(A) Establishment; members.
(1) The City Council hereby establishes the Historic District Commission pursuant to Public Act 169 of 1970, being M.C.L.A. §§ 399.201 et seq., as amended. Each member of the Commission shall reside within the city limits. The Commission shall consist of seven members. Members shall be appointed by the City Council. A majority of the members shall have a clearly demonstrated interest in or knowledge of historic preservation. Members shall be appointed, subject to approval by City Council, for a term of three years, except the initial appointments of three members for a term of two years and two members for a term of one year. Subsequent appointments shall be for three-year terms.
(2) Members shall be eligible for reappointment. In the event of a vacancy on the Commission, interim appointments shall be made by the City Council within 60 calendar days to complete the unexpired term of such position. Two members shall be appointed from a list submitted by duly organized local historic preservation organizations. If such a person is available for appointment, one member shall be an architect who has two years of architectural experience or who is duly registered in the state.
(3) The City Council may prescribe powers and duties of the Commission, in addition to those prescribed in this subchapter, that foster historic preservation activities, projects and programs in the local unit.
(Prior Code, § 28-66)
(B) Meetings, recordkeeping and rules of procedure.
(1) The Historic District Commission shall meet at least quarterly or more frequently at the call of the Commission.
(2) The business that the Commission may perform shall be conducted at a public meeting held in compliance with the Open Meetings Act, Public Act 267 of 1976, being M.C.L.A. §§ 15.261 et seq., as amended. Public notice of the date, time 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 et seq. 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.
(3) 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, Public Act 442 of 1976, being M.C.L.A. §§ 15.231 et seq., as amended.
(4) The Commission shall adopt its own rules of procedure and shall adopt design review standards and guidelines to carry out its duties under this Act.
(Prior Code, § 28-67)
(C) Delegation of minor classes of work. The Commission may delegate the issuance of certificates of appropriateness for specified minor classes of work to its staff or to another delegated authority. The Commission shall provide to its delegated authority specific written standards for issuing certificates of appropriateness under this section. The Commission shall review the certificates of appropriateness issued by the delegate on at least a quarterly basis to determine whether or not the delegated responsibilities should be continued.
(Prior Code, § 28-68)
(D) Ordinary maintenance. Nothing in this article shall be construed to prevent ordinary maintenance or repair of a resource within a historic district or to prevent work on any resource under a permit issued by the Inspector of Buildings or other duly delegated authority before the ordinance was enacted.
(Prior Code, § 28-69)
(E) Review by the Commission. The Commission shall review and act upon only exterior features of a resource and shall not review and act upon interior arrangements unless specifically authorized to do so by the City Council or 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 § 399.205(3) of Public Act 169 of 1970, as amended.
(Prior Code, § 28-70)
(F) Design review standards and guidelines.
(1) In reviewing plans, the Commission shall follow the U.S. Secretary of Interior’s standards for rehabilitation and guidelines for rehabilitating historic buildings as set forth in 36 C.F.R. part 67. 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 state’s Historic Preservation Office.
(2) In reviewing plans, 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, Public Act 230 of 1972, being M.C.L.A. §§ 125.1501 to 125.1531.
(Prior Code, § 28-71)
(Ord. 1332, passed 9-13-2010)