Good evening and welcome to the Wednesday, March 18th, 2026 meeting of the Preservation Commission.

This meeting is now called to order.

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

Thank you, Chair.

Commissioners, please unmute your microphones.

Here commissioner Rika.

Here.

Commissioner Cross.

Here.

Commissioner McSlavkin.

Absent.

Chair Ombacher.

Here.

Thank you.

We have a quorum.

I would like to remind members of the public in chambers that if you would like to speak on an agenda item to please turn in a speaker slip before the item begins.

After the item is called, we will no longer accept speaker slips, and you will have two minutes to speak once we are once you are called upon.

Now we're going to proceed with today's agenda.

And if you can, if you are able, please rise for the opening acknowledgement in honor of Sacramento's Indigenous People and Tribal Lands.

To the original people of this land, the Nissanae people of the Southern Maidu, Valley and Plains, Miwok, Patwin, Patwin Wintune 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 peoples' history, contributions, and lives.

Thank you.

And please stay standing for the budget allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Um the approval of the consent calendar.

Clerk, are there any members of the public who wish to speak on the consent calendar?

Thank you, Chair.

I have no speaker slips on this item.

Okay, thank you.

Are there any of the commissioners who wish to speak on it?

Um so we need a move.

We need to have oh sorry, is there a motion and and a second for the consent calendar?

I'll give a motion to approve the consent calendar.

I'll second that.

Any second by Commissioner Cross.

Commissioners, please unmute your microphones.

We're going to do a voice vote.

All opposed all in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

Any abstentions?

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Do we have a staff presentation?

Uh thank you, Chair.

Just a uh oral presentation this evening.

Uh Sean DeCourcy, Preservation Director.

Uh the item before you tonight is a draft 2024-2025 CLG annual report.

As a reminder, Sacramento has been a certified local government since 1996.

This designation requires the city to submit an annual report to the Office of Historic Preservation documenting our preservation activities and demonstrating we continue to meet the program's requirements.

The report covers the period from October 2024 through September 2025 and highlights the city's ongoing compliance with CLG standards, including maintaining a qualified commission, enforcing our preservation ordinance, conducting surveys, and supporting public participation.

This past year, key key accomplishments include the designation of 17 new local landmarks and one historic district, the new Helvetia Historic District, as well as continued progress on the old Sacramento National Register nomination and our ongoing survey work.

Tonight's action is for review and comment only.

Any feedback from the commission will be incorporated into the final report prior to submitted to the submittal to the Office of Historic Preservation by the April 1st deadline.

Staff's available for any questions you may have, and we welcome your comments.

Thank you, Sean.

Um Clerk, are there any members of the public who wish to speak on this item?

Thank you, Chair.

I have no speaker slips on this item.

Are there any commissioners who wish to speak on this item?

Commissioner Marker.

Thank you.

Just a tiny request to switch out my uh work email with my personal email on the listing.

Thank you.

Noted, thank you.

And then I've got, um, speaking of emails, the M is missing at the end of the dot com on mine.

And then for the training and volunteering, I also went to the three days for the CPF conference.

Um, and I don't know if it's needed because it was it's in there, but it was from November 13th, 2025, but I also attended that same CPF training stage training session on the housing and the new CEQA requirements.

Um, and then I had also submitted an updated resume for you.

If you need me to resend that, I can.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, no, I have it.

I will make sure to get it attached.

All right.

Um, the next item is item three is the draft Lavender Heights Historic District Plan.

Is there a soft presentation?

Okay, I think it's this, right?

Yeah.

Good evening, commissioners.

Our names are Hazel Bess and Hannah Toby, preservation interns with the community development department for the City of Sacramento.

Tonight we are presenting the Lavender Heights Historic District Plan for review and comment under file M23-005.

In 2023, the City of Sacramento received a certified local government grant from the California Office of Historic Preservation to prepare a historic context statement and survey focused on LGBTQ plus history and associated historical resources in Sacramento.

This effort became known as the Sacramento LGBTQ plus historic experience project, a city initiative to document and better understand Sacramento's LGBTQ past.

The historic context statement examines the history of the LGBTQ community in Sacramento, focusing on a period starting before the city's founding to about the year 2000.

As part of this project, a list of potentially eligible historic properties was developed, with a significant concentration being identified in the Lavender Heights neighborhood around 20th and K Streets.

Paige and Turnbull conducted a survey of the Lavender Heights neighborhood in July and August 2024 with the assistance of community volunteers to evaluate the district for listing on the Sacramento Register.

Although the neighborhood's boundaries shifted over time with the additions and replacements of LGBTQ owned and friendly businesses, the proposed Lavender Heights Historic District boundaries are defined by the presence of 12 extant buildings and their confirmed historic associations with LGBTQ plus history.

Unlike many historic districts defined by architectural cohesion, Lavender Heights is significant for its association with Sacramento's LGBTQ plus history.

The proposed contributing resources reflect the range of spaces where community life unfolded, including bars, bookstores, churches, medical offices, community centers, and small commercial buildings that served the LGBTQ plus community.

The district forms a clustered pattern around across Midtown with concentrations around 20th and K Streets and extending north and east toward 21st and J Streets, as no as shown in the proposed historic oh my god, historic district boundaries map.

The following properties represent the core contributing resources within the district, each illustrating a different aspect of community life, including social spaces, health care, advocacy, and everyday gathering places.

1215 19th Street, known as the New Helvetia Roaster, operated within a former fire station and served as a key social space in Lavender Heights during the 1990s.

It offered an alternative gathering place to the neighborhood's bars, contributing to a more diverse social landscape.

The building is a two-story red brick fire station with a flat roof and symmetrical front facade set directly at the sidewalk.

It reflects late 19th century civic architecture with Romanesque revival influences.

It is defined by two large apparatus bay doors at the ground level, red brick cladding with the use of contrasting light graystone for banding and detailing, a parapet with inset stone panels connecting two symmetrical pedimented bays.

As a coffee house operating within a former civic building, new Helvetia reflects a shift in how space was used in Lavender Heights, expanding the neighborhood's social identity beyond nightlife, and creating a more inclusive everyday gathering place.

910-9121st Street housed the medical offices of Dr.

Harvey Thompson, who opened the clinic in 1978 to serve Sacramento's gay community.

During the early years of the AIDS crisis, Dr.

Thompson, along with Dr.

Sandy Pomerance, both openly gay, were among the only physicians providing care to the city's HIV and AIDS patients.

Dr.

Thompson and Dr.

Pomerans both later died of AIDS themselves.

The building later became home to the Open Book, an LGBTQ plus bookstore and cafe that served as a cultural and social gathering place.

The site contributes to the district as a location associated with both medical care and community life during critical periods of Sacramento's LGBTQ plus history.

The building's character is defined by its decoclading, diagonally recessed entryway, and fixed horizontal metal storefront windows.

2115 J Street was the original location of the Sacramento AIDS Foundation.

In 1982, following the first reported cases of AIDS in Sacramento, local physicians and members of the LGBTQ community organized to respond to the emerging crisis.

By 1983, the foundation was operating from the 2115 J Street site, providing education, advocacy, and direct support to those affected.

Supported by grassroots fundraising, including local gay bars, it became a central part of Sacramento's early response to the AIDS epidemic.

The building is a two-story brick commercial structure with a flat roof set along J Street.

The building is defined by a central recessed corridor topped by a prominent glass pyramidal skylight, glass doors and windows lining the interior corridor, large horizontal bands of glass across the front and first and second floors, shallow upper level balconies with thin iron railings.

As the founding site of the Sacramento AIDS Foundation, the building represents a space of community response, care, and resilience during one of the most critical public health crises of the late 20th century.

2220 J Street was an early site of advocacy and community life in Lavender Heights as well.

From 1975 to 1976, it housed the Sacramento Women's Center, which supported women's and LGBTQ plus organizing in the city.

In 1989, the building became the first location of the Gifted Gardener, a popular gay-owned business that operated in Sacramento for nearly 30 years.

Together, these uses reflect the range of advocacy, business, and everyday community life that developed within Lavender Heights.

The building is a combination of one and two-story massings arranged in a U-shaped plan around a courtyard that opens to J Street.

The building is defined by its distinctive curved and angled storefronts, stucco cladding with brick and stone accents, large storefront windows, and a landscaped central courtyard featuring a raised kidney-shaped planter.

The building's courtyard centered design reflects its historic role as a gathering place, supporting both community organizing and small business activity within Lavender Heights.

2224 J Street was the home of Lioness Books, a lesbian and feminist bookstore that was a vital community space for women from 1982 to 2000.

From 1983 to 2000, it served additionally as the headquarters of the Sacramento Women's Center and its associated services, which included a rape crisis center and women's employment services training.

These programs were integral to the Lavender Heights Historic District's Advocacy Network and reflect the district's role in social activism.

The site's role in community services, as well as the valuable social gathering space it provided, justify its contributing status.

The building's character is defined by its hipped roof with overhanging eaves, gabled dormer, flat roofed porch with tapering fluted side pillars, square pillars, beveled wood siding, and front door with fluted glass silates and an internal window, also with fluted glass.

Like the new Helvetia Coffee Roaster and Lambda Center buildings, the reuse of an existing building into a community space reflects the neighborhood's growth during the period of significance.

1900 K Street housed the Sacramento AIDS Foundation from 1986 to 1994 during the height of the AIDS crisis.

From this location, the organization, still volunteer-run and community funded, continue to provide education, advocacy, and support services to people living with HIV and AIDS in Sacramento.

The building's character is defined by its protruding massing of stone masonry on the K Street facade, woodlap siding, and fixed vertically oriented metal windows.

The site contributes to the district as the location of the continuing response to the AIDS crisis begun at 2115 J Street.

2000 K Street, better known as Faces, was opened by Terry Sidey, an influential figure in Sacramento's LGBTQ plus community, who sought to challenge the exclusionary nature of the gay bar scene in the 1970s by creating a space that welcomed all people.

The name Faces reflects this intent, emphasizing inclusivity across identities and communities.

Over time, Faces became a central hub of LGBTQ life in Sacramento and one of the city's most recognizable landmarks.

In addition to its role as a nightclub, it hosted events such as voter drives that supported local LGBTQ political advocacy.

The building is a two-story commercial structure with an asymmetrical massing and a low horizontal profile set prominently at the corner of 20th and K Streets.

It is defined by its dramatic angular roof lines, large expanses of reflective glass, including a multi-story window on the side facade, smooth stucco cladding, and dark metal framing.

The building's bold, expressive design reflects its role as an inclusive, highly visible social space, reinforcing its identity as a landmark and LGBTQ community life in Sacramento.

The Western at 2001 K Street began operating as a bar in 1938 and was known as a gay bar by at least the early 1990s.

In 1997, the building changed ownership and was reopened as the Western Pacific Depot, now officially a gay bar.

Today known as the depot, it remains an active venue and contributes to the district as a long-standing center of LGBTQ nightlife in Lavender Heights.

The building's character is defined by its low pitched roof with a wide, scalloped shingle clad gable facing K Street, additional gables over each of the four bay windows, the ornamental woodwork, the building's stucco cladding and the double-hung upper story windows.

The building's many visible alterations, including its deco siding and back patio, are evidence of its long history on K Street and adaptation to the neighborhood's transforming character.

1928 L Street, home to the Mercantile Saloon or the Merck, opened in 1976 in a converted East Lake River Delta style house and was one of the first gay bars in Midtown.

The bar became known for welcoming gay black men at a time when many other gay bars did not, making it an especially important and inclusive social space within Sacramento's LGBTQ community.

The building is a river delta style house elevated over a raised basement that functions as the bar.

The building is characterized by its wood cladding, decorative wood brackets, trim and valat, public entrance on the eastern facade adjacent to the parking lot.

The contrast between the ornate residential facade and the more utilitarian side entrance reflects how the building was adapted for nightlife use within the Lavender Heights neighborhood.

1931 L Street housed the Lambda Community Center in a Victorian shingle style house and served as an important gathering place for Sacramento's LGBTQ community.

The site was the birthplace of the Lambda Players Theater Troupe and later hosted organizations such as the Stop AIDS Project during the height of the AIDS crisis.

The Lambda Community Center was pivotal in providing services and support to the LGBTQ community and addressing the AIDS epidemic within the Lavender Heights Historic District.

The building's character is defined by its steep gabled roofs, corner turret, and round porch with a square spindled balustrade and Tuscan columns, as well as narrow drop siding, shingles, and details including the oval attic vents and small spire.

The center's history of political activism, impacts on public health, and creation of an intra-community support system justifies its status as a contributing resource.

In the late 1990s, the Lambda Community Center, Lambda Players, and AIDS response programs moved to 919 20th Street.

From this location, these groups continue to provide support services and advocacy during the continuing impact of the AIDS epidemic.

The building's character is defined by its brick masonry with colored brick patterns, shallowly recessed entryways, and fixed metal storefront windows.

The building contributes to the district as a site associated with LGBTQ plus community support and health advocacy in Lavender Heights.

The building is a large brick church complex designed in a Romanesque revival style, prominently located at the corner of 21st and J Streets.

The building is defined by its red brick masonry with light stone detailing, large arched stained glass windows, tall center tower rising above the roof line, arched corbel table along the roof's edge.

As a prominent religious institution that opened openly welcomed LGBTQ plus people, the church represents a critical space of acceptance and support during a time when such inclusion was rare.

Oh, no bad.

Together, these properties illustrate how Lavender Heights developed into the center of LGBTQ plus community life in Sacramento during the late 20th century.

In the 1970s, bars, cafes, bookstores, churches, community organizations, and shops owned by and serving the LGBTQ plus community, clustered in Midtown around the intersections of 20th and K Streets.

These spaces created opportunities for social connection, cultural expression, and activism at a time when LGBTQ plus people often faced discrimination and exclusion elsewhere.

Within this neighborhood, different spaces served different parts of the community.

Some bars became gathering places for specific groups, including black gay men, the leather community, and older gay men, reflecting both the diversity of the community and the realities of this exclusion within it.

During the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 90s, many of these same spaces also became centers of care, support, and organized community response.

Taken together, the surviving buildings of Lavender Heights reflect the emergence of a clearly identifiable LGBTQ plus district in Sacramento and illustrate how community life advocacy and support were embedded within the built environment.

The history of Sacramento's LGBTQ plus community has been underrecognized and under-researched until very recently.

As the vast majority of information about this history remains in the memories of those who witnessed it, community involvement was essential to the Sacramento LGBTQ plus historic experience project.

To spread the word about the project and share opportunities to participate, City of Sacramento Historic Preservation staff presented and handed out flyers at events throughout 2023 to 2024 and held public meetings in April and May 2024 as well as October of the same year, with seven small group sessions held in August and September, where community members were invited to share their stories in small listening sessions.

Preservation Sacramento additionally provided mashing funds to establish a stipend program for community members who have volunteered their time to contribute to the project.

Staff sent letters to the owners of each property located in the district and received two phone calls expressing support.

The city has not received any objections.

Staff recommends that the commission approve the statement of nomination to list the Lavender Heights Historic District on the Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources, file M23-005, and forward a recommendation of support to the city council.

This concludes our presentation.

We're now happy to answer any questions.

Thank you.

Thank you, Hazel, and Handoff.

I can just make one uh correction on the uh the end of that report.

The staff recommendation today is just review and comment on the historic district plan.

We're not uh we're not taking action on the the nomination, which you which has already been approved by city council.

But great job, you two.

Thank you.

Um Clerk, are there any members of the public who wish to speak on this item?

Thank you, Chair.

I don't have any speaker slips on this item.

Thank you.

Are there any commissioners who wish to speak?

Commissioner Krause.

Hi.

I have a small comment about um 1900 K Street.

Um additionally, besides the Sacramento AIDS Foundation office, this was also associated with weave women escaping violent.

What is it?

Whatever.

Sorry, weave.

You know what I'm talking about.

It's in the context statement.

Um, so I'm the only reason I'm mentioning that is because of course um we need to include as much um women's history as men's history in this, and in in this particular building, we have both.

So that that's my that's my only comment.

Any other commissioners?

Vice Chair.

I have a question about the uh design standards for the contributing resources.

So uh I understand that it uh was established to um to set guidelines based on the period of significance.

Uh and I'm wondering how much uh research was done on each individual property to establish that.

Um, just for example, um, right in the report there are images of the faces bar prior to its uh significant uh remodel, which I know from personal experience was done in 2003, 2004, uh, which is outside of the period of significance.

Um we wanted to allow some leeway for these buildings to continue to change.

So there are a few um characteristics that are called out in the plan, but for the most part, um there is space left for these open businesses to continue to adapt.

Yeah, we um focused on preserving elements of the building that can still convey its historic significance, so there are some elements like retained from the like prior to the renovation, um certain like shapes and um like glazing and stuff, but yeah, there's some newer stuff.

So we incorporated that, but ultimately um the building still conveys a significance, so um we accounted for that.

The idea is that it would be recognizable to somebody uh who was there at the time without it being uh frozen in time.

Thank you.

Just one question, it's really more of a question under for all of these under the architectural elements.

Um, it seems like there's a different stating for do not obscure or demolish character-defining features.

Some of them just say um don't don't do not obscure the CDFs, others say don't obscure or demolish, some say obscure or alter.

And I don't know if if that's intentional or if if if it's not intentional, I would suggest maybe deciding on which phrasing the city likes the best and stick with that so for consistency's sake.

Sure.

Because I think overall they I think that these look really good.

Thank you.

Yeah, we can use the same language for all of it.

Just my nitpicking.

I get it.

Are there any other commissioners that wish to comment?

Okay.

Thank you.

Um, so there is no vote required for this one, so we can move on to the next one, which is the director's report.

Thank you, Chair.

Again, Sean DeCoursi Preservation Director.

Um, I have a couple uh brief updates for the director's report, and they're both on items that um the commission has acted on, so I just wanted to let you know where those stand.

On uh coming up on March 24th, the city council is scheduled to review the uh accessory dwelling unit objective design standards for historic properties that the commission recommended for approval by the city council.

So that's a 2 p.m.

hearing.

They will uh review that on the consent calendar.

And then the uh landmark nomination for the former orbit gas station at 2240 Northgate Boulevard is currently uh on hold to be scheduled for city council.

Um the city council's office is in discussions with the property owner trying to address their remaining concerns related to listing.

Um, and we are allowing them uh space to have those conversations, but we'll be scheduling that um when uh when in due time.

And that concludes my items for the director's report.

Happy to answer any questions you have at this time.

Anyone have any questions for Sean?

Thank you.

Um next is Commissioner Commons ideas and questions.

Does anyone have any they'd like to share?

Okay, and last item is public comments that are matters that are not on the agenda.

Um I think I know the answer, but Clerk, are there any members of the public who wishes to recommend?

Chair, thank you.

I do not have any speaker slips on this item.

Okay, thank you.

Then this concludes today's agenda.

Um the meeting is adjourned at 5 57.