 Yeah. So, hey everyone, I'm Justin Newhart. I'm the city's historic preservation officer. And Jamie D Angelo is going to join me in presenting on what we do in preservation and design. She's our senior planner over the stockyards. And she also spends a lot of time helping out in preservation as well. So, what I thought we would do today is kind of go over why preservation and design is important in Fort Worth or in to Fort Worth. Some of the things we look at, because I know a lot of you end up touching some of the projects that we work on in various ways. What during your day and some some things that you all can look out for when you're reviewing projects in our historic and design districts. So, these are where all of our design and the historic districts are located throughout the city of Fort Worth. Most of them are in the inner city. They were put in place mainly to kind of conserve and reinstate specific architectural character. Found in certain districts throughout the city, like in downtown, Camp Buoy, the near South side, Morningside, Carver Heights. Usually these districts are created by the people who live in them, whether they're property owners or residents. They are the people who want these historic districts and want to see their neighborhoods conserved and look the same that they have for the past 50 to 100 years. We do have some overlay districts. You can see the 1 that goes up along 35 North. Those are really to kind of regulate new construction to make sure it has a similar look and feel up and down that forward or from an architectural and landscape and urban planning, urban design standpoint. Historic design and form based code districts are important because they protect existing historic existing cultural resources. They encourage compatible development like this building here, which is on South Main Street in the near South side. You can see it looks very similar to the 2 historic buildings behind it and the background. It helps maintain and stabilize property values. We saw during the last great recession during 2008 that property values in historic and design districts actually stayed the same and increased a little and they didn't lose value because there were those protections in place from a historic and design district standpoint. These districts promote pedestrian friendly public spaces, which you can see in this photo right here. We have great sidewalks, street trees on street parking. And they reinforce districts existing context. So, and a lot of our inner city neighborhoods, there's a lot of existing buildings. And we want to make sure that new construction that goes in is compatible with the historic structures up and down our streets. Each of our design districts has design a set of design standards and guidelines, and they are very important because if we don't have design standards in our districts, we end up getting new construction. Like you see in this photo, which is highly incompatible with the 2 historic structures next door. So, we through the intent of our, a lot of our design standards and guidelines is to make sure that 1, existing structures are treated appropriately when they're rehabilitated and 2, that new construction is compatible. And I've got another slide later on in the photo or in the presentation. Where you can see more of a compatible new, new development next to historic structures. I have a quick question. Can you hear me? Yes. Is there any way to control that? Or do the neighbors complain or how does that work? In terms of you've got these old, yeah, you have these older houses here and then this new one in the middle. That's completely different. Do the neighbors have any resources? Yes. So any new construction in a historic district has to be reviewed by the historic and cultural landmark commission. Which is 1 of the boards and commissions that our group runs. That's a public meeting. Just like zoning commission or board of adjustment where residents can show up, write letters or call in. And voice their opinions on these development projects in our historic districts and urban design districts. If a project needs a waiver from the design standards for that district, then that project has to go to the urban design commission for review. Which is another public board that we run and that's where the public can offer comment and provide feedback on on these projects. Thank you. Yep. So, for each project that we review, we issue a certificate of appropriateness. I'm sure you all have seen these at some point on a permit. They are an official approval from either our staff or the historic and cultural landmarks commission that allows a project to proceed. The reason we issue these and the reason we provide a lot of detail is that. In the scope of work is that these projects are reviewed by the landmarks commission, which is appointed by city council. And they have to meet the design standards of a district, which have to comply with local state and federal laws. And so we have to be very specific and clear about what type of work is going on so that the project is in compliance with legal standards and guidelines for preservation and design. We really get into the details with new construction projects and rehabilitation of historic homes. Here's an example, a recent example of one that was in the morning site historic district, which was not constructed according to the approved plans in which caused us a significant amount of staff time to kind of get back to a point where it was compatible with. The surrounding architecture, so you can see the actual building form is different the windows don't look the same they weren't installed correctly the roof form is different the porch isn't in the right place and they paid the almost half of the front yard. So all of these were issues that were inconsistent with the set of approved plans that went to went to the historic and cultural landmarks commission. And so if you all are ever on a permit or reviewing a project in a historic district. Please pay attention to the details like, like you see here on this slide, because it really makes it easier for us when the projects are constructed correctly and they're in accordance with the approved plans. We also look at things such as site paving. This is another new construction project and historic Carver Heights. Originally, we had approved just a simple single loaded driveway from the streets and what was constructed was a large parking pad in the front yard. And it took us about 8 to 9 months to work with the contractor to get them to remove that extra paving and bring the paving on site into compliance with the original site plan that was approved. And, you know, it's led to a lot of negative feelings with the customer and the new property owner and the contractor and you know, it's really important that when they're not when people build projects that we inspect everything, not just from, you know, the houses, but also to the site paving as well. Windows are really important. It's where we spend most of our time and staff in terms of compliance and making sure that details are correct. This is a wood window on a historic building and has very distinct features such as two operating sashes a windowsill specific trim and you can see there's a lot of shadows and light from all of those different features that really give it a lot of character that you don't get from vinyl windows these days. And when we look at new construction, we want to make sure that even if you're using vinyl windows that there is installed appropriately so they have those They have similar design and details as original wood windows. So this is a recent new construction and tarot heights. As you can see, these vinyl windows do not look very close to the original wood window and design. And this ended up being a compliance case and we couldn't final the building permit until the windows were corrected. So This is a, this is another example from tarot heights where the vinyl windows were installed correctly and you can see they have a lot of the similar details to that original wood window where They're recessed into the wall plane. They have projecting windows, zills and appropriate trim. So if you're, if you're ever dealing with New construction in a historic district and you have questions about how windows are supposed to be installed. Please give us a call. We're happy to help because We want to make sure they get it right the first time so they don't have to go back and fix, you know, 10 to 15 windows that they had just recently installed and put siding on. Setbacks are important in historic districts. Most of our historic districts have houses that are have a setback of anywhere from 10 to 15 feet from the property line. And you can see that here in the bottom photo where you have a Historic home that is set very close to the sidewalk. And this is kind of Antithetical to some of our requirements of the zoning ordinance where the minimum setback is 20 feet from the property line. In historic districts, we want to make sure that any new construction is consistent in terms of its placement on site with historic structures next door so that you have a uniform street scape up and down. Up and down the block here. You can see the new construction is set a little bit farther back than the historic house next door and it looks kind of odd from the street because it doesn't have the wall plane on the same plane as the historic structure. So we want to make sure that, you know, details such as setbacks are followed when these houses are built. Raised foundations are important. These are often not constructed in new construction throughout the Metro flex in Texas because no one wants to pour raised foundation. They want to do slab on grade and get out and get out real quick. But in historic districts. Historic homes often had a raised foundation like you see on the right because they had peer and bean foundations. Which helped with a variety of things in terms of energy performance and the building performance. And so for new construction, we asked that property owners. Raise the foundation up at least 2 steps, which you can see here on the left with the new house. So they have the same porch characteristics and foundation characteristics as historic homes up and down the street. If you guys are ever working on a prop project in a historic district or a permit. Please remember that, you know, the plans must match the approved plans by staff or the landmarks commission. Any changes have to be reviewed by our team before they can proceed in the field. And details matter. And you can see in this photo. This is another block in Terrell Heights, one of our historic districts. The 2 houses on the right are new construction and they are very compatible in terms of scale and design. With the historic structure next door, even though it's not in the best shape. So when we get the details right. On these types of projects, it really helps reinforce that historic character in our historic and design districts. And now I'm going to turn it over to Jamie for the next couple of slides. So we've talked a little bit about how we. Regulate properties in historic districts and what the purpose of those are. And I'll talk a little bit about our form based districts. And the elements that we're trying to regulate there in our form based districts. We. In addition to land use, we regulate aspects of architecture. So vertical construction. Materials, roof shape. Percentage of fenestration on the portions of the building that face towards the street. And 1 of our biggest items is our. And 1 of our biggest items is our. Essentially, our frontage zone around the property. So how does the building meet the street? What is the treatment of the sidewalk and the landscapes buffer adjacent to the sidewalk? Are there street trees? Are there trash bins? Are there seating areas? Are there pedestrian lights? We require pedestrian lights in I think most, if not all of our. Form based code districts. And this is really what, what makes these areas, I think pretty different from the standard zoning. The parts of our city that have standard zoning. We just have. Higher expectations for where the building meets the street. And really specific standards that new construction needs to meet. A lot of rehab projects. And some additions in form based districts do not require the full. Set of streetscape improvements. So, if it's just a rehab or like a. Facile remodel, you don't have to meet these criteria. It's sort of an existing condition situation. But in general, that's the, those are the, I think some of the most visible improvements that you're seeing. With the standards that we have in our design districts. You can go to the next slide. Okay. So, 1 of our, I would say, combination design district and historic district is the stockyards. As Justin mentioned earlier. The stockyards, the core of the stockyards has been a national registered district since 1976. And when the stockyards form based code was adopted in 2017. It created a historic district at the core. And then to form based code districts that kind of. Are adjacent to it and move out from the center. So it's a way of protecting the historic core and then ensuring that. Development on adjacent sites as you move out from the center of the stockyards. Is stylistically compatible is protecting view corridors in the stockyards is made of compatible materials. And it's sort of overall protecting the stockyards, like look and feel as a tourist destination. Because it is, it is very unique. So that's why it has that code. So 1 of the biggest projects. That has come through the stockyards in the last couple of years under the new code was the renovation of the mule barns, the historic mule barns. And mule alley, which was repaved landscaped. New commercial entities came in those large, like formerly. Agricultural holding pens were converted into storefronts. And this really activated that connection point with exchange mule alley goes from exchange down to the new hotel drover. And it is all, you know, it was a conversion of existing historic building that was consistent with the code. And I think it's a good example of how that is achievable, even if the code is, is very particular. It's for it's for a good reason. So you can see a lot of the elements that I mentioned earlier, the landscaping, the bull bouts, the street trees. Appropriate lighting. We also review signage in this district as well to make sure it doesn't overwhelm the facade of the historic building. So it. Yeah, Justin, I think that was a good project selection to highlight that code and at work. Why are waivers often encouraged in design? So in our form based code districts. If a project is exceptional or unusual or solving a problem in a really creative way. We do like to encourage developers to request that exception at the urban design commission. Form based codes really encourage contextual design and the waiver process allows developers to achieve that if they're doing something really unique. We also don't charge fees for our applications either for landmarks commission or the urban design commission. So at least from that perspective. There is no, like, if a developer wants to ask for a waiver at the urban design commission. There's other than time, there's not really a risk to them. They can go and be heard and and have their project reviewed. So we can't really plan for every every site. We need to be contextually sensitive and the waiver process does allow us to explore that. We so this is different from our the way we approach waivers and historic preservation in our form based code districts. We're dealing with. New construction usually where we get to plan sort of with the developer from the ground up how that. New project is going to best meet the standards of the district. Historic districts are about protecting historic buildings and the integrity of those historic buildings. So, in general, we're going to request and the standards are going to request that you retain as much original material as possible that you don't change original features. And that if you must repair and replace that you repair and replace with compatible materials. So, in general, we have processes to request those waivers, but our preservation ordinance does not give the landmarks commission as much leeway as the urban design commission to grant waivers. The urban design commission can grant a waiver if the project is meeting the intent of the sub district under a preservation ordinance really waivers are only appropriate. If there is a is the applicant is severely cost burdened in making the correction and they can show that or if the work is technically infeasible. So, if they've if something has happened to the property and it's basically impossible to reverse it back to what it was safely. Then those are the criteria we can consider, but yeah, the the aims of these 2 districts are are different. And so the waiver process reflects that. Code of compliance we especially in the historic districts we do spend quite a bit of staff time. On asking individuals and owners to correct work that they've already done that they haven't gone through our office for review for. This is really this is this can be tough because it's. If the if the owner has already done the work to replace windows or replace the door or. You know, do something that is is quite an expensive for them, you know, home remodel and we come in and tell them to correct that. We're already kind of operating at a loss like the homeowner's not happy about it. The work's not consistent. It's not. You know, it's it's taking away from the character of the district. And so we really. Try to work with these folks to give them time to make the corrections to really be clear about what the corrections need to be. But if we really folks understood. The district standards a little better and a little earlier than we would have. We hope less code compliance cases. So we're trying to do a bit more outreach when we get our new planners so that we spend less time dealing with code compliance cases and more time. Getting ahead of people's projects and letting them know kind of. The resources that they need to be successful in that in that remodel or that rehabilitation. So 1 of the ways we can help property owners either make those repairs or rehabilitate their structures is through financial incentives. A lot of the time the complex work associated with rehabbing a building costs a little bit more. Because you're working with older building materials and you need skilled labor. In a way that you don't necessarily need on new construction projects. So. From the, from the city's perspective, we offer the historic site tax exemption. To kind of help homeowners recoup the cost of rehabilitation after the project is complete. It freezes the taxable value of the property at pre renovation levels for 10 years after the project is done. And so homeowners can get some of that rehab money back over time as their tax bills are reduced throughout the length of the exemption. For commercial properties, there are federal and state preservation tax incentives where you can end up getting up to 45% of your project costs back. On a rehabilitation project, they're very, very lucrative and they're very. They really make projects work like this 1. That you see here on the in the photo is this is the Meisner Brown funeral home on the east side near Texas Wesleyan. It was a city owned property up until about 2015 2016. And the former HBO and preservation staff worked with historic for worth in the community to find a buyer who could actually save and rehab the building. And today, what you see at the bottom of the screen is now what it looks like. It's a beautiful event space. There's also office space in there and it's a great asset to that community around Texas Wesleyan. So if you all haven't had a chance to go over there and see it, I highly recommend it. This, this project used our local tax incentive and federal and state tax credits to make the project work. We're working on a few major projects currently. One of them is the historic resources survey update our current resources survey, which tells us where all of our historic properties are throughout for worth as well as historic districts dates from the early 1980s. So it's older than I am. And we are, it's very out of date and it's going to take us about 17 years to completely update the survey. So we're going to chip away at it each year. The current phase calls for a resurvey of the historic tarot heights. The historic district as well as the near southeast national register district. Also known as the historic south side. We don't have much survey data. Or any survey data to be honest in this district. So this phase of the survey will help us with land use and planning in this historic district, which is about to see a lot of pressure from new commercial development associated with the large global development as well as the national Juneteenth museum and other projects up and down the Evans and Rosdale corridor. So it's really important that we have accurate data on historic structures in this district to help us make sound planning decisions to save those structures in the district in the future. The part of the survey update effort includes creating an online map where anybody can go on and search their property for free to figure out if it's designated or if it's eligible for designation. We have the map up on our website now. And as we survey districts throughout the city, we're going to input all of that data and constantly update it as we as we update our survey. So we've got a few points in there now relating to the old bank head highway. And I can't remember what the north, south high highway was called, but the original highway that ran east to west in front in the United States. And that's what you can see here on the screen. So this will be this will be updated in about a year once the current phase is done with new data. And that's pretty much it. If you guys ever have questions about preservation or urban design projects, you can give myself or Jamie or Laurel I call or anyone else in the office. We all we're all pretty much cross trained and we can cover for each other. And, you know, we're here to assist and answer questions. So. That's it for us. Any questions on the presentation? I don't see any questions. For the, for you y'all Justin. That's fantastic. Yeah. Historic that historic buildings predate the ADA and do they have to comply with the ADA? Yes. So, if you are undertaking a rehab project, then you have to, on a commercial structure, you have to provide ADA upgrades. However, there are certain ways you can provide ADA upgrades on a historic building that are would be considered exceptions, because you have to respect the historic character of that structure. So, you know, you may not be able to put a ramp right to the front entrance right in front of the building, because that would be considered an adverse effect. You know, you may have to put in a chair lift. On a, you know, a different entrance so that folks can get into the building who who have in that way. So, you know, we try and figure out a compatible solution from an ADA compliance standpoint. It takes a little more time and effort to work that out. But yeah, if it's a commercial structure, it does have to be brought up to standards. Claire, I see your hand up. Yeah, I just wanted to mention that there's some some specific items that come up in some of these historic areas related to floodplain development. And frequently there's a. An exemption for those historic structures to comply fully with the national flood insurance program. But some of the elevated foundations would be really helpful in preventing flood damage in some of these areas too. So, if there's new structures or something that needs to be improved to be useful to. Kind of leverage that elevated foundation to keep those from from flooding. That wasn't the case in the stock yard where we, you couldn't elevate anything out there. And we did work with them because that area has been a historic region for forever to try to develop in a way that's safe from flooding. But that's one of those things that we run into all the time where we have some sort of compatibility with other regulations. We just want to make sure that we're probably involved in y'all early in that process as well. Yeah, definitely. There's, there's a lot of benefits to raise foundations. And that's, that's 1 of them, especially in some of our historic districts that were built. In floodplains, you know, because that's just where the growth happened now 100 years ago. Any other. It's like Armand had a question about letting asbestos abatement our. Friends and neighborhood services they actually have grants. Or a lead abatement. And not just in historic districts, but it's an income based program. And if you qualify and you live in your home. The city will will come and abate the lead on your property. So we work pretty closely with them on the projects in historic districts and we actually have to review all HUD grants that come out of neighborhood services to make sure they meet preservation standards. I don't think there are funds specifically for asbestos abatement, but part of their priority repair program and neighborhood services includes. Removing asbestos tile and some instances and rehabbing original siding underneath so it's. They do a lot of that work throughout the city. And that's it makes a big impact in a lot of our communities. And then the lastly, I don't think I had a slide on this, but we also review. All city sponsored project on city and infrastructure or property. That is over 50 years old as part of our administrative. Regulation a 10 review process. So. I know a lot of y'all work with departments that such as TPW that the streetscape improvements. Or other infrastructure improvements throughout the city, especially in the core where we have older neighborhoods. And if there's a historic structure or historic resource that would be affected by the project, please give us a call in the early planning stages. Because we have to review that under city policy to make sure that that historic resources protected and incorporated into the project. I think that's pretty much it. I just had 1 more question on the earlier slide where you. Buildings that had to be of some major renovations for anything in place to prevent it from getting to that point where they have to. Make these major renovations to these homes before they're almost done. There's no, there's something that comes up and says, hey, you're not following your plan and you need to make this change. Yeah, you know, and our inspectors are like the best way to make sure that they meet the plans, but also, you know, the property or the contractor has to have the approved plans on site. And as long as they have those on site and they can read the plans that were approved that usually cuts out some of that. Some of these issues that we see, especially on new construction. And it's also an education process. A lot of these contractors that come and build in our historic districts. They aren't used to having to really focus on details. They want to build a house, get in, get out. Make a profit and go on to the next project. And when you have to spend a little bit more time making sure the details are correct. They don't always want to do that. So from our on from the city's end, we need to do a better job of getting out and educating our contractors and builders to make sure they know what they're getting into in. In the historic districts. So we're hoping to do more of that in the future. Now that we have some more, more staff coming in and more resources. Randy, you've got your hand up. Did you want to share anything? It looks like you put a bunch of stuff in the chat. Any other questions? Well, thank you so much, everyone. I'll have a good Friday. I appreciate everyone taking the time to listen to Justin. Thanks, Jamie. Justin. So that concludes the training. Does anyone have any thoughts on a training they would like to hear for our next development review training meeting. I raise the hands. DJ, do you have any final words of wisdom for the team? I've been called wise very much, sir. Thank you. No, again, I just want to say thank you guys for all the good work that you guys are doing. I really enjoy these trainings. They give us an opportunity to get a broader view of what we do in our department. We've got a whole lot of disciplines and everybody's working really hard in their own discipline. And it's good to have an understanding of who to call and what to call on those folks for. Again, I know we have a lot of new folks in our ranks. So these, these trainings are all posted on the intranet. Dante can probably send out a link, you know, to the entire department or, you know, to show you guys where it is. All the presentations also are posted on that link. So if you don't have time to watch the entire video, you can just pull down the presentation and get the gist of it so that you can have a broader.