 All right, everyone that is staying, if I can have you be seated so that we can make sure to give an opportunity for everyone who wants to bring comments and questions up to the larger group. The first thing I want to say, because there have been a number of questions, is what's going to happen to these questions. They will be input into the computer and then OHP will respond to them and that will go onto their website. It won't happen by tomorrow, but it will happen as quickly as possible. And some of the questions that are up here are very easily answerable by the staff right now, so we thought with your permission we'll take an opportunity to do that, and that will also go up on the website. And then we will go to the public comments. Yes, sir? Sure? Yeah, a little green mark or something like that, so we know which ones were open and which ones were not. Absolutely, no problem with that. We're trying to remember, we took note while you were speaking, and there were a few that we definitely want to answer tonight, and so we're trying to find where they ended up on the line. The microphone closer. Sorry about that. So if I live on a bungalow and my neighbor tears down his bungalow and builds a multi-story mansion while systems are currently in place to protect me from my neighbor. With this sort of designation, there are city-wide sort design guidelines that would be in place as part of the design review process. There is a specific chapter in those guidelines for new construction, and in those guidelines, it does address things like scale and massing, and a lot of the bigger things that would be strict, non-conforming, more residential neighborhood. And so if you do have single-story residences on the street, there aren't design controls that would limit the height and scale of new houses being constructed. Second question. Is it necessary to go to the office for a COA, which is a certificate of appropriateness? If 99% is approved, why not use email or a streamlined process? And that's a very easy answer. We do use email. The forms are downloadable on our website. It's a PDF format. You can fill it in. You can email it to OHP at San Antonio.gov, and a planner will follow up within 24 hours if they can. If they have more questions, they'll contact you and let you know. But email is an option as well as people mail in their applications physically outside of actually coming down to the office. Can I have a minute? Yeah. Am I supposed to be too close to the mic? Okay, great. I think Corey just answered a question about staff and how you can get a hold of us and how accessible we are. I just wanted to point out there was another question. Easy accessibility to city staff should be addressed, a specific neighborhood representative. And actually, we have something set up like that. I'm not sure if you are familiar with all of our faces and our names, but we had a staff member leave us in June. And so prior to the departure, Corey and Sarah took all of our conservative stories and divided them up. They were the kind of neighborhood liaisons. Kind of, I joke around saying, you know, you guys are kind of the ear on the street and you know what people are concerned about and you know what your questions are and you're the same person and they can contact whenever they have a question. So we're going to continue that format. We'll be fully staffed pretty soon. And so you don't have someone that your neighborhood can contact anytime. It's somebody who will make an effort to distribute any kind of new information to you. So the answer is yeah, we do have neighborhood representatives. And I want to go ahead and answer another question real quick that was, can I change my complex for a single family and how to restore? Earlier we were talking about historic designation and how that is, it's part of the zoning process and it's an overlay zoning. And what that means is your base zoning is what determines the use of your property and you have it still in the room in case you have any technical questions. Tell me if I get it wrong. But your base zoning is what determines the use of the property. Single family residents, duplex, multifamily, commercial, industrial and so on. Overlay does not affect that at all. So if your base zoning from the house for you to convert your duplex into single family, then by all means go right ahead. The only thing that we would want to know about is if you're going to make changes to the outside and we just want to make sure you get the approval before you move forward. Yes, sir. That was my question. Yes, sir. So specifically, can I have two doors in the front? What design your project for you or answer all of those specific questions? And I do want to say that the majority of the applicants that come to us, they have a vision for their home. They have something in mind. And what our job is, is to help them achieve that vision through the ordinance and through the guidelines. And so to answer that question, we would ask you, what do you want to do exactly? Bring in a drawing and let's talk about it. And then we'll find a way to get that design solution to fill the guidelines so you can get approval and move on. We always look for yes. We always look for a yes. And so we look for a yes. This may be a too quick but let me read it out loud just to make sure that I'm covering it. Property use versus appearance. I.e. coffee house. Basically, that's what I was just talking about, our base zoning and overlay. So it's the base zoning that would determine its use as a restaurant or a coffee shop. And the historic designation would not affect their ability to use it. As long as the base zoning, as long as they can comply with the use that's associated to the base zoning, the historic won't change that. My next question, how much time does it take to have my project approved by OHP? As I mentioned earlier, for administrative approvals, technically we have, but we usually have a policy of returning those within 24 hours per seat. Obviously if you come down to the counter and speak to a planner in person, you will most likely leave with that approval unless there's some outstanding materials we need. The HDRC process, which is the process in place for larger projects, new construction, additions, things that require plan review in most cases. That takes a little bit longer. There's a timeline in place. The HRC meets two weeks, the first and third Wednesday in the month. So usually it's a three to four week process depending on when you get your application in. So those do take a little bit longer. But again, the administrative approvals, just the repair maintenance and smaller items, you don't have to worry about a weekend project being put on hold for that reason. Here being the month, still okay, right? One of the concerns, if the lap day is unrepairable, not able to be demolished under the historic. To answer that question, we talked about historic designation helping neighborhoods with demolitions that are happening. What that means is that there's just going to be simply a process someone would have to go through if they wanted to demolish and hop. There's language in the code that talks about loss of significance, if there's severe deterioration. There are, there's a way. There's a method that if a mom truly is beyond repair, if it really, it just needs to go. There is a process in place to allow that to happen. The way I like to look at demolition review is that in the historic districts it just causes you to pause for a moment, think about alternatives. We always say that in historic designations demolition is the last, action of last resort. So really the process will just allow you to take a moment to see if there's anything that can be salvaged or if there's something that can be done to maintain the house. If there's not, then demolition would be approved and you'd be able to move forward. You want to mention that in historic districts and this is part of the protection part of the tour to present the character is before demolition is allowed to happen before you get that demolition permit you'll have to get your replacement plans approved. So if you live next door to a house that's been approved to be demolished, you'll have to wait until now until the owner is ready to build. So you won't be sitting there staring at an empty lot with the grass overgrowing. It'll be replaced with something else that's been approved. Yes, sir. So do you have like water and is your boat always considered destroyed? Definitely, yeah. Of course. And in case someone asks the question we can ask this often. If it were taken down by fire we would not come and say, okay there's a photograph and we expect you to do the exact same. No, we wouldn't do that. We have a few questions about guidelines in general. One was related to sustainability and such as solar panels, rainwater harvesting. A lot of questions were about the guidelines for landscaping and so I'll just transfer those in one swoop. Yes, solar panels, rainwater harvesting. We never had an application for land or anything like that but there are guidelines in place and the adopted is for design guidelines for those. In most cases where solar panels are located on the rear of the property those are approved administratively. In some cases they do go to the HCRC when they're located on the front of the house. There are certain guidelines that they look for such as whether the panels are installed flush through the roof verses up on stilts or things like that but those are very often approved. Same with rainwater harvesting. There are obviously preferred locations on the house where the guidelines would recommend those be placed but it's certainly a lot and we do see it a lot in our historic districts. Landscaping. There are guidelines. There's an entire chapter for what's called side elements that includes landscaping, things like driveways, walkways, sidewalks, pavers. We are not picky about plants. Obviously San Antonio is evolving. We see more landscaping than we have seen before. Obviously historic plant pallets a lot of people have access to over time has changed. So let me tell you whether you can or cannot plan pansies that we heard. What we're more interested in are those bigger items such as replacing lawn with lava rocks or gravel mulch expanding upon driveways introducing new curb gaps to the properties. Those other items that are more permanent that do have an impact to the property so that's what the guidelines really address. And now in most instances if you're just doing maintenance maintaining your lawn, replanting flower beds, mowing the lawn that does not require a certificate of importance. In most cases, yes. We just want to make sure that it's not too close to the house or things that might cause permanent damage especially depending on the species and its mature size. So that's why we do ask that this come in. So then essentially you're concerned about the oak tree which obviously is shrubs and that sort of thing. In most cases it's administrative approval because a lot of people do bring those to us. Can you speak up? Sorry, in most cases planting shrubs and minor things like that is administrative approval. Most people know to bring those to us but in cases where somebody does work later over a weekend it's not something that we usually enforce. Unless there's a clear negative impact which sometimes it was depending on the situation. I'll be to your question because this has been a while. I just wanted to say one more thing about that. I think that the primary change that the guidelines are trying to address is that of a previous service because I think that's the concern that some of the districts have. They decide to put concrete all in the front yard and they don't want to address anymore and it's just all maybe. That's really what the landscape guidelines were designed to address. I'd actually like to go back to the question of demolitions. We said that the DSP board together had approved demolitions across the city. I don't remember if you've ever worked together when it happened but there's several times when there was properties that were due to the system neighborhood and Shannon would show up and say don't demolish this property and take it due sense but we're finding a way to save it. Even if the owner doesn't want to save it we wouldn't say it's to demolish it. I've been to the HCRC meeting and I saw a guy who had a house that was worth $130,000 to repair the home and was told by the HCRC that he could not have a financial burden compared to repairing the house and then to make it repair rather than knock it down. I also understand that if a home is demolished anyway despite not having permission there's a five-year wait before something else can be built on that block. Can you speak to me for that? That was a lot of information. Two questions really. At the point that there's a process for going through demolition and if things need to be demolished they should be. Yet I firsthand have seen that an opportunity to effect that seeing things cannot stop that. So I'm curious more about that process and if you have any details on how often it is approved versus denied that's kind of part one of the question. Part two of the question is if somebody knocks down the historic structure without permission isn't there only a five-year delay before they can build whatever they can and where should it be built? The second question, yes. And there's some other provisions that the UBC has that address to that. Yes. And then going back to BSV that's a separate process. The Building Standards Board is a project additional board that reviews dangerous premises and property maintenance cases. And that is a separate process from the story. We have demolitions within the city limits of San Antonio and so we have the opportunity to comment on those and those are very difficult cases Michael you know, those are very difficult they have extended circumstances but we try to be a resource to the board to let them know that if it's an important resource or if it's something that they should cause a moment and maybe there's some program we have that they might qualify for we ask them to give us that opportunity to try and make that happen. Sir you have a question but I think we had a question over here. The question was about the planning of the Oak Tree if that's something that could be handled maybe via email or you know is it going to be authorized? No, and the answer was yes. It's a very simple request that we can respond to almost immediately. Sir I think you had a question. I just recall referencing demolitions. I don't know which one specifically it is possible for the Building Standards Board demolition. I wanted to answer the question regarding comparison between NCD and historic. The specific wording was what is the difference interplay between conservation district and historic designation? I have people ask me all the time which is better. And I think that there are two different designations. There are two different processes NCD is the best way I can explain it. An NCD, a neighborhood decides architectural features that are important to the character of the neighborhood. So the NCD that ordinance will outline very specifically those standards and I use the word standards they outline those standards so when you come into the NCD neighborhood and correct me if I'm wrong it can come into the neighborhood you want to do some work with your application with your request the plan reviewer will make sure that you meet those standards black and white you either meet them or you don't. If you meet them you get a stamp of approval you get your permit and you can continue. If you don't well then there's a variance process that you would have to go through. Historic designation we have guidelines and so if you want to make changes in your historic on your home you come through our office you submit that application very similar to the permit process and I mentioned earlier if you're making major changes you're going to have to get a permit anyway so you would come in and you would explain the scope of work turning the application and then based on the guidelines we'll give you some feedback and we'll get you acquainted with those so as you're making your plans you know what those kind of expectations are those guidelines and so based on the guidelines we'll go through the commission and then they will take action based on the guidelines. Applications that are approved that don't that don't follow the guideline completely but I think that's the benefit of historic review is because you can make an argument you can make a case for that specific change you want to make that may not be keeping with the guidelines but you'll get that opportunity. In an NCD you don't really get that opportunity you either say yes or no if you want to do something outside of those standards then you would have to go to another board to request a variance to the code so our process you know we get to kind of work with you for that design solution with our staff and with the commission and you don't have to go to another board to get that ultimate approval that kind of answer the question okay there's more I guess not yes ma'am the question was who administers NCDs the neighborhood conservation district program is administered by planning, development services CAP is administered by the development services department yes ma'am I think what I would like to do if you don't mind if you want to give me some contact information CAP looks like she wants to say a couple of words also I don't want to speak exactly for them I know a little bit about the process like I described but the enforcement of that I'm sure code enforcement is participating in that but let's see if CAP has a little time for the NCD standards we're recently transferred from the planning and community development department which helped to create the NCD guidelines and standards with the neighborhoods to us this fiscal year there was some staff as well that does the primary review so again we're not going to hear about these changes or alterations to homes or commercial structures they have the NCD standards unless they come in for a permit a lot of times they aren't aware a neighbor calls code enforcement code enforcement comes to us and says hey this is what happened so we go out and do a review and we have the property owner submit a permit and from that permit we do our review so we utilize those standards that are illustrated in the documents that were developed through that process in creating the NCD a lot of it a lot of those standards are kind of subjective because they do some aerial views when you're looking at setbacks or things like that so we are working to help sort of define those standards in a way that puts the owners onto the property or provide that this is my setback this is how I measure my median setback or my mean setback and put that onto them so that way they provide us that information and we hold that to them because again we don't have the staff and neither did the planning and community development department we didn't have the staff to go out and do measurements on the ground so again we're just kind of refining that permit process and doing the best that we can to try to get the word out whether it's through the neighborhood associations to utilize them to pass out maybe some brochures and say hey you are in the NCD district and these are the things that we look at when you want to do some remodeling or some renovations to your home and hopefully that gets the word out to people so that way they come to us first and we're actually doing the work and having to go through this process of either requesting a variance to the Board of Adjustment to allow the work to continue or having to change out the whole thing entirely that distinction needs to be made that it's not historic district we don't also have a conservation district yeah second line student second line if you can also explain the differences in the amount of staff and the training that each of those staffs have in the NCD and the Office of Historic Reservation that's very critical the question was first I think that one of the questions that was on the board is if you were in NCD and then you become historic now are you subject to both and the answer is no that zoning change would if you decided to become historic that would take the place of the NCD and I don't there's a big change in the process I mean, people know a lot of things you need to perform at sports so if you're going young if you're going to make significant changes you'd be getting a permit anyway so yes, it's a hard fact that permits are required for a lot of work I'm sorry I guess I misunderstood the question I misunderstood the question was about how do you know how does an owner know they're in NCD or how do they know if they're in historic district and it's true many in historic districts have the brown signs but I would like for everyone to know that the best way to find out what your zoning is and if you are having to meet any kind of special requirements is to either go to the one stop and ask for the zoning of your property or if it's the Development Services website there's an interactive map where you can enter and address and they'll tell you what your zoning is and so I think that anyone especially purchasing property is not just to know what I have to do but to also know that the part that we open in historic the NCD question the difference between NCD what was said is that a lot of the consideration on either side whether it be historic hinges on that answer hinges on that question the difference between NCD and historic it was a comment it seems like we've started the public comments and questions without actually acknowledging that so that's great for participation I would like to ask the permission of the participants if you would like us to still try to continue to answer the questions that are out there or if we should open it up for public commentary at this point can I have a show of hands if who wants the answers to the questions okay great thank you everybody answer on there's a few questions on one so I'll start with the first question who sets the boundaries I assume the question is if the community is interested in becoming a historic district who sets the boundaries usually is the community who gets together and decides what that boundary is we provide background information that might help them in guiding them and selecting those boundaries for example historical boundaries for the labs we have a lot of survey information different styles of the houses so we can provide them that information so that the community kind of knows where accumulation or cluster of a certain style is and ultimately it kind of depends what it is they're wanting to preserve in their neighborhood we can provide that background information that works with the community to set those boundaries if Jim we respond to what is committed so in an application for a historic district it includes a proposed boundary the termination that the Office of Historic Preservation makes is is this proposed boundary eligible to become a historic district so the proposed boundary is set by the people who are the applicants whoever submits the initial request is not set by the Office of Historic Preservation yes ma'am the question the question was on the street where she lives there's a few homes on the block but it appeared to you that the boundaries are eliminating the other ones and keeping the one fortunately Israeli we really can't answer that question because again we did not establish the proposed boundary there's no final until city council makes the determinations city council could reduce the boundary if it ever makes it to city council city council could reduce the boundaries they could change the boundaries they could amend the boundaries and make the districts smaller or different they could not extend it because there wouldn't have been proper public notice but the determination of what would be in the initial request would not be made by the Office of Historic Preservation so I would hate to speculate and answer that question another question on the same card is the packet was not from the city why was it allowed I believe the question is if there's an application for historic designation that is not from the city why isn't it allowed oh I'm sorry it's a community meeting and we're here to share information with each other so if someone wants to share information with their neighbors 30% how does that process work and what is the whole process an application for a historic designation is submitted by someone from the community to our office and according to the UDC in that process once an application is submitted then the office would verify that there is 30% of the property owners in support of that application I think that answers the question shortly yes sir they're not votes the question was if I own six properties within the proposed boundaries do I get to show support six times and the answer is yes you can show support six times it's the percentage of properties not property owners so it's the percentage of properties how is UDC how is UDC and Rio different from the historic district UDC is an acronym that stands for the unified development code that is the city codes that govern development in the city of San Antonio everything within the city limits that includes zoning and that includes building standards and processes of that nature Rio is an acronym for river improvement overlay there's that word overlay kind of like the historic overlay there is a river improvement overlay designation out there that was designed for properties but the San Antonio river and does not apply to single Rio does not apply to single family residents is there a middle ground between historic designation and neighborhood conservation district those are the only two processes or overlays that we know of that help with preserving character of neighborhoods I don't know if there is it's not in the UDC yes you have to follow UDC or could you when you say you, you mean resident of San Antonio or employee of the city resident of San Antonio well if there is something written in the unified development code that is something that has already been adopted by the council as a whole there are provisions to do things outside of the UDC which is what we mentioned earlier in the variance process so there are cases where someone is able to do something that is outside of what the code allows it's a tough question because well when we talk about guidelines we have our historic district guidelines so this is one side of that coin we do have guidelines for all the districts in San Antonio if a neighborhood who has become historic wants to have district specific guidelines those can be created and can be adopted and added to the guidelines outside of answering the question about guidelines outside of the unified development code or codes I work in code I can't think outside of codes yes they are located on our website it's a large document it's on our website we've broken it down by chapters so if there's something specifically you're looking for you can go straight to that section and it's also a good resource in general just to learn about historic districts in town the back of the section talks about each of the individual districts and what kind of basically as well as shows the map for each one of those districts and that's one of the things that we will share and want to show so that everyone can take with that at our next meeting said this once before but I just want to reiterate as we're kind of approaching the end of the meeting that we are committed to providing a response and writing to every question including the ones that we've addressed tonight but especially the ones that we don't have time to get to tonight and we also are committed to responding to additional questions at the future meetings so this is not by any means your last opportunity it's really just the beginning of the conversation I did ask your permission to go ahead and answer some of the questions and we still I did also ask permission of the principal level mar who I want to thank for allowing us to be here this evening so I did ask permission for us to stay a little bit longer if there are any questions or concerns or comments you have not had an opportunity to make this evening I think we have a much truncated time I think this was a very good session to specifically answer the questions that you all had tonight are there others this is the comment section the question is can I repair my final signing or would I have to repair it guidelines usually recommend that those materials the existing materials are the ones that you continue to use so if you have wood siding on your garage then the guidelines would steer you towards keeping the wood siding but if you wanted to switch it out you can make that request you can certainly ask and you have the question can I add vinyl windows to go with my vinyl siding again we would ask a couple of questions you know what is the material the windows you have now are they deteriorated are they beyond repair and they need to be replaced do you want to replace them around the whole house or maybe you're just interested in doing it in the back so you know we could work with you and we can explain what the guidelines say and we can work through your request there's generally more flexibility for the rear of the property the guidelines actually do address in terms of things like additions and mystery alterations and preserving the screws facing inside of the house that doesn't mean the back of the house is outside of the reviewer and the store design guidelines are still reviewed those parts are still reviewed but there is a leniency the HCRC of the reviewer project they may consider being more lenient in cases that are not visible in the street haven't advanced the question was about are you required to paint your house a certain color or are there stringent controls about the color of paint and the answer is no we do have you come and apply for administrative certificate of appropriateness for exterior paint and the reason we do that is is that it's not a good idea to paint your house a certain color or a certain color so that's why we have this coming not because of our personal taste yes sir for the benefit of the crowd UDC code for creating historic this week is 35-605 so if anybody wants to do the research it's not a good idea it's not a good idea UDC 35-605 UDC 35-605 UDC 35-605 UDC 35-605 UDC 35-605 is the part of the unified development code that describes the process for historic designation UDC 35-605 UDC 35-605 is the part of the unified development code that describes the process for historic designation you can access that information a couple of different ways I use Munich code M-U-N-I-C-O-D-E and that allows you to view codes look in our office and be happy to make copies for you or print copies for you or we can email sections to you as well yes sir if it's not previously painted with it's exposed stone the guidelines recommend against that for a couple reasons A because it conceals the original materials but B is a maintenance issue because it causes the stone to retain moisture and that can actually damage the water and just to preface that we're talking about historic masonry so there's construction methods that have changed over the years and materials have changed over the years so sometimes the treatment for those are different and that's where this guideline comes from okay so like the face around yeah that's me historic designation mean to you and it's part two and it's design review and that next meeting will be the mexican-american unity council on commerce on west commerce yes west commerce and it's a saturday morning i believe so it's at nine a.m. on saturday yes ma'am yes we are going to we're going to put all the questions together they'll be recorded and put into a document the staff will answer the questions the questions will be put on the website also tonight is being reported by now cast and it will be available online before everyone leaves this evening though i think i would like to ask you there is a comment survey document on the table if you would please fill that out to help evaluate the value of the meeting we need to know how we can improve this so we can improve communication and really listen to you so that would be very helpful and if you have any specifics in terms of recommendations for improving the meeting then we're happy to listen to those did this meeting help to clarify some things did it work for you thank you very much for taking your precious time this evening to come and improve communication and helpfully improve our neighborhoods thank you very much everybody just a reminder the next two meetings that information goes and locations are on our website www.santonium.gov www.santonium.gov www.santonium.gov and we will be mailing out postcards as well and please use our website as a resource and call our office thank you very much