Today's first reverse

Good evening.

Welcome to March 19, 2025 meeting of the Historic Preservation Commission.

It is 5.30 p.m.

The meeting is now called to order.

Will the clerk please call the roll to establish a quorum?

Thank you, Chair.

Commissioners, if you can please unmute.

Vice Chair Merker is currently absent.

Commissioner Onbacher?

Here.

Commissioner Burns is absent.

Commissioner Rika?

Here.

Commissioner Cross?

Here.

Commissioner Mixlothkin?

Here.

And Chair Nair.

Here.

Thank you.

We have a quorum.

I would like to remind members of the public and chambers that if you'd like to speak

on an agenda item, please turn in a speaker slip in the item begins.

You will have two minutes to speak once you are called on.

After the speaker, we will no longer accept speaker slips.

We will now move to the land acknowledgement and pledge of allegiance.

Please rise for the opening acknowledgments and honor of Sacramento's Indigenous People

and Tribal Lands.

The original people of this land, the Nisanan people, southern Maidu, Vali and Plains

Miwak, Puttwin, Win-Tuned Peoples and the people of the Wilton Rancheria, Sacramento's

only federally recognized tribe.

May we acknowledge and honor the native people who came before us and still walk beside

us today on these ancestral lands by choosing to gather together today in the active practice

of acknowledgement and appreciation for Sacramento's Indigenous People's history, contributions

and lives.

Thank you.

Remain standing for the Pudge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for

which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Our first business today is approval of the consent calendar.

Are there any members of the public who wish to speak on this?

Thank you, Chair.

We have no speakers for this item.

Any commissioners?

Where are we?

Can we go ahead and call the vote?

Yes.

If we can get a motion and a second, please.

Motion to accept the consent calendar.

Yeah.

I'll second.

Perfect.

So we have a motion by Commissioner Cross and a second by Chair Nayar.

Commissioners, if you can please unmute.

Vice Chair Merker.

Yes.

Commissioner Ombacher.

Yes.

Commissioner Burns is absent.

Commissioner Rika.

Yes.

Commissioner Cross.

Commissioner McSlovgan.

Yes.

And Chair Nayar.

Yes.

Thank you, the motion passes.

We'll now proceed to the Public Hearing's calendar.

Item two is the ordinance listing for 5850 free part boulevard on the Sacramento Register

of Historic and Cultural Resources.

City staff informed to me that we will be continuing this until the May 21st meeting.

We will move on to the discussion calendar.

Item three, the draft new, a hellvisha historic district plan of city presentation.

Good evening, commissioners.

My name is Henry Hughes, preservation planner for the city of Sacramento, and I'll be presenting

the new hellvisha historic district plan review and comment under file M23003.

The new hellvisha historic district located with the older Grove housing complex between

Broadway, Meore Way, the property line west of Kit Carson Street and south of Campbell Street

was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014 for its architectural significance

as an example of mid 20th century public housing design and first association with Nathaniel

Colley and the fight for fair housing.

Nathaniel Colley, a prominent civil rights attorney, successfully challenged racial segregation

in Sacramento's public housing, including at new hellvisha leading to landmark legal

victories that shape national fair housing policies.

The district was subsequently identified in 2023's African American Experience Project

as a potentially eligible resource for listing in the Sacramento Register of Historic and

Cultural Resources.

As part of the A.A.E. project, staff identified 14 eligible individual landmarks for nomination

to the Sacramento Register along with the new hellvisha historic district, which will be

likely reviewed by the commission at a later date during the listing process.

The creation of the new hellvisha historic district plan is an alignment with Sacramento

City Code section 17604-300, which requires the development of a historic district plan

for all locally designated historic districts.

Staff has created a historic district plan for attached your staff report for the proposed

new hellvisha historic district.

Please note that the historic district is entirely owned by the Sacramento Housing and

redevelopment Agency.

In recent months, staff has proactively engaged with SHRA staff to discuss the elements

found within the plan.

Due to the Housing Crisis Act, all new design guidelines must be objective in nature,

which means that these are standards that don't rely on personal opinions or judgments

by public officials and can be verified by a consistent reference that is accessible

and known to both the applicant and the public.

By advancing the new hellvisha historic district plan and pursuing historic nominations,

the city will continue to align with the goals of the historic and cultural resources

element of the 2040 general plan.

This action also furthers the fulfillment of the city's responsibilities as certified

local government supporting both local and national preservation priorities.

Staff is requesting the commission provide review and comment on the draft historic

district plan to ensure the plan meets the requirements of Sacramento City Code and the

high standards of Sacramento's historic historic preservation program.

This concludes my presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Are there any members of the public who wish to speak on this?

Thank you, Chair.

We have no speakers for this item.

Are there any commissioners who wish to speak?

All right.

I just have one comment.

I noticed that for the infill, there was 250% of the tallest building, I believe.

We wanted to see if we could reduce that to be consistent with the historic district

plan to 150%.

So just to clarify the historic district plans for the residential historic districts

in the central city, specify new infill development to be 150% of the height of any adjacent

contributing resource.

So you're suggesting that this plan, which I believe specifies that any new building

would be no greater than 250% of the height of the tallest building in the district, be

reduced to 150%.

Correct.

Okay.

We can look at that.

Any other commissioners?

All right.

And we can move on to the directors report.

Thank you.

I only have one very brief item for the directors report.

And that is that we have no items for the agenda in the April meeting.

So that meeting will be canceled.

And I was trying to come up with other items that I need to update the commission on, but

this month, I just don't have any.

Thank you.

That concludes the directors report.

Okay.

We can move on to any commissioner comments, ideas and questions.

And moving on to public comments matters not on the agenda.

Thank you, Chair.

Yes.

We have one speaker, William.

Good evening, William Berg with Preservation Sacramento.

I wanted to bring the commission's attention to 5, 1504 U Street, which in December of

last year suffered a fairly bad fire that damaged most of the rear of the building.

And it came to our attention that the current owners of the building, Daniel Chan, I guess

that there may be an LLC, are considering demolition of the building.

Now, this was damaged pretty badly by fire, but the condition of the building isn't too

dissimilar from there's a contributing resource of fourplex in the Fremont Park historic district

that got damaged just as badly, but it's currently in the process of being rehabbed and

turned back into a fourplex.

The building we're talking about, 1504 U Street is already a listed city of Sacramento landmark.

So it is a building that if the owner chooses to demolish, would require a higher level of

environmental review.

We sent a letter to the property owner as well as to the preservation director and district

four city council member saying to the property owner, we really strongly encourage you to get

in touch with the city with preservation staff to look at preservation alternatives as a way

to essentially to fix this building, especially because it was our understanding they hope

to do multifamily.

This was a single family home that had been converted to five units and the city's missing

middle ordinance would allow that use, but so would adaptive reuse of what is a fairly

substantial building so they choose to do so.

And by doing so, they can reach their goals of increasing the amount of housing and getting

a value for the investment and the city can achieve its goals of retaining historic building

while seeing it put to a higher better use.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Chair, we have no more speakers.

Okay, well then that concludes today's historic preservation meeting.