 Back, right? Yes, that's true. All right, Steve, I'm ready to start whenever you are. Okay. Welcome to the Monday, February 1st meeting of the Montpelier Design Review Committee. I will let committee members and staff introduce themselves by speaking their names. I will introduce myself. Seamus Murzky. Eric Gilbertson, vice chair. And she, Member. And Steve Everett. Member and chair. And Meredith Crandall staff. We also have just in case. I was just gonna say in case she doesn't introduce herself. you. Meredith, would you like to review the remote meeting procedures? Yes, I would. All right, so we have some people on tonight who have not been on recently, at least not since we did, went to remote and this is also a large part for people who might be attending or watching the orca and want to attend and want to sign in. So for anybody watching via orca, if you decide that you want to sign on to speak on an application, you can join the Zoom meeting using this link here. You can also call into the meeting using this 929 phone number and the meeting ID and password are here. If you are having problems accessing the meeting, please email me. Here's my email address at the bottom of the slide. And if anybody also if you're having if you're in the meeting and you're having difficulties accessing different video conferencing features or otherwise have technical questions, please message me through the chat function in Zoom. The Zoom meeting is being recorded as well as stream live via orca media and turning on your video is optional. All public testimony will be taken verbally and as I said the chat function should only be used for troubleshooting or logistics questions. Please keep your microphone on mute when you're not speaking. This reduces background noise and if you're participating by phone, star six will allow you to mute or unmute. And that actually puts up a little flag on all of our screens that lets us know you're muted versus I think if you just use the mute button on your phone, it doesn't do the same thing. I think everybody we have on tonight right now is actually an applicant or basically a co-applicant. But if somebody does phone in and wants to speak on a particular matter, please make sure that work attends comes in. Make sure that when you come on and sign on, once somebody asks you what you're on for, you identify what matter that is and make sure to state your full name and address if you're not an applicant. And if you're calling in via phone, you can raise your hands using star nine. So I'm going to just do a quick thing. If you are watching via orca or somebody's having problems viewing the share screen, the full meeting materials are here at this link or agendas and minutes page on the City of Montpellier website. If the public is unable to access this meeting, and I'll get notifications of that via email, then the meeting will need to be continued to a time and place certain. If you are having connectivity issues while you're in Zoom, try turning off your video or closing other applications on your phone or computer. Please note that all votes taken during this meeting that are not unanimous will be done by roll call vote. And I'll hand this back over to the chair, Steve. Do I hear a motion to approve the agenda from the committee? I move to approve the agenda. This is Martha. Do I hear a second? Second, Eric. All in favor of the agenda, speak your names. Eric. Steve. Okay. Unless anyone has anything else to add at this point, we can go to the first application for 89 Main Street, the city center building owned by Doug Nettie, the applicant, the skinny pancake. Would someone from the skinny pancake like to introduce themselves and discredit the application? Hi, my name is Ben G. Adler. I'm here on behalf of the skinny pancake. I was met with you folks a few months ago. And we went, followed your lead, recommended that you recommended we engage with Montpelier live. And we're exploring possibly running a vent stack directly up the front of the building. And sort of let's be honest about what's going on here approach. And the idea was we might, you know, do something fun and artistic with it, but really putting it up front. If some of you may recall that conversation. And that seems to have gotten my landlord's attention in a way that he said, no, no, come on, we can solve this some other way. And they worked with AT&T to get permission to get access above their space. And so that we can do what we thought was impossible, which is to run the vent out to the alley behind the building or to the side of the building, depends on how what you consider the front. But and so you can see in the application, there is a simple drawing that shows where there would be a, we'll call like a button style vent, as opposed to a false vent stack. This was another sort of revelation that was pretty pleased to have learned about, which was so nevtech would be the installer. They've been installing systems for 40 years throughout the region, really most 10 year group doing that kind of work. And they properly identified that this spot would fit code such that you don't need to run a vent stack all the way to the ceiling that you can just put a button sticking out the side of the building. So it is overwhelmingly, in my opinion, the least invasive proposal, so much less invasive than what we were looking at before. And so I'm hopeful that same kind of thought resonates with you and we meet with your approval. Ben, this is Martha. First, before we get into it, I really want to thank you for sticking with this. I know you've been here a couple of times and it's been a tough one on you. If I'm clear, this is on the side of the building near the church. Is that correct? Okay. Yes, it is. I think that's a huge improvement over previous designs. You are also going to find that it will be easier to clean and maintain the pipe with that horizontal straight run or fairly straight run. I fully agree. Such an improvement. It will save you a lot of money up front and in the long run. I think it will actually save us money yet to not run that stack all the way up. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's good. It's great you continued and pushed and pursued and got something that's relatively simple. Good. Does anyone else on the committee have anything to add? Suggestions? Questions? Okay. Then I can go through the criteria. The criteria for the application for all projects, exterior design and materials of new construction or alterations of existing buildings shall be consistent and compatible with the characteristics of the existing building or other properties in the district. Additions shall respect and be compatible with the size, scale, materials, detailing, and overall character of the primary building. Additions shall not obscure or undermine the essential forming character of the original building and should reflect the additions period and style as appropriate. So that's acceptable. Location and appearance of all utilities shall be cited to minimize that diverse visual impact or adequately and appropriately screen from public view. This particular location is the least possible effect. Architectural features, including but not limited to cornices, windows, shutters, fan lights, tablature, trim, and other forms of molding or character defining, detailing, revealing on the existing building shall be considered in the alteration. That's acceptable. And that's the end of the criteria. Paul, in favor of the application as presented, speak your names. Martha, yes. Yes. Eric, yes. Steve, yes. Are you there, Ben? Give a thumbs up. He's having volume issues. He's audio. He ran into audio issues last time, too. Well, he's got the audio calls shut off. Yeah. He gave a thumbs up, and that's a yes vote for Mike. Okay, the application has approved. And thank you, Benjamin, for going through all the extra effort. All right. No problem. I appreciate y'all working with me and glad we got to the best solution. Thank you. And thanks to Doug Netty for a little leverage. Indeed. And good luck with your project. Nev Tech will do a nice job. I agree. Thank you so much. We'll see you later. We'll be in touch with the comments soon, Benji. Okay, thank you. We can move to the second application for 81 Main Street, owner applicant, Heaney family, and I'm assuming Tim is there to describe the application. I'm here. Hello, Steve. Hi, Tim. How are you? Good. How are you? Good. Thanks. So I think the application is pretty simple. And I think whether we included the kind of an as is photo and then with the new proposed doors for changing the doorway to our old office and to what was the coffee corner space. We don't have tenants for either space yet, but we're still working with a couple parties on it. And as we work with people, we realize that the old doors maximum allow a 29 inch opening, which does not meet accessibility code. And there's no real room to push there to widen them to keep two doors. So as we've evolved through this process, it appeared the best solution is to create one new door that would be a 36 inch door that'll meet code that will enter into an airlock of vestibule. And then there'll be two doors from that vestibule into each space. So I think that's the photo you've got is the proposed new door with the side lights. And we've tried to have that door designed to match the doors that if you can see what's coming out, they're kind of mixed. But on the other side where the door is for 79 main for the hallway and also for Zutano store. This new door would be the same style. It's a custom made wood door made for the seven foot four opening. And basically, it will be the door will be black and the trim will be white as is the case with the rest of the building. I'm happy to share the application. If anybody needs a better look at it. Tim, you could put that up, Meredith. Yep, I will. There's the proposed and there's the existing. Thank you. You're welcome. Martha, you had a question? No, I said, I think you said, Tim, that this was a wood door. Yes, it is. Great. Tim, not that it has any effect on the outside, but on the inside of the foyer, once you enter into that door, think about how you do the inside doors, even though they're not a part of the application, just so if equipment needed to go when they could go through the front door and turn so it could go into either side. Yes. Yeah, I think we've thought it through pretty well. It somewhat depends on who the tenant is and what we end up with. If it's possible that we can end up with one tenant to the entire first floor front. And in that case, then you'd go into the vest field and there'd be one door straight ahead. It would also be at least three feet wide. Right. And if we do end up dividing it in the current format, then there'd be a three foot of a similar look to this on either side. No, I think that's probably one of the least intrusive ways to adapt. Yeah, it should be good for accessibility and also for energy efficiency. So I think it's a positive. Do any of the committee members have any comments, questions or suggestions? Looks good to me there. Me too, Martha. Okay, then I can go through the criteria for all projects, exterior designs and materials of new constructions or alterations shall be consistent and compatible with the characteristics of the existing building and other properties in the district. Additions to existing buildings shall respect to be compatible with the size, scale, materials detailing and overall character of the primary building and the environs. Additions shall not obscure or undermine the essential forming character of the original building and should reflect the additions period and style is appropriate. That's acceptable. Existing building shall be recognized as a physical record of time, place and use changes that create a false sense of historical development, such as adding conjectured features or architectural elements from other buildings shall not be undertaken new construction additions and alterations shall be of their own time and shall not create a false sense of history. This one is duplicating existing doors which is fine in that location. Acceptable. Alterations to buildings called for by public safety, accessibility and fire codes shall be designed to maintain the character of the construction materials and features to the maximum extent feasible, acceptable. Rhythm, the visual patterns established by the alterations of solid walls and openings when it is indoors and the facade of the building shall create a rhythm. Proportional architectural details, a sense of rhythm or regular spacing of fenestration shall be considered. Scale and massing of architectural features shall present a variety in their composition, acceptable. Architectural features, including but not limited to cornices, windows, shutters, fan lights and tablet or trim and other forms of molding or character detailing prevailing on the existing building shall be considered and the alteration acceptable. And then there's another section for additions and alterations to historic buildings. Historic character of property shall be retained and reserved. Removal of historic materials or alterations of features and spaces that characterize a historic property shall be avoided. Character defining features, finishes and construction techniques for examples of craftsmanship that characterize an historic building shall be reserved. Development shall not destroy character defining features and any new development shall be differentiated from all but shall respect and be compatible with the massing size scale. Architectural features detailing an overall character of the primary historic building and nearby historic properties acceptable. Rhythm. Patterns of solids and openings shall be preserved to the extent feasible. It's not appropriate to add cover over or remove a window door opening on facades visible from public street unless the applicant can demonstrate essential operations occurring within the building. Suitable design solution that maintains an architectural integrity of the facade shall be proposed. Acceptable materials. Character defining materials should be preserved to the maximum extent practical. An alteration shall be considered to be compatible if the building materials use possess a kind or type which are appropriate to that building. Materials should be selected for long-term performance and durability. And that's acceptable. Architectural features or character defining features prevailing shall be considered on the alteration of the building acceptable. Windows and doors. Character defining windows and door patterns, placement, sizes, proportions and original features such as trim, sash and molding shall be preserved to the extent possible. Windows and doors that are not character defining may be replaced but such replacement must be compatible with historic building style materials and architectural features acceptable. And end of the criteria. All in favor of the application as proposed speak your name. Eric. Martha. Yes. Anna. Yes. Steve. Yes. Ben got booted. His computer actually completely died so we'll have to be without Ben for the moment. Okay. So it's approved for to nothing and thank you Tim for coming and good luck with your project. Thanks everyone. Thanks Tim. Yeah. Good night. Okay. We can move on to the next application which is for 51 Berlin Street. Is there someone there? This is the Martin Quadros building to replace the sign faces on one ground sign and directional signs. Yes, that's correct. Yes. I just unmuted. Okay. Yeah. So what we need to do is dunking donuts is now dunking so we have to get rid of the donuts and as a sign company we're the ones who are going to do that by changing out the faces so we're not touching the metal sign cabinets we're just taking out the face putting a new face in for the updated logo. Basically that's it. But not too exciting. Just out of curiosity what's the reason for getting rid of donuts? Maybe to Martin knows. Well the company you know is probably just a just an advertising employee but they've they've gone to just going by dunking so I think it's already been a year ago they made the decision so but we still have donuts. That's good because you can't be dunking without donuts. No for sure for sure. Does anyone on the committee have any comments questions suggestions at this point? Not for me. My computer literally just died so I don't actually have any clue what we're talking about but I'm here now. Ben we're on the Duncan sign changes. Aha okay. You just started that and Steve just asked if anybody had any questions on it. I'm just going to listen carefully. Okay. We just said that the Duncan has gone the Dunkin Donuts has gone to Dunkin so we need to change and update the logo. Okay it's a fairly simple application so there's just a few of the criteria to review. One is where applicable development shall be designed to respect views of the state house dome certainly that is acceptable and then there are several items for regarding signs and one is the size location design color texture lighting and material of all exterior signs within the design reviewed overlay district shall be compatible with the building and structure of the site and surrounding properties that's acceptable. Signed design color and typography shall respect historic precedents where appropriate and shall be the appropriate scale for the existing and new buildings acceptable. Sign support structures shall be compatible with the building architecture must not be overly complex or dominant in and of themselves that's acceptable and that's about all basically it's the same sign just without the donuts so that's pretty straightforward all in favor of the application for getting rid of donuts speak your name. Martha yes Eric yes Anna says yes Ben says yes and Steve says yes so application has approved um so Mary and Mark I don't think we've worked with you before for permits at least not recently um normally if this were an in-person meeting the forms that Steve just went through um you would just sign them and then give them back to me at the same table and then I'd issue your permits probably tomorrow or the next day um because of this whole remote if there had been recommendations if they wanted some tweaks or some conditions on the permit then I would send you a scan of that document get your approval written and then you'd scan it back to me before we issued the permit right now though there were no changes so I'm just going to get the form from Steve um we will process that we'll get the permit issued it might not be until Wednesday um just because we're having limited time in the office the next couple well in general we're limited when we're coming into the office um and with the storm tomorrow we've got some people who are just like well I can work from home so I'm gonna do it um but we will get that permit out to you in the next couple of days um would it do you uh are either of you local like should we set up a time to just hand you the permit or would yeah I'm right here in town so I can I can okay okay so then it'll probably be either Wednesday or Thursday depending on when we're in the office that's fine you'll either hear from Audra Brown or you'll hear from myself to let you know when the permit's ready and then you can just come and pick it up here at City Hall okay great thanks awesome you're welcome thank you very much thank you thanks guys bye bye is everyone had a chance to review the minutes of the January the 19th meeting yes I'll I'll move it and I'll second it Martha all in favor of the minutes speak your names Mark Ben Hannah Steve so the minute star proved and does anyone have anything else to add nope nope no Ben has his hand raised but he's on mute I'm not quite sure if that was an accident that was an accident I hit star nine instead of star six gotcha thanks Ben yeah okay then our next meeting is Tuesday February the 16th and do I hear a motion to adjourn to adjourn all in favor of adjourn but speak your names Eric Martha Hannah Ben Steve meeting is adjourned thank you thank you thank you all