Good morning.

We will call today's historic preservation commission meeting to order.

We'll start with roll call.

I always forget that Chair Laramie.

Here.

Vice Chair Levine?

Here.

Commissioner Stodle.

Present.

Commissioner Hodgkiss.

Excused.

Commissioner Sirfas?

Commissioner Cosgrove?

Excused.

Commissioner Palacios.

Commissioner Moody, excused.

Commissioner Purdue?

Here.

Commissioner Grimmer.

Here.

Commissioner Harper?

Here.

Thank you.

We do have a quorum of six.

Okay.

Item number two is our announcement regarding compliance with open meeting law.

Are we in compliance?

Yes, we are in compliance.

Great.

Item number three is public comment.

Comment during this portion of the agenda must be limited to matters on the agenda for action.

If you wish to be heard, please come forward and give your name for the record.

The amount of discussion as well as the amount of time any single speaker is allowed may be limited.

Do we have any members of the public wishing to come forward at this time?

Seeing none, we will move on to item four for possible action to approve the final minutes by reference of the regular meeting of January 28th, 2026.

Do we have any comments on our last month's meeting minutes?

Seeing no comments, I would look for a motion to approve.

All right, great.

We have a motion to approve all those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed.

Commissioner Grimmer, is that a yes?

Aye.

Thank you.

Okay, that motion is approved with the chair also voting in favor.

Item number five two six-0066-HPC 1.

Discussion for possible action regarding approval of the final historical report for Floyd Lamb Park at Thule Springs, located at 9200 Thule Springs Road in Ward 6.

Dr.

Siebart.

But she is watching and listening on uh via our website.

So uh we did have the two rounds of the drafts for this uh product.

Everybody was given the opportunity to provide their feedback and edits if they so requested, though all of those were completed, and this is the final report.

And if there are any questions, um happy to answer them.

And if I can't answer them, then I'll get with uh Zoanne later.

Great.

Do we have any questions or additional comments?

I have a question.

On the uh regarding the recommendations on page 94, there's two sets of recommendations.

One is to amend the the current uh national register of historic places that was done, I think in 1968.

It's really outdated, and uh there's clearly a number of opportunities for improvement.

Uh the second recommendation uh deals with uh placing the and I'll pull pull it up so I'm have the specific wording, it's on page 94.

There's two specific recommendations.

The last one it deals with the existing signs that are uh placed throughout the uh uh the the park.

Um a recent visit by some of the city staff uh realized that uh some of those that were directly in the sun had just completely be uh come uh not readable.

Uh those that were not pointed that way were still readable.

So the the question I have is is and we can deal dig a little bit deeper on the signs, but how do we handle the two recommendations?

What's the process to do that?

If we're approving this document today, are we also approving the recommendations or is it just the documents and then we'd take up the the recommendations at another meeting?

Saber for the record.

So um to answer your question, you're just approving uh the report, not recommendations.

Okay.

The recommendations are part of the report.

Um, but what you would do is um during our future agenda items, ask for the amended national register, and we're already working on putting that together.

Um, also for the information signs, I'm already in um conversations with Parks and Rec and Public Works so that we can get quotes on how to um replace those signs.

And soon as we have that information, we'll bring it before uh the board.

So I had a specific question on the sign.

Should I uh uh the sign to me has three elements one is is we gotta fix them, the ones that are we can't read.

The second one is there's some inaccuracies, we'll clean that up.

And the third one is there may be an opportunity for some new signs that that we haven't uh uh that are not up that would show a historic place.

What would be the proper venue to bring those things up?

So for the record, so yes, uh I am going over all the signs, cross-referencing to our report, and making sure that all the information on the signs is accurate.

We have the majority of the original photos.

Um, and if when we have a well, we can have a discussion item about the signs before we do an action item in case that there is the idea to add more signs to what is already existing.

Great, thank you.

Do we have any other questions or comments from the commission?

If not, I would like to make a motion to approve.

We have a motion to approve.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed that motion carries with the chair also voting in favor.

This is a fantastic report.

This is really uh uh something that will stand the test of time.

So great job by the uh the team that uh that put this together.

Thank you.

Um thank you.

That I have fully agree.

Also great report.

Um item number six is 26-0067-HPC one.

A report by staff from the community development department regarding building codes as they relate to historic buildings and preservation efforts.

All right, good afternoon, madam chair, commissioners.

For the record, Michael Cunningham, Deputy Community Development Director and Building Official for the City of Las Vegas.

Um, so today the presentation I have for you is going to be going over one of our adopted codes, which is the existing building code.

Um, and as the name applies, it addresses all the existing building codes, but there's some very specific requirements in there specific to historic buildings.

Um, we're gonna go through a few of those just to give you guys an idea of how the existing building code would address those, and then I'll be able to answer any questions at the end.

Um, so to start off, there's a lot of text on these slides, but I didn't want to paraphrase the written text in the code, so I just put it all on there and you guys can review it as you're at your leisure.

Um, but just to summarize at the beginning of every chapter in the in all the codes, there's a an about statement.

What that statement's intended for is to give us jurisdictions, the code users, engineers, architects, kind of what the scoping of that chapter is to kind of give us guidance to make sure we're applying it correctly.

And the existing building code, chapter 12 is the chapter that's focused on historic buildings.

And the one thing I wanted to point out that's of um importance on this one is in order to use this chapter, the building does have to be on one of the approved registries.

So it's either got to be a federal state or a local um registry that it's listed on.

We have had folks try to use this chapter, and it's not an actual historic building, and so we haven't been able to.

Um, so it does need to be listed in order to um use this chapter.

First two sections I kind of want to talk about section 1202, which is repairs.

So traditionally in the building code, the the standard responses if you touch it, you bring it up to code.

Um in this chapter, it gives us the leniency that when you're repairing a historic building, you can use light for like material from what was there previously.

Um and you can also use um the same method of construction.

So the whole idea of this chapter is to limit the impacts to the historic buildings, but still try to get some some level of compliance and make sure that the buildings aren't unsafe.

But when you are doing a repair, we are allowed to use kind of the older materials to try to help keep that historic character of the building.

The second piece is the means of ingress means of egress.

That's how you exit out of the out of the buildings, whether it's residential or commercial.

Typically, again, in a regular building, if you're modifying, say a back corner of a building, you would then have to get a means of egress all the way through that building out to the front, and you would have to fix anything along that path.

This section allows us not to modify that means of egress if it doesn't meet today's codes.

Again, trying to limit the amount of impact that are on some of these historic buildings.

So a lot of these you would see, we would sit down, we'd meet with the developers, we'd meet with the architects and engineers and make sure there's nothing that's unsafe in the building.

Um but these sections give us the leniency to be able to keep it intact the way it is it is today while still allowing the building to be remodeled or rehabbed or repurposed.

Next two sections I want to talk about was one hour fire rated assemblies.

Now, this one's probably I don't know if it was a common method of construction in our part of uh the country back in the day, but one hour rated assembly.

So a lot of buildings, especially commercial, you get into scenarios where when you start to modify it, you have to put in a one-hour rated assembly, which just gives some time between two uses to protect it in the case of a fire.

Uh this allows us not to require um one-hour rated assemblies if the building used the old wooden lath and plaster type walls.

Um I think it was more common back east, but there might be some buildings here that had it.

Um and if it is a historic building, we'd be able to utilize this section to not have them modify that wall.

Um, the other one, kind of an example.

Uh, Dr.

C.

Brandt had given me this picture.

I think it's a house out in the Beverly Green area.

Um, natural light, a big thing on remodels and stuff.

Once you start touching a room, you do have to comply with natural light and natural ventilation requirements in the building code.

Again, this section allows us to make the determination that if to get natural light, which most likely is going to be adding openings and windows into walls, um, would uh lead to the loss of the historic character of the building, that we do not need to need need to add those additional windows or openings, and that the um building would be deemed to comply with the current building code.

And so, as this example, if you look at that entryway, if they were doing a remodel or something in there, there's a chance that room inside might not meet the natural light requirements, but we don't want them to start poking in a bunch of windows and stuff in that front facade.

Um, so we would be able to use this section to tell them that nope, you don't need to add anything.

The natural light that's there today is sufficient.

And we just got a couple more.

So this one is we're starting to get into the structural requirements.

So structural provisions are one of the things where the code does not tend to give a lot of leniency because if there's structural issues, usually it's a big life safety issue.

But there still are some.

Um, so the first one, 1205, which is the general uh structural provisions.

There's two exceptions in there that I wanted to highlight.

One of them, the first one, um, is that we're allowed to use existing floor and live loads that were in place at the time the building was originally built.

As you can imagine, loading on structural diaphragms and stuff has changed over the years, and so these older buildings most likely can't comply with today's code.

But what the code, what the existing building code in this chapter allows us to do is work with the operator to just come up with some limits to try to make sure that we're not gonna overload those floors based on what the loads were back in the day.

So instead of making them replace an entire diaphragm or tear out an entire floor, we can work with them to come up with some methods just to make sure the loading on it doesn't exceed what it was originally designed for versus bringing it up to um today's code.

Um and then exception two is kind of back in line with the repairs.

So if there's any damage to an existing structure, this allows us to return it back to its pre-damaged condition without additional work.

Again, outside of this chapter, if something's damaged when you repair it, you have to bring it up to today's code.

Um, but again, this chapter is intended to try to maintain that historic um nature of these buildings.

And the next one, we don't get it a lot, but we do have a pretty famous building that was relocated, the LaConcha building, the Lakancha Motel.

Um, so what this tells us is the foundation still has to be the design to today's code because it would be a new foundation wherever you'd relocate that building, but it makes it super clear that the building itself will still remain as a historic building, and so all the provisions of this chapter apply.

I personally never would say a historic building being relocated as a new building, but there are building officials out there that might make that determination.

Um, and so this section just makes it super clear that that the case is um the building would still stay historic even if you move it.

And then the last two sections I wanted to cover were about accessibility.

Um, this mainly is gonna apply to the commercial buildings, and then if someone did want to convert one of their residential houses into a museum or something, um, accessibility kicks in on these older structures, accessibility is very hard to meet.

Um, things were not uh required to be built to the same standards they were today.

Um so the two sections I wanted to talk about are just the accessible means of egress.

So this is the mob museum building downtown.

Um you can imagine if we had to require an accessible means of ingress to that front entry where all those stairs, you would end up with a massive ramp in the front, it would kind of change the whole character of the front of that building.

So what they actually have, and you can't even really tell, but there is a chair lift that's kind of off to the left in the picture just by the address.

Um chairless are allowed in the building code, but they're very limited use.

Um so for small stages, things like that, you can use a chair lift.

You can't use it for your main point of egress in and out of the building.

But again, because this was a historic building, it's allowed.

Uh the mall museum also they have a ramp in the back too for accessibility.

Um, so it gives us again just different ways to work within the the building um to try to maintain its uh character.

Um and then section 306 is very similar, just stating that the um when an entrance cannot be made accessible, there just has to be some signage there so that people can get assistance if they are if they're gonna end up visiting the building.

And those are just a few of the highlights that I I wanted to cover.

There's a lot more in those chapters.

Um, there's a few different sections.

These are the ones I could see that I would see that I thought would be most impactful, and that might actually come to us from a permitting standpoint.

So I just wanted to highlight those.

Um, it's also covered in the residential code.

They have a chapter on historic buildings that's very similar.

Um, and so with that, I can answer any questions.

Uh Jack Levine for the record.

Um, so this applies is this just applying to individual buildings, or does it blanketly apply to every home in like one of our districts?

The uh Janice Park or Beverly Green or uh the is it just blanket every house in the district now has these exceptions to the code?

So it covers any building that's on a registry.

So uh the way I would interpret it, if if the neighborhood is a historic neighborhood, then I would consider the structures within that neighborhood as historic, so then these would apply um to those homes as well.

Okay.

Um I would suggest that maybe uh that got incorporated into the guidelines that uh that I don't even know where they are for the this the revised guidelines for the various districts, okay, that uh that those get mentioned.

Okay.

For the record, I can answer that question for you.

So, first of all, in the backup, there's a one-pager that everybody um should have looked at, and it has links to all of those.

And as soon as this meeting is over, we will add that to our website, and our revised guidelines are on our website.

Um so we'll make sure we that this is uh incorporated in there as well.

I wasn't implying that we didn't have them, I just didn't remember that we did.

Oh, no, yeah, it's fine.

They're on our website.

Question.

Uh uh, two two questions, and and really uh first of all, thank you.

You're welcome.

Uh second of all, the the links to the uh international code are great, except that you can't download it.

Uh you're not allowed to unless you want to pay the the monthly uh 78 dollars.

Uh uh so it was a it was you can read it, it's right there in front of you.

The fonts a little small, I think for the particular reason.

But are we is there a way that uh uh I mean I finally went and started copying and pasting and and it just didn't seem to be the right way to go.

But is is if we put these links on there, um it's gonna ask them, I guess if the people want to uh want to print them or download them, that they're gonna have to pay for it.

So I don't know if there's a way that the city can provide that service without being being cumbersome.

So uh just a comment.

Okay.

Uh the the one thing that you you you referenced though is on 20 uh uh 2005.1 general.

Um it does say that the uh regardless of the level of damage, structural structural repair shall be permitted to return the building to its pre-damaged condition without additional work.

That sounds like it's saying pre-damage condition, pre-particular code.

So this sounds like it it they can repair it, but it can go back to whatever the code was at that particular time.

Yeah, yeah, and that is the intent.

So if there is damage in the historic structure for whatever reason, they can repair it, but they would repair it back to whatever code was in effect at the time that it was damaged or that it was built.

Um and so it wouldn't require, you know, hopefully it wouldn't require any increase in structural members or anything like that to try to maintain uh the historical nature of the building.

Yeah, I I at first read it said that it can, meaning the person wants to uh bring it up to code, they can, but the word is shall, so that was an interesting choice uh for me.

So but if we can make it easy for people to to read the international code and whatever the link is, that would be great.

Yeah, and on that one, so unfortunately, because we have the same issue just on our our regular building code.

So because they are published books and there's copyright laws and all that we can give, and all of them do provide free access to to read them.

Um but yeah, if you want to start copying and pasting them or distributing them, then yeah, they would have to pay for the license.

Um but the idea was to give them access to it so they could go on there and read them.

Um, and then if they wanted to, they could kind of jot down some of the code information from them, or if they're a design professional, they may have access to them already.

Well, with with my age, I like to copy and print and put it in a binder so I can just pull it up.

So I don't uh uh I will just have to live with reality then.

Yeah, you can buy one there for sale.

Pretty expensive.

78 dollars a month was one of the years.

That was pretty heavy.

Thank you.

Yep, you're welcome.

Um, Commissioner Laramie, I also have just a couple questions.

Um so the first one is regarding the one sheet, and I'm not sure if this is a question for you, Mike or Dr.

Crant, but how do we distribute this one sheet?

How is it currently being used?

Uh Crant for the record, it's well, so we just created this for this report.

Okay, and so like I said, we will put it on the website, and what the typical procedure is when somebody calls us and says, I want information about historic buildings, we guide them to our website, and it has all the information that they want there.

Gotcha.

Okay.

Um that's that's great, because I was gonna suggest that we work this into some of our materials that we've been distributing to the um historic districts as well.

Um, so if we can just include this one sheet when when folks ask for that information.

Um, and then my other question is um on adaptive reuse.

So I know you said that this chapter only applies to buildings that are on a register.

Are there any similar chapters for adaptive reuse of buildings?

Uh yes, uh, for the record, Mike uh Cunningham again.

Um so the existing building code is intended to do exactly that.

So it's supposed to address any um existing building and what it it has outside of this chapter, it has triggers.

So, like if you're doing a small remodel, there's a section on just remodels and repairs.

If you're doing an alteration level one, which is essentially painting and fish finishing and some minor reconfiguration, there's very limited things you have to do.

Um, then it goes alteration level two.

If you get up to 50% of the building that you're reconfiguring, you have more code requirements.

And then if you get to level three, that's doing more than 50%, you got a lot of stuff you have to do there.

So the the existing building codes broken down that way.

Um essentially what it's trying to do is on these existing buildings, just take small bites at the apple.

Like when you're in there and you're in a certain area, now's the time to address it if there's a code issue.

And so we just want you to work on those small areas.

Um, the ones that trigger the biggest thing is the alteration level three and then the change of occupancy.

So if it goes from a B, which is like a business office, to like an assembly use, um, the existing building code does trigger a lot of uh usage.

So those adaptive reuse buildings is that's what they and end up running into.

Um, but that existing building code still does have some leniencies for them in those scenarios.

I see.

Okay.

So this is the code that would govern that, and then for new builds, there's a separate code that they refer to.

Yeah, correct.

And this one is an optional code, just as as an FYI.

So we try to let people know about this.

This code.

This book was developed for this intended purpose to try to help these existing buildings.

Um a lot of people still don't know that it's around, and so they'll do a submittal and they'll just reference the the base building code, and we'll usually tell them, hey, look, if you go over and look at the existing building code, you guys are gonna get a little bit of help in these scenarios.

Um, and so it is something that it's still a relatively new book in the in the sense of building codes, um, because it used to just be a small chapter within the base code.

Um, but it is uh is definitely a useful code for everyone on existing buildings.

Okay, well, that was all great information.

Another question.

I stole it off of the record.

One last question.

It you you mentioned the national register, the state register, and the and the city register, and and probably historic uh districts uh because they're on the national register and so forth.

And I'm wondering whether or not that would uh buildings or or a home within that would fall into that category.

Let me go back and look real quick.

So the uh I thought the way it was worded, so it does give some leniencies, and this is where we would most likely work with Dr.

C brand if if those conservation districts are of historical significance and we're trying to conserve them.

In my opinion, we would have the interpretation that those would fall under this.

Um it does give us kind of the the gray area where we can include things kind of outside of the traditional registries.

Um if that's something if you guys are working on a conservation district and you would like this section to kind of apply to that area, it would just be something I could work with Dr.

C Brand on and make sure our staff knows that we would accept a registry, a historical district or a conservation district.

I just wonder if they're very happy with that answer.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Are there any other questions or comments from the commission?

Okay, well, thank you again.

I think we all really appreciated learning this piece that was kind of hidden to us.

All right, you're welcome.

Thank you.

Um, item number seven, two six-006 eight HPC one.

A discussion regarding the National Alliance of Preservation Commission or NAPC's assistance and mentoring program, which are is the camp training that we discussed very briefly at our last session.

So, Dr.

Siebert.

Oh, sorry about that.

Crun for the record.

So, yes, we this was brought up at our last meeting about having a camp training, and the thought was to provide everybody this information.

Hopefully, everybody was able to look it over and today have a discussion about what everybody would like to do and what their preferred courses are, and then once we have that, then we can have a vote at our next meeting as far as which way we'll go.

Um, just to go through some of these, um, why preserve an introduction to historic preservation?

Um, uh most of us know what that is, but if we do have new members, and if this is something that uh, or if you want a refresher, we could look at that.

Um, highly recommended highlights here.

They are not what we're recommended.

This is highly recommended within the camp um document itself, the legal bases and the meeting procedures, which uh both are very important um to make sure that we are following open meeting law requirements to make sure we are within the legal um structure of how we are required to operate.

We also have the design review section.

Uh remember the we did have in 2022 the guidelines for design.

I'm sorry, creating updating the local design guidelines is which how we actually ended up with our current updated Jonas Park and Beverly Green um design guidelines.

But you see that there are other um design review sections within this is including the alternative materials, uh in fill, um, things that if we're interested in pursuing more information about those planning and policy tools, um enforcement and violations uh could be interesting, but we could also um bring in one of our code enforcement officers to also discuss that.

Um, and we can do a lot of follow-up with some of our in-house staff after we do these camp trainings as well, if there's more specific questions to Las Vegas.

Um, as there also we have, I mean, identifying and designing historic resources, um, how to do a preservation plan, those could be helpful engagement and emerging topics, community engagement, um, which is something we try and do and we do struggle with because we just do not have the interest within the community to attend our meetings.

That could perhaps reveal some tricks that we're not using right now that we could get more people to actually attend our meetings, um, then uh especially topics they also offer, and as far as um as you can read there, some of the well, we already have our uh demolition policy, um, reading our architectural drawings.

Uh, that could be helpful when um we do have projects such as the Mob Museum, which is looking at their um addition, and when they do submit plans um and architectural drawings, I'm not sure if everybody here knows how to read those, it could be a helpful class.

Uh 106 review.

Um, again, I'm not sure that everybody here is familiar with what that entails.

That could also be um very helpful.

And uh Chair Glaramy's conservation districts is on there.

And once we decide what everybody collectively would like to do, the pricing, and again, we'll do this for action item next time is how many topics that we would uh like to have.

And there you see the pricing.

For some reason, they don't offer three or five topics, not sure why, uh, but it just is one, two, four, or six topics as far as the cost, these are usually up to 30 attendants, uh, which obviously we would not exceed that.

So we might open this up to some of our our in-house planners that could benefit from this, and perhaps other outside entities.

And so today, I'm just happy to take feedback to hear what everybody has to say and your suggestions.

Great.

Do we have any um questions or comments from the commission?

Um I think these are fantastic, and I know from going to the on-site um organizations, I really really learned a lot.

And I think the problem is gonna be that most of these are going to be beneficial for all of us at some level, and so I don't know quite how to you know determine it.

I certainly look at the ones that are highly recommended.

But the one I was really interested in conservation districts, which was one of the um specialty topics, and I don't know if we're also trying to decide um do we have budget for six topics, and do we have people that are willing to commit to what that means?

Um but I the only thing that I did not see among the um listings, um, and maybe it's not an issue particularly, but when when I've gone to the different um national association meetings, I go to the the courses on building materials and looking for things about sustainability and historic preservation, but they really do have a temperate weather bias, and so if there's a way to find somebody in that maybe an internal person that can talk about um building materials sustainability and um a hot arid environment that might be beneficial for us to have some knowledge of that's very uh very helpful.

I was hoping with uh to get a little bit more details with some of these topics uh so if I understand correctly that we could bring somebody in and they would cover six topics or five topics or whatever number of topics that we selected out of this list.

Yes, correct.

Um, and so that these would be virtual in the prices that you we have here, and to answer um Hollis's question, yes, we do have the budget for this.

Um we would do uh the six topics, and then they would have three trainers that would do probably um it's a whole day training.

We'll probably do you know two topics each, and everybody would have the opportunity to actually watch, so we would also need to know people's availability for days and times of when we could do this, but it should also be um when we sign up for this, and correct me if I'm wrong here, that these would be uh available later.

Yeah, so they should be available later.

So if you say you have to work and you're not able to join the meeting at noon, you would be provided a link that you could watch it later.

I mean, you couldn't ask your questions during that time, but um you could at least benefit from watching it.

Did you get a sense?

One that I couldn't find any for more information is is under the engagement and emerging topics, resources of the recent past.

Yeah, I'm not honestly sure what that is unless it's talking about um obviously structures or buildings that are no longer in existence of how to address that.

I I'm on I don't know.

I don't know the answer to that.

And I went through they're all real interesting uh uh and would be beneficial, I think.

But we're we're we need to pick.

Uh well, we don't have so everybody knows what they want today, just let us know.

If not, um to Teresa will send out um a what is it called a questionnaire, and then you can click which ones that everybody wants, and then what we'll do is just by majority rules of whoever whichever class is or course is checked the most, then we would do those courses.

And of course, I mean we will bring this back to the commission to make sure that everybody is able to gain the knowledge they want from these courses.

And and this isn't really relegated to a one-off.

I mean, they offer this every all the time.

So if we want to actually start a program that says we want to do these camp trainings, and we'll first we'll do these and these three, then we'll do these six, or however we want to do that.

We could also look at that.

Are you recommending uh virtual over in-person?

Yeah.

It virtual is just easier for everybody, and it's obviously less less money because if we're going to be doing in person that when we would have to get everybody, either the trainers here or the trainers to um maybe Carson City, I don't I don't know.

Um, but it it is it is much more cost effective, and I think we would get a bigger group of uh participants if we did it virtually.

Uh this is not a disagreement, but it the times that we have done this before, the in-person uh seem really to have a great deal of benefit for bringing the historic preservation commission together into a room.

Plus, we were also able to bring other members of the city staff uh into that, and there was lots of dialogue uh uh between the camp folks, the historic preservation commission as as well as the city.

And it was more we we left with a better agreement and a better understanding.

I'm not sure uh and agree with you with the virtual or the benefits of that, but I I'm not sure that I would completely rule out uh uh in-person training at this juncture and and make it a foregone conclusion, we're only gonna do virtual.

Well, Stephen for the record, so just so um I can answer as far as the cost difference.

So for example, uh six topics with three trainers for virtual training is five thousand five hundred, six topics with three trainers for in-person training is nine thousand.

And if everybody wants to do in person, we can do that as well.

I mean, we do have funding.

Um but everybody should we'll we'll make that part of the questionnaire of which people prefer.

Sure.

Thank you.

Uh Chairman, if I may, uh we would just remember that the open meeting law does say if we're gonna if we're not gonna post this and have it available for the public, then um you can listen, we can ask questions, we can get feedback, but we can't talk about things that are specifically relevant to what it is you do on a on a week or a month-by-month basis.

Virtual or in person, both.

Okay.

Yeah, we can't we can't do it unless we post, we can't deliberate about topics that people might want to hear about this commission speak.

And so if we're at the training and we decide not to post, um the law says very clearly that we can all get together in a group without posting, we just can't start deliberating on topics that are specific to uh items before the commission.

So, you know, if we're going through whatever one of these we have or topics we have, you know, standards and guidelines for design review.

Um if we're talking about that generally and asking questions generally, that's perfectly okay.

Um the minute we start talking, we pull out our design guidelines and start asking the the the presenter specific questions about this and why can't we do that and should we do this?

Then you get the black health low, you know, lawyer kind of raising his hand saying, hey guys, let's let's let's keep this general.

Um so it's just uh when you're thinking about uh the benefit of being able to have a discussion, the discussion is fine as long as general, just not specific to things we do on a month-to-month basis.

Because uh I think it's Dr.

Green or Dr.

Green, excuse me.

Dr.

C.

Brand mentioned at the beginning the attendance of these posted meetings is is not high, so that doesn't seem to be a uh uh uh a roadblock to uh uh uh to do that.

So I I appreciate it that we need to post it, and because it would there's a real benefit of having the commission talk amongst themselves so we have any confusion, or at least we're on the same on on the same page.

So the benefit of posting virtual or in person, I think is we should do that no matter what.

Thank you.

Thanks.

And then I would just add that once you post it, we can't control how many people will show up.

And so if we have 40 members of the public show up, they might charge us for that.

I don't know that to be the case, but we'd have to find out.

Well, no, so see, but for the record, it's they would charge us more if we have more people.

Yeah.

And you would get more people who was virtual.

You'd get lots and lots of people as opposed to people showing up.

So anyway, but that's that's something for further discussion.

Oh, let me get with you offline on that.

Um Jack Levine for the record.

If if we're bringing people in to do the camp, uh is there additional costs besides this fee?

This is a fee for the for the actual camp.

But uh, would we have to put them up in hotels?

We gotta have transportation costs, food costs.

I I honestly don't know if that this entire cost I ca is covers travel.

Um, but if we bring trainers in, yes, we would have to house them and give them a per diem and um pay them for their time, yes.

Okay, but we'll we'll clarify that.

All right.

Um 2022, uh that was right in the COVID year.

Is that something did we do that virtually or was that yes, we did that?

That was a virtual one.

Okay, the one we did before that, which I I uh I mean me and Bob are probably the only two left on the panel on the commission that might have been here for that.

It was a great experience, okay.

And I think we got I got way more out of a live for live with somebody to actually have a conversation with and you know a Zoom presentation, and you never get called on and nobody knows you're there, and you know, and you're doing the dishes while you're doing it, and well, hopefully you're not doing your dishes.

Well, I you know, but you don't have you know how Zoom training is, you know, even Colbert made a joke about it the other night.

Okay, so um uh you know, the unlearn no no learning on Zoom.

But uh so anyway, I'm in favor of of uh in person.

Okay.

All right, I'll stay my piece.

Other comments, uh Commissioner Harper for the record.

Uh under the the sort of the the list it gives for six topics three trainers, it does say travel uh trainer travel and honorarium are included.

Oh, okay, there you go.

See, you read it further than I did.

Yeah.

Um yeah, though I participated last uh last year as uh as a baby commissioner, I participated in a couple of NAPC uh virtual uh trainings, and I thought they were really fantastic and would look forward to doing it in person.

Okay.

Thanks.

Um I I'll also add that I I did have the opportunity to attend the one I think in 2017 or 2018 as a member of the public.

Um and that I agree, I think it was really great um in person.

I think it's a good idea on the questionnaire as you mentioned to kind of put that option, and as Commissioner Um Hollis mentioned, um, you know, maybe also survey the amount of time people are our commissioners can give to a training like this, whether it's a half day, a full day, that can help us decide how many topics we might want to do for our first go-around.

Um, and I I also encourage as somebody who had the opportunity to attend when I was working for a nonprofit.

Um, I think opening it up to some of our other partner op um organizations is a really good idea because at the end of the day we can't do it all on the commission.

We're gonna need help from our community, um, and we want these them to understand these topics too.

Um, so I think we can think through, you know, who might be some appropriate um organizations and folks to reach out to.

Um, and in my view, you know, posting it and making it open to the public um just brings that many more people along with us and gets them that education too.

So I would advocate for posting it as well.

Um I know these are all decisions that we're gonna work through on a questionnaire and make at a future meeting.

Um so just kind of putting those comments down.

So it sounds like our next steps are to send out that questionnaire and then we'll make decisions um in another upcoming meeting in the next month or two.

Yeah, well, not next month.

Uh it's because the again our lead time to submit our agendas, we're not gonna make that, but this could be definitely on April or May.

Okay.

Jack Levine again for the record.

Uh, but there's no like we have to this is happening in June or this is happening in August or whatever.

We can pick a date and all that on top of it, on top of deciding what we want to do, we can decide when we want to do it.

We'll have to coordinate with the camp trainers to find out obviously when they're available as well.

So, but yes, we can put that on the questionnaire as well.

Okay, Chairman, just remember with the questionnaire.

We'd like you to answer to us and not pass around amongst each other.

There's something called walking quorum.

I know I'm just being this, I'm just keeping repeating these open meeting law things.

But Jack, if you if you had questions of two others and two others then had questions of two others, and now we had a quorum, now we're having a ver now, we're having uh a pseudo meeting.

So just I'm just okay, good.

So just uh do me a favor.

Uh if you have questions, just ask the just ask us.

Uh we'll get back to you on a on a properly originalized meeting.

Just so we're clear, you know, we've we've not had a formal open meeting rule presentation in decades.

Uh and so uh the the fact is is I think rather than it would be great if we could have like we just had with the uh uh the building code if we could just really have an understanding of and we can all go into the NRS and we can all read the the uh uh the open meeting law, uh, but it does not prohibit me from calling Jack or Michelle or even both of them.

There's two of them.

Uh now if they in turn say Bob just called us and and they spread it to somebody else, then we get into what what you're just saying.

But I don't think we need to sit here and say that we can't talk to each other.

Chairman, uh let me just repeat what I said.

I didn't say that at all.

Right.

I what I said was let's just be careful the walking quorum.

Yes, if if if you want to have a conversation with another member, great.

What I'm saying is, you know, I'm here to suggest to you things to look out for.

I'm your legal counsel.

Right.

Um, you know, I don't want someone that might be in the audience to send an email to the attorney general saying here's an issue that wasn't addressed ever by the attorney's office for this board.

This is what I think happened.

I'm just I'm just here to make suggestions and to help you guys out.

No, I can't say I appreciate that.

The building code presentation was was excellent.

And and so if we could have the same thing, and I will say this without getting into any argument or discussion over the last few years, the advice from the city attorney's office here in Las Vegas and the various is don't talk to anybody.

It is that it is that draconian, and that's I can't say crap, can I?

That's just not the we we can talk to each other, we just can't do what you suggested.

So thank you for listening to my output burst.

Thank you.

Certainly, sir.

Well, and I know we also have some new members on the commission, so I do think in looking at some of the recommended courses that the um meeting procedures might be a beneficial one for us for sure.

Excellent.

Um, and then when we get to the subject of future agenda topics, we could also request um an open meeting law presentation.

Any other comments on the camp topic for now?

Okay.

Well, we will move on to item eight, which is a report by the community development department regarding directors' updates.

Um good afternoon for the record, Mike Cunningham.

So I don't have any um specific updates.

I did just want to say on the record, I wanted to thank Seth for for giving me the opportunity to be a part of this commission.

Um I'm born and raised in in Vegas, and without even realizing it, I'm starting to become more intrigued and and involved and and interested in the in the history of our city, and so um just glad to be a part of it and I and I look forward to to working with everybody.

Great, thanks, Mike.

And for those who may have not been here at our last meeting, um Seth did transition away from being our um director representative, and we now have Mike, our building official.

Um and I think that's gonna be really um great for us, um, as I know we have a lot of code enforcement um violations and questions that often come up.

Um, and so hopefully having this kind of new perspective um and information can really help us move forward and understand some of those issues better on the commission.

Ums or questions for our director while he's here okay.

We will go on to agenda item 10, 26-0069-hpc 1.

A report by the community development department regarding historic and archaeological resources in local media.

Excuse me, Chair.

I think we missed number nine.

Project update list.

Oh, I'm sorry, you're correct.

Item number nine, a report by the community development department regarding the project update list.

Uh Crent for the record, uh, just uh a few updates here.

So the old Mormon Fort uh National Register update is now with the keeper of the register in DC.

And I know it was a long time coming.

And this one was unfortunate delayed several times through no no fault of anybody's.

Um, but it is now with DC.

We will hear from them.

And other than that, the HPC Award nominations.

Thank you to all of those of you who have who have submitted your nominations.

We do appreciate that.

We still do have actually isn't today the 25th.

It is.

If you have one, then you can send it to us by the end of the day and we can include it.

And that's everything I have unless there's a question.

Any questions for Dr.

Seabratt?

Just one on if we're having the hundred, you would hope that we could get the uh whatever the presentation is as part of the board commission packet rather than uh if you've got a PowerPoint uh would be nice to be able to read that in advance of the just so I don't know if that's possible.

We asked for it, um, so hopefully we'll get it.

Okay.

Great, thank you.

Any other questions or comments?

Okay, we will now move on to item 10, 26-0069-hpc 1.

A report by the community development department regarding historic and archaeological resources in local media.

So we know we have our curated list that we get from Dr.

Crant every month.

Are there any comments on any of the news stories we received?

Uh just the record.

So I'll uh thank you for doing this.

They were very helpful.

I think most of us watch a lot of media, but there's always something that is missed, and this list is really very helpful.

Thank you.

Yes, absolutely.

Um, okay, then item number 11 is discussion regarding topics for future agenda items.

Comments made during this portion of the agenda by individual members shall refer solely to proposals for future agenda items, and any discussion shall be limited to whether or not such proposed items are within the purview of the commission and or whether such proposed items shall be placed on a future agenda.

No discussion regarding the substance of any such proposed topic shall occur, and no action shall be taken.

Do we have any commissioners wishing to suggest future agenda topics?

Short.

Two suggestions.

One is based on the uh report from uh on the Thule Springs Park.

Uh there's two recommendations in there.

If we could have both of those recommendations on future agenda, one being uh an updated amended version of the National Register of Historic Places for the Tooley Springs Park, uh known today as Floyd Lamb Park.

Uh, and then secondly, uh the report on plans, suggestions, ideas to uh upgrade and approve the existing signs, both the the signs themselves and their location, check for uh uh facts on the existing signs, and then the third option is are there some other historic sites or events that need to be recognized with the with signs if we could have those on on a future agenda.

Uh the second uh uh request would be as this mentioned earlier.

It would be great as we had with the building code if uh the historic preservation commission could get a presentation on the Nevada revised statute on the open meeting law and then inviting uh both the the city attorney and uh representative as it is a state law from the attorney general's office to uh uh to make a presentation.

That I think would be helpful to get us all on this on the same page.

So thank you.

Do we have any other commissioners wishing to put a topic forward?

Okay, we'll move on to item number 12, which is our second period for citizens' participation.

Public comment during this portion of the agenda must be limited to matters within the jurisdiction of the commission.

No subject may be acted upon by the commission unless that subject is on the agenda and is scheduled for action.

If you wish to be heard, please come forward and give your name for the record.

The amount of discussion on any single subject as well as the amount of time any single speaker is allowed, may be limited.

Do we have anybody?

Yes, hi.

Hello.

Um Madam Chair and Commissioners, my name is Peter Marutzi.

Um I live in Palm Springs, and I'm also on the Historic Site Preservation Board there, so I know what you're going through, and it's always very exciting.

Um I have been in love with Palm with Las Vegas since 1983, the very first time I came here.

And as the years have gone by, I've done a lot of um collecting, like Mr.

Stodal of postcards and brochures and photographs, and um I was motivated for many years to see that the El Cortez Hotel Casino was on the National Register of Historic Places as such an important landmark in this city, 1941.

So I I wrote the nomination, and in 2012 it was uh presented and it's now listed with a nice plaque.

And I have felt oh I'm also an architectural historian by by profession.

Vegas Vic is probably in addition to the welcome to Las Vegas sign, the most important neon sign in Clark County and the city of Las Vegas.

And it really deserves to be on a register, if not one, probably two, locally and the national register.

I am committed to seeing that done, and I am willing to offer my services at no charge to a property owner or the city to write those nominations because I feel that strongly about how important that that sign is.

And it it's hard to make a strong argument unless you know the property owner, and I don't.

So I don't think it would really help much if I call them up and say, hey, you know, I'm Pete Mersey.

I think it would make more sense if the city, maybe some of you, um, contacted the property owner and made the case and re-emphasize that you know I'm willing to do it for free.

Uh and also just explain to them that the national register doesn't prevent them from doing the kinds of things that they would ordinarily want to do with a building.

Your local register may have more restrictions.

That's one of the reasons why the property owner of El Cortez only wanted it on the national register.

Um, but regardless, it needs that kind of attention.

I think you know, since 1951, it's been been on that building, and it has been the symbol of Las Vegas since that time, and postcards, billboards, advertising, motion pictures, television.

It's that important.

And the publicity that would come from its designation, I think would be tremendous.

The mayor came to the dedication of the the El Cortez and got a lot of publicity for that, and it's just important for the city.

I mean, it's it's so great.

So you've heard my my pitch.

If someone could take on that that role, excuse me, of contacting them.

I guess this is called Shift Enterprises, that would be great.

Um, and I'm ready any time someone says that the property owner is willing.

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

Um, I know that we're not supposed to respond.

Can we direct to put that on a future agenda at this time?

Certainly, I mean that's that's 11, but I think the uh historic preservation officers heard your your desire to have that as an agenda item.

I'm sure it'll happen.

Okay.

Or I can reopen 11, right?

Not necessary.

You certainly could reopen 11, but I think she's heard your comment, and I think uh I think you're probably okay.

Okay.

If you'd like, if you'd like to be very official, you may.

May I make a comment on Vegas Vick?

Is that appropriate?

It's really it's really not.

We uh citizens' participation is really to hear from the public and not to respond.

Um I know in the past in a lot of commissions and boards and things, it's been kind of uh loose, but in the in the last couple years, uh we've been seeing at the planning commission level, city council level, a desire that we hear from people and we don't respond.

And so because it happens at the highest level, we kind of let that trickle down to to all of the rest of the boards and commissions.

Understood.

Um well, knowing that item 11 is not for additional comment either.

We'll leave it at that and wait for our future agenda item to discuss as a commission.

Do we have any other members of the public wishing to come forward?

Seeing none, this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.

Just you know we've tried to contact the owners of Vegas Vic.