The Commission shall have the following powers and duties:
(A) To adopt its own procedural regulations;
(B) To conduct an ongoing survey to identify historically and architecturally significant properties, structures and areas within the Village;
(C) To investigate and recommend to the Village Board the adoption of ordinances designating areas, properties, structures or sites having special historic, community, or architectural value as “landmarks” or “historic districts;”
(D) To keep a register of all areas, properties, structures and sites that have been designated as landmarks or historic districts, including all information required for each designation;
(E) To determine an appropriate system of plaques or markers for identification of landmarks and historic districts and to make recommendations for the design and implementation of specific markings of the streets and routes leading from 1 landmark or historic district to another;
(F) To advise owners of landmarks and property, structures or sites within historic districts on physical and financial aspects of preservation, renovation, rehabilitation, and reuse, and on procedures for inclusion on the State or National Register of Historic Places;
(G) To inform and educate the citizens of the Village concerning the historic and architectural heritage of the Village by publishing appropriate maps, newsletters, brochures, and pamphlets, and by holding or sponsoring programs and seminars;
(H) To hold public hearings and to review applications for construction, alteration, removal, or demolition affecting proposed or designated landmarks or structures or historic districts and issue or deny certificates of appropriateness for such actions. Applicants shall be required to submit plans, drawings, elevations, specifications, and other information as may be necessary to make decisions;
(I) To develop specific guidelines for the alteration, demolition, construction, or removal of landmarks or property, structures and sites within historic districts for approval by the Village Board;
(J) To review proposed zoning map or text amendments, applications for special use permits or variances that affect proposed or designated landmarks and historic districts and provide a recommendation. Such review shall be made, when possible, prior to the date of the hearing by the Village Plan Commission/Zoning Board of Appeals;
(K) To administer on the behalf of the Village any property or full or partial interest in real property, including a conservation right as that term is used in state law, which the Village may have or accept as a gift or otherwise, upon designation by the Village Board;
(L) To accept and administer on behalf of the Village such gifts, grants and money as may be appropriate for the purposes of this chapter, upon direction and approval by the Village Board;
(M) To call upon available Village staff members as well as other experts for technical advice, subject to the approval of the Village Manager;
(N) To testify before all boards and commissions, including the Village Plan Commission/Zoning Board of Appeals, on any matter affecting historically and architecturally significant property and landmarks;
(O) To periodically review the Village’s Zoning Ordinance and applicable Village Code provisions and to recommend to the Village Plan Commission and Village Board any amendments appropriate for the protection and continued use of landmarks or property and structures within historic districts;
(P) To confer recognition upon the owners of historic buildings, landmarks, and structures for their historic preservation efforts by means of certificates, plaques, markers or awards;
(Q) To review and comment upon Village projects or activities affecting landmarks or historic districts; and
(R) To undertake any other action or activity necessary or appropriate to the implementation of its powers and duties, or to implementation of the purposes of this chapter, as assigned from time to time by the Village Board.
(Ord. C0-08-29, passed 7-15-2008)