property where work will be undertaken has, or will have before the proposed project completion date, a fire alarm system or a smoke alarm complying with requirements of the Stille-DeRosesettHale Single State Construction Code Act, 1972 PA 230, M.C.L.A. 125.1501 to 125.1532. The Commission shall file certificates of appropriateness, notices to proceed, and denials of applications for permits with the Inspector of Buildings. A permit shall not be issued until the Commission has acted as prescribed by this chapter. The Commission may charge a reasonable fee to process a permit application.
(c) The applicant shall pay such fee as shall be established from time to time by resolution of the Village Council.
(d) If a permit application is denied, the decision shall be binding on the Inspector or other authority. A denial shall be accompanied by a written explanation by the Commission of the reasons for denial and, if appropriate, a notice that an application may be re-submitted for Commission review when the suggested changes have been made. The denial shall also include the notification of the applicant’s right to appeal to the State Historic Preservation Review Board and to the circuit court.
(B) (1) An applicant aggrieved by a decision of the Commission concerning a permit application may file an appeal with the State Historic Preservation Review Board of the State Historical Commission within the Department of State, as provided by Public Act 169 of 1970, being M.C.L.A. §§ 399.201 through 399.215, as amended.
(2) The appeal shall be filed within 60 days after the decision is furnished to the applicant. The applicant may submit all or part of the appellant’s evidence and arguments in written form. The State Historic Preservation Review Board shall consider an appeal at its first regularly scheduled meeting after receiving the appeal. A permit applicant aggrieved by the decision of the State Historic Preservation Review Board may appeal the decision to the circuit court having jurisdiction over the Historic District Commission whose decision was appealed to the State Historic Preservation Review Board. Any citizen or duly organized historic preservation organization in the village, as well as resource property owners, jointly or severally aggrieved by a decision of the Historic District Commission may appeal the decision to the circuit court, except that a permit applicant aggrieved by a decision rendered under this chapter may not appeal to the court without first exhausting the right to appeal to the State Historic Preservation Review Board.
(C) (1) (a) In reviewing plans, the Commission shall follow the U.S. Secretary of the Interior’s standards for rehabilitation and guidelines for rehabilitating historic districts, as set forth in 36 C.F.R. pt. 67.
(b) Design review standards and guidelines that address special design characteristics of historic districts administered by the Commission may be followed if they are equivalent in guidance to the Secretary of Interior’s standards and guidelines and are established or approved by the Bureau.
(2) The Commission shall also consider all of the following:
(a) The historic or architectural value and significance of the resource and its relationship to the historic value of the surrounding area;
(b) The relationship of any architectural features of the resource to the rest of the resource and to the surrounding area;
(c) The general compatibility of the design, arrangement, texture, and materials proposed to be used;
(d) Other factors, such as aesthetic value, that the Commission finds relevant; and
(e) Whether the applicant has certified in the application that the property where the work will be undertaken has, or will have before the proposed project completion date, a fire alarm system or a smoke alarm complying with the requirements of the Stille-DeRossett-Hale Single State Construction Code Act, 1972 PA 230, M.C.L.A. 125.1501 to 125.1531.
(D) The Commission shall review and act upon only exterior features of a resource and shall not review and act upon interior arrangements, unless interior work will cause visible change to the exterior of the resource. The Commission shall not disapprove an application due to considerations not prescribed in division (C) above.
(E) If an application is for work that will adversely affect the exterior of a resource, the Commission considers valuable to the village, the state, or the nation, and the Commission determines that the alteration or loss of that resource will adversely affect the public purpose of the village, the state, or the nation, the Commission shall attempt to establish with the owner of the resource an economically feasible plan for preservation of the resource.
(F) Work within a historic district shall be permitted through the issuance of a notice to proceed by the Commission if any of the following conditions prevail and if the proposed work can be demonstrated by a finding of the Commission to be necessary to substantially improve or correct any of the following conditions:
(1) The resource constitutes a hazard to the safety of the public or to the structure’s occupants;
(2) The resource is a deterrent to a major improvement program that will be of substantial benefit to the community and the applicant proposing the work has obtained all necessary planning and zoning approvals, financing, and environmental clearances;
(3) Retaining the resource will cause undue financial hardship to the owner when a governmental action, an act of God, or other events beyond the owner’s control created the hardship, and all feasible alternatives to eliminate the financial hardship, which may include offering the resource for sale at its market value or moving the resource to a vacant site within the historic district, have been attempted and exhausted by the owner; and
(4) Retaining the resource is not in the interest of the majority of the community.
(G) The Historic District Commission shall meet at least quarterly or more frequently at the call of the Commission. The business that the Commission may perform shall be conducted at a public meeting of the Commission held in compliance with the Open Meetings Act, Public Act 267 of 1976, being M.C.L.A. §§ 15.261 to 15.275, as amended. Public notice of the time, date, and place of the meeting shall be given in the manner required by Public Act 267 of 1976, being, M.C.L.A. §§ 15.261 to 15.275, as amended. A meeting agenda shall be part of the notice and shall include a listing of each permit application to be reviewed or considered by the Commission.
(H) The Commission shall keep a record of its resolutions, proceedings, and actions. A writing prepared, owned, used, in the possession of, or retained by the Commission in the performance of an official function shall be made available to the public in compliance with the Freedom of Information Act, Public Act 442 of 1976, being M.C.L.A. §§ 15.231 to 15.246, as amended.
(I) The Commission shall adopt its own rules of procedure and shall adopt design review standards and guidelines for resource treatment to carry out its duties under this Act.
(J) (1) The Commission may delegate the issuance of certificates of appropriateness for specified minor classes or work to its staff, to the Building Inspector, or to another delegated authority. The Commission shall provide to the delegated authority specific written standards for issuing certificates of appropriateness under this division (J).
(2) On at least a quarterly basis, the Commission shall review the certificates of appropriateness, if any, issued for work by it staff, the inspector, or another authority to determine whether or not the delegated responsibilities should be continued.
(K) Upon a finding by the Commission that a historic resource within a historic district or a proposed historic district subject to its review and approval is threatened with demolition by neglect, the Commission may do either of the following:
(1) Require the owner of the resource to repair all conditions contributing to demolition by neglect; and
(2) (a) If the owner does not make repairs within a reasonable time, the Commission or its agents may enter the property and make such repairs as are necessary to prevent demolition by neglect. The costs of the work shall be charged to the owner, and may be levied by the local unit as a special assessment against the property.
(b) The Commission or its agents may enter the property for purposes of the section upon obtaining an order from the Circuit Court.
(L) (1) (a) When work has been done upon a resource without a permit, and the Commission finds that the work does not qualify for a certificate of appropriateness, the Commission may require an owner to restore the resource to the condition the resource was in before the inappropriate work or to modify the work so that it qualifies for a certificate of appropriateness.
(b) If the owner does not comply with the restoration or modification requirement within a reasonable time, the Commission may seek an order from the Circuit Court to require the owner to restore the resource to its former condition or to modify the work so that it qualifies for a certificate of appropriateness.
(2) (a) If the owner does not comply or cannot comply with the order of the court, the Commission or its agents may enter the property and conduct work necessary to restore the resource to its former condition or modify the work so that it qualifies for a certificate of appropriateness in accordance with the court’s order.
(b) The costs of the work shall be charged to the owner, and may be levied by the village as a special assessment against the property. When acting pursuant to an order of the Circuit Court, the Commission or its agents may enter a property for purposes of this section.
(1984 Code, 6-04-080) (Ord. 76, passed 12-12-1978; Ord. 85, passed 10-23-1979; Ord. 239, passed 9-7-1993; Ord. 465, passed 6-22-2021)