Heritage Preservation Commission Meeting - April 28, 2026
Heritage Preservation Commission Meeting - April 28, 2026
The Heritage Preservation Commission (HPC) met on April 28, 2026, at 5:00 PM in the Government Center Council Chamber. The meeting included an extended open public comment period, approval of a Certificate of Appropriateness for a garage addition, a review of the COA process, and discussions on a historic preservation inventory strategy and annual awards. Commissioners also addressed public concerns about Mayo Clinic's promised Lourdes High School artifacts park and a planned demolition in the Lower Town district. The meeting adjourned at approximately 7:00 PM.
Consent Calendar
- Minutes of March 24, 2026 – Approved unanimously by voice vote.
Public Comments & Testimony
Seven members of the public spoke during the open comment period (extended by motion to accommodate all speakers):
- Barry Skolnick urged the HPC to include more detailed agenda packets and advocated for a motion to the city council regarding the Lourdes High School artifacts park. He noted that SHIPO (State Historic Preservation Office) supports becoming a Certified Local Government (CLG) to access grants of up to $30,000–$40,000 per year.
- Stephanie Podulke (Cutski Park neighborhood) asked the HPC to present to the city council about preserving artifacts from the former Lourdes High School. She stated that Mayo Clinic’s original promise to create a park with multiple artifacts has been reduced to a minimal plan with only one artifact.
- Jim Frost (new president of Cutski Park Neighborhood Association) emphasized that promises made during the council’s approval to demolish Lourdes High School should be honored by Mayo Clinic.
- Mickey Elias (Elias Construction) spoke in support of the Certificate of Appropriateness application for 829 5th Street SW, confirming the project meets HPC guidelines.
- Breanna Bly (Cutski Park neighbor) expressed concern that Mayo’s park plan is vague and lacks meaningful artifacts. She noted a city council member said the city administration and Mayo have final say, not the council.
- Barb Hudson (former HPC member) updated the commission on Indian Heights Park landmarking progress, noting that staff had recently presented to the city council for funding.
- John Kruesel urged the HPC to approve the garage addition and addressed a “trail of tears” regarding promises to the Lourdes neighborhood, stating that fewer people attend meetings due to fear of retaliation from power brokers.
Discussion Items
- 5.A. Certificate of Appropriateness – Garage Addition at 829 5th Street SW – Staff planner Molly Patterson-Lundgren presented the proposal for a two-car tandem garage expansion in the Pill Hill Historic District. The addition aligns with Secretary of Interior Standards, given previous non-historic alterations. The commission approved it unanimously after brief discussion.
- 5.B. Certificates of Appropriateness – Review Process & Requirements – Patterson-Lundgren reviewed the UDC and design guidelines for major vs. minor alterations. Commissioners expressed confidence in the process. Commissioner Zastrow noted SHIPO’s commissioner training manual as a resource. No action taken.
- 7.A. Commissioner Koestler Proposal – Historic Preservation Inventory Strategy – Commissioner Koestler outlined a three-tier scoring system to prioritize properties on the inventory for landmarking. Goals include transparent prioritization, managing staff workload, and completing inventory review by 2031. Staff raised concerns about alignment with current resources and processes. Commissioners supported refining the proposal and separating objectives for the context committee and annual priorities.
- 7.B. Annual Awards Update – Subcommittee members Commissioners Bodeker and Wassmer proposed reducing award categories from six to four (restoration, adaptive reuse, community advocacy, stewardship), focusing on a five-year lookback, and launching in fall 2026 rather than May. Discussion included avoiding conflict with HPC’s regulatory role and simplifying the process. The subcommittee will bring a refined proposal for a future vote.
- Future Agenda Items – Chair Zastrow requested that the May 19, 2026, meeting include:
- A discussion on the Lourdes High School park agreement and potential commission action (letter, statement, or request to city council).
- A request for a Phase I study for the Struve block (500 block of North Broadway) after a planned demolition announcement.
Key Outcomes
- Certificate of Appropriateness (5.A): Approved unanimously (7 ayes; 2 absent: Jennifer Shabel and Veena Gandhi) for a garage addition at 829 5th Street SW.
- COA Process (5.B): No action; discussion only.
- Inventory Strategy (7.A): No vote; commission will refine the proposal and may bring it back after further staff input and commissioner training.
- Annual Awards (7.B): Subcommittee to prepare a revised proposal for a future meeting; no vote taken.
- Next Meeting: May 19, 2026, at 5:00 PM in Room 104 of the Government Center (subject to change if large public hearing needed).
- Lourdes Park & Struve Block: Chair Zastrow will work with staff to include these items on the May agenda for potential action.
Meeting Transcript
Okay. Give Attorney Carlson just a minute to come in here. Yes. Okay. Welcome everybody to the April 28th Heritage Preservation Commission meeting. Before we call to order, we start each meeting with a 15-minute public open comment period. This is an opportunity for the public to comment to the commission regarding items that do not have a public hearing on today's agenda. Each speaker has up to four minutes. The commission will not discuss or respond to any comments made during this time. Please be concise and mindful of your time during your remarks so that everybody wishing to speak has the opportunity to do so. With that said, will the first speaker please step forward and clearly state your name into the microphone. There is also a sign-up sheet there, too. So please make sure you have signed in if you are speaking. Hi, uh my name is Barry Skolnik. Uh I think you all most of you know me. I think all of you know me. Um several things. Um first, uh, I would appreciate it in the future when they put things on the agenda. This has to do with staff more than they can more than the commission, but uh I would appreciate it if they would include a lot of detail in it. So we are the people who like to talk in the open comment period would have something to base some of the comments on. Like there's nothing in there about the awards committee. They say to be presented tonight. I would rather that there would have been something in there uh about the awards committee. And I that's true. I've noticed on some other things where we don't hear the full details until the meeting. And I think the more detail that goes in the packet with the agenda, the better it is for the for you people to look at it and uh you know and think about it before the meeting as well as in the meeting. So I'd rather have more meat in the agenda. That's first comment. Um second comment is um when we're gonna talk about the um the completion of future demo uh future um landmarking. I I think it's important to know that SHIPO, the state historical preservation office. I spoke to Michael Coop personally, spoke to him twice about it. He would like us to uh become a uh a locally landmarked entity with it within the SHIPO framework, and that would give us access to a lot of grants, up to I think 30, 40,000 a year. You can only once a year you can ask for the grants, but the grants you can ask for more than one. So if you package it right, you can ask for several grants, and there would be that would be tens of thousands of dollars at stake. So I do think you'll be between that and the other way that Molly's been doing it. Um I I I think yeah, certified local government is what I'm talking about. CLG, they call it most cities are already in that. They get these grants. They're federal grants that filter through the state via SHIPO, and uh it'll give us all the money we need to do some of the programs that in my opinion um that that uh uh miss Kessler has proposed. So that's that. Another item has to do with uh the Lord's high school. Uh I was on the HPC uh a few years ago when the HPC wanted Lourdes to be landmarked. It went to the city council. Mayo was against it because they wanted to put a a uh a place for the supply depot there, which they did. So they they said, please allow us to knock down uh lures and in exchange uh as a consolation prize, really, we'll give you a um a park with artifacts from the exterior of Lourdes. And and and um that was actually an amendment that passed unanimously by the city council, so it's in the law like like that. The problem is is that there are some people on Mayo's staff who only want to put a few artifacts in there. So I'm basically asking you to pass a motion tonight. I know there'll be people speaking about that too. Pass a motion tonight to go to the city council asking them just to take that up as an item because the city council can't do it themselves easily.
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