(a) Applications. An applicant for an historic area work permit must file an application with the Director. The application must contain all information the Commission requires to evaluate the application under this Chapter.
(b) Referral of application. Within 3 days after the application is complete, the Director must forward the application to the Commission for review.
(c) Public meeting. When the Commission receives the application, the Commission must schedule a public meeting to consider the application.
(d) Notice. The Commission must notify the Director and any citizen or organization that the Commission reasonably determines has an interest in the application of the time and place of the public meeting.
(e) Conduct of Commission meeting. The public meeting on the application must be informal and formal rules of evidence do not apply. The Commission must encourage interested parties to comment and must keep minutes of the proceedings on the application.
(f) Action by the Commission.
(1) The Commission must make a public decision on the application under paragraph (2) not later than 45 days after the applicant files the application or 15 days after the Commission closes the record on the application, whichever is earlier.
(2) The Commission must instruct the Director to issue or deny the permit. The Commission may require the Director to issue the permit with reasonable conditions necessary to assure that work under the permit does not harm the historical, architectural, archeological or cultural value of the historic resource.
(3) If the Commission instructs the Director to deny the permit, the Commission must notify the applicant in writing why the Commission denied the application.
(4) The commission must instruct the Director to issue the permit if the Commission finds that:
(A) denial of the permit would prevent the reasonable use of the property or impose undue hardship on the owner; and
(B) within 120 days after the finding in subparagraph (A), no person seeking preservation has submitted an economically feasible plan for preserving the structure.
(5) If the Commission does not act on an application within the time periods provided in this subsection, the application is approved, unless the applicant agrees to extend the deadline for Commission action.
(g) Miscellaneous provisions.
(1) The applicant for a permit has the burden of production and persuasion on all issues the Commission determines. If another historic preservation organization holds a deed of easement for the property in the application, the applicant must submit proof to the Commission that the organization conducted an exterior architectural review and approved the action for which the applicant is seeking a permit.
(2) (A) The Commission may, by regulations issued under method (2), delegate authority to a County employee qualified in historic preservation and assigned to staff the Commission to review and approve an application for work that commonly has no more than an insignificant effect on an historic resource.
(B) The regulations:
(i) must describe the types of work that staff can review and approve, and require the Commission to review any application that is not clearly subject to staff approval; and
(ii) may waive the public meeting and notice requirements of subsections (c) and (d) for applications clearly subject to staff approval.
(C) If the staff denies or does not act on an application within 5 days after the Commission received the application from the Director, the Commission must review the application de novo.
(D) Staff must report monthly to the Commission and each appropriate Local Advisory Panel about any application reviewed by the staff in the previous month, including the disposition of the application.
(3) A permit may impose conditions that require waiver of a provision of the building code if the waiver is allowed under the "historic structures" provision of the building code adopted under Section 8-14 and the code inspector determines that waiver is appropriate for the specific work covered by the permit.
(4) The Director must enforce this Chapter.
(h) Appeal.
(1) Within 30 days after the Commission makes a public decision on an application, an aggrieved party may appeal the Commission’s decision to the Board of Appeals, which must review the decision de novo. The Board of Appeals may affirm, modify, or reverse any order or decision of the Commission.
(2) A party may appeal a decision of the Board of Appeals under Section 2-114. (Ord. No. 9-4, § 1; Ord. No. 11-59; Ord. No. 13-111, § 1.)