Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

We're ready to start when you are.

Good evening and welcome to the Wednesday, April 15th, 2026 meeting of the Preservation Commission.

The 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 by hitting the button and making sure the green light is on.

Thank you.

Here.

Commissioner Rika.

Here.

Commissioner Cross.

Here.

Commissioner Nicholas.

Here.

Commissioner McSlavkin.

Here.

And Chair Ombacher.

Here.

Thank you.

You have a quorum.

Thank you.

Excuse me.

I would like to remind members of the public in chambers that if you would like to speak on an agenda item, 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 you are called upon.

We'll now proceed to today's agenda.

For those that are able, please rise for the opening acknowledgments and the pledge of allegiance.

By choosing to gather together today in the active practice of acknowledgement and appreciation for Sacramento's indigenous peoples' histories, contributions, and lives.

Thank you.

To the Pledge 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 liberty and justice for all.

So before we um move to the first item on the agenda, I wanted to introduce our newest commissioner, um, John Nicholas, and would you like to say a few words?

Tell us about yourself.

Sure, thank you.

Uh it's nice to be here.

Uh John Nicholas Landscape Architect.

I've I'm uh I was just saying, we have another fifth generation Sacramentan.

Um it's uh I've uh had the pleasure of working uh uh practicing landscape architecture throughout California and the West and also in China.

Uh done a lot of different projects around town, uh in the county and the city.

Um I've been a city resident, but I happen to move to the county like about a block from Sacramento, but I'm still got a Sacramento address.

And I'm very pleased to be here and help to contribute to the efforts of the Commission.

Thank you.

So now we'll start with the um agenda.

So that um the net the first item is 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 commissioners who would like to speak on this item?

Is there a motion and a second for the consent calendar?

A motion to approve the consent calendar.

Is there a second?

I'll second.

Okay.

Thank you, Chair.

Commissioners, please unmute your microphones.

Vice Chair Merker?

Yes.

Commissioner Burns.

I'm sorry, I didn't hear that.

Commissioner Rika?

Yes.

Commissioner Cross?

Yes.

Commissioner McShton?

Yes.

Commissioner Nicholas.

Yes.

And Chair Ombacher.

Yes.

Motion passes.

Thank you.

We're going to move now to the discussion calendar.

Um, item two is the Hackett House Network to freedom nomination.

Is there a staff presentation?

Um yes, there's just an oral presentation.

Um before we begin, did we want to note that uh the other item that's on the agenda this evening has been withdrawn?

Yes, uh item three was the review and comment for the proposal to rename the Plaza Park, Caesar Chava Plaza Historic District, and that is um been withdrawn from the agenda.

Okay, thank you, Chair.

Um so uh good evening, Chair and Commissioners.

My name is Sean DeCorsi.

I'm the preservation director with the community development department.

I have an oral presentation tonight for uh item number two on your agenda.

So I am pleased to present the draft nomination to the National Park Service National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program for the Hackett House, also known as the Archie Lee Escape Site.

The request is to review and comment on this draft nomination.

The nomination builds directly on the city's African American Experience Project, which the City Council adopted following your recommendation in 2023.

Funded in part by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, that effort established a historic context statement documenting Sacramento's African American history and identifying sites associated with civil rights, community formation, and resistance to injustice.

One of the key outcomes of that work was identifying places tied to the Underground Railroad and the broader abolitionist movement in California.

With that foundation in place, city staff successfully applied for and received a 14,000 dollar grant from the National Park Service to evaluate and prepare a network to freedom nomination for the Hackett House site with the help of groundwork preservation consultants.

The network to freedom program established by Congress in 1998 recognizes sites, programs, and facilities associated with the Underground Railroad.

Unlike the National Register, this program is specifically focused on documenting and interpreting the history to the resistance of enslavement, including escape, refuge, and legal challenges to slavery.

It is also a unique in that it allows for the recognition of sites where the physical resource no longer exists, such as the case here, but where historic significance is well documented.

Although the original building no longer stands, the location identified as a pedestrian tunnel on K Street between 2nd and 3rd Streets represents a place where Archie Lee, an enslaved man brought to California in 1857, sought refuge in January of 1858.

His arrest at the location sparked a landmark legal case that challenged the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act in a free state.

With the support of Sacramento's black community and a broader network of abolitionists, Lee ultimately secured his freedom.

This case established an important legal precedent that represents one of the most significant examples of resistance to enslavement in California history.

As part of the National Park Service review, stack staff is seeking input from the Preservation Commission to help ensure the nomination is as strong, accurate, and well supported as possible, and demonstrates a local commitment to recognizing this important history.

So tonight we're asking for your comments and recommendations and to cons to consider a motion supporting the nomination.

I'm happy to answer any questions you have and look forward to your feedback.

Thank you, Sean.

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

Thank you, Chair.

I have no speaker's lips on this item.

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

Max?

Um Yeah, thank you, Sean.

I um well, first of all, uh I'm glad that this is coming together, and I didn't know the story and thought it was fascinating and very cool about I mean, just like freedom and that legacy in general, but also Sacramento being at the heart of the action for America at that time beyond just like the gold was here.

Um what I didn't love was the location, and I wonder if there's opportunity to revisit and potentially do somewhere else.

Partly I was there recently and just went to check it out.

That mural, the big mural across from it, it's rough.

If it came before us today, I would be like a hard no on approving that mural.

Peter Bart Burnett, who's like the bad guy in our story, is one of like the heroes of the mural, along with like John Sutter, who like I know Chavez we just removed, but like Sutter was way worse than Chavez, and he's up there as like a hero.

It's like all white guys, there are no black people in that mural.

And so to just be like, no, here's one new thing, it just feels incongruous in the context of that mural.

There's also just the dynamic of um the the I'm forgetting the name, the Royal Chicano, that art Air Force, excuse me.

Um very cool, but walking around old SAC, there's so many other historical markers, like generally for white people that are there for like the Pony Express, for the people who raise the money for the Pony Express plaques, for Theodore Judah, for all this stuff.

So to have then like this section that's under the freeway in the tunnel where we mentioned that like also there were people of color here in history too.

I don't love that either, and wonder if there is opportunity to have it, especially in the context not just of the story, but that this house was like a prominent big business in actual old Sacramento to have it there featured there more prominently alongside some of these other things and not in the tunnel.

Old Sacramento is fake, but the plan or the mural that this would be across from celebrates old Sacramento as like urban renewal and fighting decay and what a wonderful thing.

Like it's just so not the story that I at least would want to tell about Sacramento's history.

Um so even if old Sacramento is fake, if that's where people who come feel like this is what old Sac what Sacramento used to be, the idea that like there were successful black people who did cool things and fought for their rights, that they were also here, it feels like a more cohesive story to tell there and not as like a side thing in the tunnel.

Sean, the location is based on where the actual hackett house was, right?

Well, um the hackett house was slightly to what we believe was slightly to the north, it was actually on the next block, but that's underneath that's literally the freeway.

Um and so the location, we worked with the National Park Service on the location, and we acknowledge and the National Park Service staff acknowledges that the location is not the actual location of the Hackett House or um or but possibly uh the most accessible location.

But the the balance we're trying to strike is a location that uh is accessible to the public and is roughly in the same location as the Hackett House.

So we actually explored a location near the Pony Express statue because we thought that there's other interpretation there.

Um but one of the one of the problems that we face with a nomination like this uh and the criteria that is established by the program is that we have to have um owner consent for the nomin for the location, and that location is actually a Caltrans right of way.

And so we would have to work through the Caltrans hierarchy with the state and obtain uh a person high enough to sign off on owner consent to um to include in the nomination, which we did not uh we we couldn't navigate.

We started down that road and we were hitting a lot of bureaucratic dead ends and were unable to uh to obtain that consent.

So this was a location uh with consultation from the National Park Service and our consultants that we selected that we thought struck that balance.

Um we can we can look for other places in old Sacramento proper.

Um ideally it would be owned by this the city um or the city would have an access easement like the tunnel where we can uh we can uh consent to interpretation in the future being installed there.

I have a question um about the the portraiture mural on the I guess it's on the south side that Max brought up that's um kind of at the end of the RCAF mural.

Um I I hadn't really thought about that mural in a really long time because I just don't pay attention to it.

But it's a good point to bring up that maybe that maybe that mural, you know, maybe there's there's been some maybe that mural needs to go, or maybe you know, like is that even a possibility since it affects the the it affects the visitor experience, like and the reception of the hackett house plaque, etc.

etc.

Like is that I I guess the city owns that too, right?

Like I I see I see his point about that.

It's like it's a little bit um hodgepodge.

Yeah, not only um is it possible, but it's actually in progress.

There's a uh there is funding from what I understand, um, economic development is working with the Center for Sacramento History on a mural redesign uh for those uh they're actually ceramic tiles and a very large ceramic tiles.

And the uh they're working with the center on and um a manufacturer to install a new a new set of what I think will be ceramic tiles or some sort of installation to replace that mural.

Um if the new whatever replaces it is gonna be a timeline or something similar, it would be great to see this story reflected as a part of that as well.

Um but I understand all the logistical constraints and I've reviewed and I've commented, and thanks for listening.

Are there any other commissioner comments?

And you're looking for oh sorry.

Just one other comment thinking thinking about the the tunnel and the hodgepodge that uh Commissioner Cross mentioned that I think it would be good to um in a sense maybe master plan what's going on within that tunnel considering multiple context issues uh in that space and and and what might go in in the future and you know maybe um setting out uh different murals or mosaics or what might happen uh in the future and and leave placeholders uh for whatever interpretation needs to come.

Thanks for that.

Yeah, we are in the process of updating um the national register nomination for old Sacramento, and so um as part of that we can we can think about sort of what spaces are available in the tunnel for uh future interpretation, especially uh that is an underrepresented communities grant from the National Park Service, so it has a focus on underrepresented and uh untold stories in old Sacramento that will be part of that that project that will come before the commission commission at a future date.

So we'll have a better idea of of what sort of stories we have to tell at that time.

There are any other comments.

And you are looking for a motion to support the nomination, is that correct?

A motion to support the nomination would uh would uh strengthen the the uh nomination that's currently under review, yes.

Okay.

So do I is there a motion and a second to support the draft for the National Underground Railroad Network Freedom nomination?

Um yeah, I move to uh support the draft as it stands.

Is there a second?

I'll go ahead and second.

Thank you, Commissioners.

Please unmute your microphones.

Uh Vice Chair Merker, yes.

Commissioner Rika?

Yes.

Commissioner Cross, yes.

Commissioner McSlavkin?

Yes.

Commissioner Nicholas?

Yes.

And Chair Ombacher, yes.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Thank you.

Um so the next item on the agenda is the Commissioner Commons ideas and questions.

Um are there any last item is um public comments matters not on the agenda.

Clerk, are there any of the members of the public that wish to speak on this?

Uh thank you, Chair.

I have no speaker slips on this item.

Okay.

Um Chair, is there no director's report this evening?

I didn't do not see one on there.

Do you have one?

Uh yes, I do have a director's report.

Can I go ahead with it even though it's not uh on the agenda?

If it's very brief.

Um well it's not very brief.

So I will withhold it, but nothing's time sensitive.

So I will we will make sure to get the director's report on the next agenda, and I will report on these items at our uh next meeting.

Thanks, Sean.

And I would say thus concludes today's agenda.

Thank you, everyone, for your petition, and the meeting is adjourned.