2008-05-27 Historical Commission Minutes

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RECE -D 7 Reading. Historical Commission Meeting Minutes 2008 Meeting called to order at 7:40 pm at the Reading Senior Center. - 8 P 3- 01 Commission Members in attendance included: Z00$ A~ _ Virginia Adams Sharlene Reynolds Santo, Secretary Mark Cardono Karen Herrick Kathy Greenfield, Chair Susan Patterson Roberta Sullivan, Treasurer Minutes: • Pierce Organ - Brian Salazar of Entegra Development & Investment, LLC has contacted the Commission regarding his interest in the Pierce Organ Factory Property that his company is considering purchasing. Entegra does green and LEED certified construction and is interested in learning the Commission vision for the property. He requested a meeting with the Commission to discuss this. The group agreed on a June 6d' meeting at 1 pm. Mr. Salazar is looking to see where there is compromise in the restoration process. The Commission spoke of a goal of adaptive reuse and whether the current zoning designation requires that the property be used only for residential or if it is grandfathered commercial as long as it is still a commercial piece of property. Kathy will contact Brian Salazar to confirm the meeting. • SidewalkPlaaues - Virginia had samples of granite that would cost $471.50 each (including the plaque and letters painted black). Kathy will contact the town with these numbers. _ • Library Windows - The Commission discussed a letter to be sent in response to a resent letter received from the town asking for our input. Roberta has observed that bark mulch has been put around the Town hall in such a way that it covers part of the basement windows which could cause the windows to deteriorate. With this in mind the Library should be more aware of their windows and strive to keep them free of anything that could cause damage. Kathy will write a letter to the maintenance supervisor and Peter regarding the windows. • Friends & Family Day - June 21 " 11 am- 4 pm. In preparation for these events the following handouts have been gathered: Researching the age of your your house, Residing, Technical papers on restoration, List of restoration related websites along with a copy of the Town of Reading's Historical and Architectural Inventory and The Commissions Mission statement. Karen plans to have a slide show available showing a sampling of the towns inventoried properties. • Smart Growth 40R - Per Kathy at a recent DRT meeting there is currently to 40R overlay district for the down town area, although one passed last December for the Addison Wesley area. Consultants presented ideas on how the down town area could look. The proposals could be as high as 4 stories. Kathy spoke about the Commissions concerns and let them know that we are considering maybe 30 additional structures. The next step is the CPDC Selectman's meeting scheduled for next Monday June 2"d. Prompted by a question from Sue the Commission discussed the town's benefit of approving this concept; which is affordable housing, greater use of public transportation and improving the town's tax base. Kathy will attend the next meeting and a suggestion was made to begin researching the higher priority properties. Virginia questioned the strategy of dealing with the buildings or if the Commissions purpose should be to quite the 40R process not avoid it. We need constant presence at meetings. Virginia asked if we should ask to decrease the 4011 area.