(A) Site alteration permit. A site alteration permit shall be required for any alteration of any designated heritage preservation site. The Commission shall review the city’s issuance of a site alteration permit in a heritage preservation site in the City of Waseca. 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. The Commission may ask for additional plans and details they feel necessary to evaluate the permit. Besides the site alteration permit, regular city permits shall be required. Once the Commission has reviewed the permits according to division (F) of this section, recommendation for approval or disapproval will be made to the City Council. Recommendation for approval or disapproval of the site alteration permit by the City Council will be accompanied with specific reasons why the alterations meet or do not meet the city’s approved design guidelines and standards for reasonable rehabilitation related to the particular building or preservation site. The following are subject to a site alteration permit:
(1) Painting, changes to architectural details and other related exterior alterations.
(2) Additions or deletion of awnings, shutters, canopies, and similar appurtenances.
(3) Application or use of exterior materials of a different kind, type, color, or 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.
(9) Demolition in whole or in part. This does not apply to structures required to be demolished in accordance with M.S. Chapter 463.
(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’s Standards for Treatment of Historic Properties shall be used as a guide in the evaluation of applications for site alteration permits as follows:
(1) A property will be used as it was historically or be given a new use that requires minimal change to its distinctive materials, features, spaces, and spatial relationships.
(2) The historic character of a property will be retained and preserved. The removal of distinctive materials or alterations of features, spaces, and spatial relationships that characterize a property will be avoided.
(3) Each property will 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, will not be undertaken.
(4) Changes to a property that have acquired historic significance in their own right shall be retained and preserved.
(5) Distinctive materials, features, finishes, and construction techniques or examples of craftsmanship that characterize a property will be preserved.
(6) Deteriorated historic features will be repaired rather than replaced. Where the severity of deterioration requires replacement of a distinctive feature, the new feature will match the old in design, color, texture, and, where possible, materials. Replacement of historic features will be substantiated by documentary and physical evidence.
(7) Chemical or physical treatments, if appropriate, will be undertaken using the gentlest means possible. Treatments that cause damage to historic materials will not be used.
(8) Archeological resources will be protected and preserved in place. If such resources must be disturbed, mitigation measures will be undertaken.
(9) New additions, exterior alterations, or related new construction will not destroy historic materials, features, and spatial relationships that characterize the property. The new work will be differentiated from the old and will be compatible with the historic materials, features, size, scale, and proportion, and massing to protect the integrity of the property and its environment.
(10) New additions and adjacent or related new construction will 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.
(D) Findings. Before approving any permit or application required under division (A) of this section, the Commission shall make findings based on the program for preservation of the heritage preservation site in regard to the following:
(1) In the case of a proposed alteration or addition to existing buildings, the Commission shall make written findings on how the structure may be architecturally or historically affected. To be considered are the existing exterior appearances, building height, building width, depth, or other dimensions, roof style, type of building materials, ornamentation, paving and setback.
(2) In the case of the proposed demolition of a building prior to the approval of demolition, the Commission shall make written findings on the following:
(a) Architectural and historic merit of the building.
(b) The effect on surrounding buildings.
(c) The effect on any new proposed construction on the remainder of the building (in case of partial demolition) and on surrounding buildings.
(d) The economic value or usefulness of the building as it now exists, or if altered or modified, in comparison with the value or usefulness of any proposed structures designated to replace the present building or buildings.
(3) In the case of a proposed new building, the Commission shall make written findings on how the building will in itself, or by reason of its location on the property, materially affect the architectural or historic value of buildings on adjacent sites or in the immediate vicinity within the heritage preservation site.
(E) Appeal to the City Council.
(1) The applicant for a site alteration permit (or any other party) aggrieved by the decision of the Commission relative to a site alteration permit shall have a right to appeal such order and decision to the City Council, if appealed within ten working days of the date of the Commission’s order and decision.
(2) The appeal shall be deemed perfected upon receipt by the Records Secretary of a notice of appeal and statement setting the grounds for the appeal. The Records Secretary shall transmit a copy of the notice of appeal and statement to the City Council and a copy to the Commission. The City Council may overturn the Commission’s order and decision by a majority vote of the Council. The Commission, in any written order denying a permit application, shall advise the applicant of the applicant’s right to appeal to the City Council and shall include this section in all such orders.
(F) Limitations. If within 60 days from the filing of a site alteration permit application, the Commission has neither approved nor denied the site alteration permit application, the plans and permit application shall be deemed to have been approved by the Commission. If all other requirements of the city have been met, the city shall authorize a permit for the proposed work. No permit shall be issued and no work commenced in the event the Commission disapproves the site application permit application in accordance with this chapter.
(Ord. 940, passed 4-15-08; Am. Ord. 951, passed 12-1-09)