 Welcome to the Monday, May the 3rd, 2021 meeting of the Montpellier Design Review Committee. I will let committee members and staff introduce themselves by speaking their names. Martha Smirsky, Member. Eric Gilbertson, Member. Benjamin Cheney, Member. And Steve Everett, Member. And Meredith Crandall, Staff. Meredith, would you like to review the remote meeting procedures? I will. Okay. So this is especially for anybody who's following along at home. So this is being streamed live via Orca media. And if you're watching that way, you can participate in the committee meeting via the zoom platform through either this link here that goes right. Or you can use this phone number with this meeting ID and call in with over the telephone and then you'll still be able to participate. You just won't be showing up on the screen as a as a picture. So, if anybody's having problems accessing the meeting from home, please email me my email address is down here at the bottom. Also, if once you're in the video conference, you're having problems with the zoom features, please message me through the zoom chat function, we would like to keep that chat function to those kind of technical difficulties issues only meeting is being recorded. And turning on your video is optional. All public testimony will be taken verbally. If the chat function is used, it will be added to the public record. Please keep your microphone on mute when you're not speaking this reduces background noise. If somebody does sign on come on through the telephone, I will go through those procedures then we don't have any members of the public just applicants so far tonight. Please wait until the chairs recognized you before you participate and make sure that when you're ready to participate you unmute your microphone and confirm that you can be heard and provide your full name and address for the record. Some applicants can just provide their name just so we know who's actually attending. In the event the public is unable to access this meeting and I'll get notice of that via email, then the meeting will be continued to a time and place certain. If you're having connectivity issues, try turning off your video or closing other applications on your phone or computer. If those at home want to see the documents, they can download them using this link. This also if somebody from home is having problems using the share screen function, they can download the meeting packet that way and take a look at what everybody else is looking at. Please note that all votes taken during this new meeting that are not unanimous will be done by roll call vote. Now hand the meeting back over to the chair. If all the committee members have had a chance to review the agenda do I hear a motion to approve the agenda. So moved Eric. I'll second it this is Martha. All in favor of the agenda speak your names. And Steve. So we can Meredith. Did lucky boardman come on yet. Nope, he hasn't yet. Okay, then we can move on to the application for 100 State Street. Thank you. So I would like to ask owner Fred Bechera and applicant Fred Bechera review replacement of the awnings in front of James organs. Would the. With the representative like to describe the application. Thank you. Yes, hi, this is Fred Bechera. And I represent James Oregon steak house 100 State street. several cleanings that's probably as you've seen with all the mold on them as good as it's gonna get. So we thought now would be a good time to change the look a little bit and colors to maybe stand out a little bit more and go with more of our colors and doors which are a wine slice burgundy style color. And because of COVID, we need the outdoor seating. And so we thought it would be a good idea to put actually retractable awnings over the short side of the deck and the two other windows on the deck so that people may sit out there during at least a soft rain. The main awning will remain the same shape, just changed to the burgundy slash wine color. And please let me know if you would like me to share the photos from the application. Oh, here's what is there now and the G Morgan's emblem is gonna stay the same I believe Fred, right? And the restaurant label there as well. Correct. And the emblem, it's exactly the same train except our newer emblem that we did when we did the renovation. Look at the door. It just has a circle around it. Yeah. But the animal will be the same. And this is what we're looking to do. And is this color, and it comes out a little funky when we've photocopied it and then scanned it. Is this representative, you think Fred? Yeah, I actually, I do have a small, like one inch by one inch color of that. That awning there, the main door, because it doesn't retract and because what we've learned over the last bunch of years that the material awnings don't clean on the road very well because of all the road dirt that we're gonna go, it's a very heavy duty vinyl. This is what Auto Creek awning recommended us to do. He says a lot of businesses are changing over to it because you can just really hose it off. And at first comes where you can get up and rub it off. You know, any of the mold or any of the dust that you'll see on it. Is the vinyl a matte finish or a shinier finish? Definitely matte. Okay, thank you. And that one is not retractable, correct? No, that's on the existing metal frame that's there now. It stretches out basically to the steps so that when a guest walks up and they hit one step up they're gonna be under the awning. Okay, now this one will be striped as well, Fred. The main awning will not be striped but the little ones on the end, the 11 foot ones will be. Okay, I understand now. Is the burgundy color on the solid and the striped the same color? It is. Okay. Even with the vinyl? It is, it actually is. I know this photo doesn't look right. I actually just got in the exact same awnings for the Parklet. It's kind of a freestanding awning and the material I waited, I was hoping it was gonna come in before the meeting because I wasn't 100% sure of it myself but when I saw it, it's actually quite beautiful and it goes really well. It's a darker, you see how that has the burgundy? Does it really? It's not very sharp in the picture but it is a nice striking wine color. Fred, do you have a representation of the vinyl? I have it basically at my office. It's a little one inch square. You know how they give you a color palette like if you go to a paint store? Yeah. It looks like that. Okay. Any of the committee members have any other questions, comments or suggestions? Eric doesn't. Okay. If nothing further, we can go through the criteria that would apply to this application. For all projects, number one 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. That would be acceptable. Number two, existing buildings shall be recognized as a physical record of their time, place and use. Any new development shall be differentiated from the old but shall respect to be compatible with the massing size scale architectural features detailing an overall character of the primary historic building and nearby historic properties. That's acceptable. And those are really the only two criteria that apply to the application for the awning. So do I hear any all in favor of the application as proposed to speak your names? Eric. Martha, I have some question about the vinyl, but we're lying on Fred's representation. I'll say yes. Thank you. Okay. Yes. And Steve says yes as well. So application is approved for nothing. Meredith, what is their next step? So the next step is that once we get the recommendations forms from you, Steve, because there weren't any tweaks or adjustments, we will get, yeah, this doesn't work for our site plan. So this will just go out as an administrative permit. We just have to actually have people in the office to do it. Audra will be in the office tomorrow. I don't think she has any other permits to issue ahead of yours. So it might even be issued as soon as tomorrow. But definitely. Excellent. Thank you. I have, if I put everything on hold to make sure, obviously we got the, okay, from you guys. Well, thank you very much for coming forward with your application and good luck. Thank you very much. Have a great night. Thank you. Thank you. Members for Lucky Boardman, do you want me to give them a call, Steve, and see if I can track them down? Sure, that would be great. Right. Shall we do the minutes in the meantime? Sure. Has everybody had a chance to look at the minutes from the last meeting? Yes. Yes, I did. I have one change. I think it ought to be clear that I took over as chair during the application for Steve's building. That's not really clear in the minutes. Let me just confirm that Meredith heard your recommendation. She's probably on this. I did. I got it. Okay. Good. Any other changes, comments or suggestions? On the last paragraph, the review of the minutes from April five onto that impervious thing, it looks like there's a sentence missing. It says, where impervious is listed and then Meredith will check the recording. It doesn't really tell you what the issue was. I think that a sentence saying question whether the word should be impervious should be in there, something like that. Any other changes or suggestions? If not, do I hear a motion to approve the minutes with those two suggestions? Here I close. Okay. I'll second. All in favor, speak your names. Martha. Eric. Ben. And Steve. So the minutes are approved with those two changes. One thing I wanted to bring up is that there are plans afoot for major changes to the state house. Now, I know we don't have any jurisdiction, but they've got a long range plan and a short range plan for major additions to the state house, a big, a glass addition between the state house and the pink lady and a proposal for Court Street that putting an office and apartment building and a parking garage there and that hole behind the thrush. And I know we can't do anything about it. And I don't know what's gonna happen because it's kind of funny. These plans were done. The contract was let March 15th and they already submitted proposals in a week ago. I'd hate to plan something for the state house in five weeks. Eric, do you have any email traffic on that? Are you good for me? So what if that's a glass between the pink lady? I don't know what the pink lady is. It's that Victorian house that's used as offices on Court Street then. If you're looking at this state house from the front and be on your left. Is that Court or is that? Oh, that's Baldwin. That's Baldwin, sorry. No, that's okay. That makes more sense. It's a very odd process. I am not gonna forward the email because I don't know exactly why I have it. So, but it's just something we should keep an eye on, I think, on wherever I find out, I'll let the committee know. I do think it's very preliminary. So they're not gonna start construction next week. The other problem I had with it is one I think, and Steve might agree with us, is doing any planning at this point for what office space you need or should look like is crazy. We don't know what it's gonna be like in three to five years, I don't think. Yes, and I've heard some different opinions on how many people will be coming back to their offices after the COVID issue is over. Eric, is this for legislative offices or for some sort of agency? It's for legislative offices. Oh, okay. And you know that, they've got that whole, the old national life building, then the transportation building, now the tax building, we've got a lot of space in there that's close to the state house. And it just needs to, I think, with the whole COVID thing, I think we all know that working condition offices are not gonna be the same after that or how much office space people need. Meredith, any luck in being a hold of Boardman? Yes, he was out on an emergency call. He's wondering if we could give him 10 minutes to call in. Okay. And I did wanna just throw this out here. Liz isn't here, but the city is considering giving committees the, I think it's still gonna be an option, starting in July of having a hybrid meeting system where probably most committee members would still be calling in via Zoom, but I would be up in the council chambers and attendees could show up in person or even potentially going all in person. And so it's something for you all to think about what you're comfortable with. We don't have all the potential procedures in place yet for safety progressions, but eventually you guys would probably need to take a vote as to how you wanted to go forward. If you wanna be all in person or not, if you are all in person, I wouldn't be surprised if DRC member wouldn't be sitting at that middle round table in the future. You'd be up in the higher tier so that you could space out a little bit more. And we're hoping to still be able to do electronic packets if at all possible, but we need to figure out the logistics of that. I wanted to make sure you were aware that that's where we were headed and to be able to start thinking about it and what you might be comfortable with. Meredith, I don't remember. Do the windows open in there? The windows do open and there are AC units. Lucky's in, but for some reason he's muted. Yes, there we go. Oh, that's okay. That's okay, I'm just, I'm glad you were able to call in. Yeah, thank you so much for the reminder. Yeah, you're welcome. Okay. Okay, so we're up to the application for 8-14 State Street for the installation of light fixtures. Lucky, would you like to describe your application? Yeah, what we're looking to do is just illuminate the commercial tenant's sign and add two LED Gooseneck lights on each commercial spot. That's better. Okay, two questions, number one, the color is the antique bronze color or the black? Black. Okay, and the second question is on the, the bases of the lights will be mounted in the sign band or in the brick? About the sign band in the brick. Will the brick be cut out in order to install a box for the electrical connection? No, it'll be surface mounted. I do. Okay. And where will the feed for the electric come? It'll come from the each tenant's panel in the basement. Oh, okay, and then it'll come through? Through the bottom of the unit, and then depending on the unit, two of them have access up top, so it'll just be a little junction outside, but we're gonna paint them the color of the brick or the band, so it'll blend. Okay. Are you gonna do all the drilling and holes through the mortar joints rather than in the brick? Yes. Is there a reason you don't want to mount them in the sign band? Three quarters an inch thick and there's still brick behind it. So I do more damage to the sign band and then our thinking was in the future if another tenant comes in and their sign is 47 characters long, it'll change the whole layout. So if we went above it, then if we ever have to do any modifications we'll have access to the conduit, the wires and the lighting to relocate that to more symmetrical design. Thanks. Yep. Any other questions, comments or suggestions from committee members? Okay, if not, then I can read through the criteria. 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 and other properties in the district. That's acceptable. Yep. Existing buildings shall be recognized as a physical record of their time, place and use. Any new developments shall be differentiated from the old, 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. Yeah. And then outdoor lighting fixtures. The structural design of outdoor lighting fixtures shall be compatible with the architectural design and function of the building and compatible with the neighborhood. That's acceptable. Yeah. And based on those recommendations, do I hear a motion? Do I hear all in favor of the application? Committee members, please speak your names. Martha, yes. Eric, yes. Ben, yes. And Steve, yes. So the application is approved. Excellent, thank you all. So, lucky, we're gonna get that recommendation for him that Steve just went through. He's gonna sign it, he'll get it to our office. And then when we have that, we'll finish processing your permit application because it involves outside lighting. It'll take a little bit longer than just a straight design review because we have to make sure that we do an administrative site plan that it's mostly just about the lights. But we have to do this little report that goes along with it. But hopefully we'll get that out to you this week. Excellent, thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you very much for coming back after your emergency. We appreciate it. I'm actually in their house, so no problem. Well, good. So much time and we'll talk to her later. Thank you. Okay, thank you and good luck with your project. Does anyone else have anything to add to the meeting? If not, do I hear a motion to adjourn? Eric moves. Ben, second. All in favor of adjourn, let's speak your names. Marcia. Eric. Ben. And Steve. So meeting is adjourned. Thank you all and have a nice evening. Bye-bye. Same to you guys. Everybody have a good time. Bye. Nice. Thank you.