Okay, we can start.

And today's the okay.

Good morning.

Um this is the Syracuse Landmark Preservation Board meeting of April 23rd, 2026.

Present at the meeting are Trish.

Julia Marshall, Jeff Romano, Hilary Donahue, and Kate Oweter.

May I have a motion to accept the minutes of February 19th of April.

April.

April 3rd.

Which I was not at.

I saw a move.

Any modifications to the minutes.

I thought I had a second.

I'll second.

Sorry.

Any modifications to the minutes?

All in favor?

Any opposition?

Any abstentions?

The minutes are adopted.

Board will now conduct.

It is open to a public meeting.

And staff Kate will introduce Yeah, if the we do have a public hearing on the on the agenda.

So and it was advertised the uh applicants have asked to uh delay their presentation because it was advertised we uh the board should open um the public hearing.

Um and if there's anyone here uh wishing to speak, they can do so.

Uh uh but um uh then if it's the pleasure of the board just to hold the hold the public hearing open until the next meeting.

Um and I will say that the uh applicant has requested uh this hold uh because they're looking to do some outreach to the neighborhood in regard to the in regard to the the expansion of their property.

And I would like to hold until the next meeting for the applicant.

Um I would like to also state that um I will recuse myself for that applicant because it's a project within our office.

Not my project, but it's a project in our office.

Okay.

So the the public hearing has been opened but is now being held.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Um so uh moving right along.

Um we've uh so uh uh under old business we uh on the agenda is there's a minor site plan review.

Um for 713 715 East Genesee Street.

Um this one the applicant has also asked for an additional hold on on this uh pending uh some additional research that they need to do in into the window selection.

Um so I so they will uh they intend to be here at the next meeting also, which will be May 14th.

Um and that leads us to new business.

Um this is a major site plan review uh for 333 East Genesee Street.

You are correct.

On and Dogas Street.

Um I'm reading the old agenda that I uh so sorry, major site plan review uh number uh uh 20 26 17 uh for 333 east on and Daga Street.

Um there are facade alterations and site work proposed for this building that is located in the uh Columbus Circle Montgomery Street uh historic district, the expanded area.

Um the role of the board is to provide comment zoning uh on this project.

The applicant up.

Good morning.

Morning, morning.

Um I'm Joe Perino with uh Principal Adana Architects.

Um we're right here at uh 230 uh 9 Eastwater Street, and um this project is the we Monroe building um and it's at 333 East Onadaga Street.

It's a mid-20th century commercial office building that was constructed in 1968 by local architect Gordon Schaefer for the Monroe Abstract and Title Corporation.

Um it's a modernist style, has an irregular shape footprint as we all walk by there and see that see the uh it's a very iconic building for this area.

Um the Monroe Building is um a contributing resource within the Montgomery Street and Columbus Circle Historic Districts, as Kate has just said the project um is the change of use of the building from an office building to an apartment building.

Um we plan to put in 46 uh units, uh 12 one bedrooms and 20 and 34 studios.

Uh we plan to keep the front two bays of the first floor commercial, um, but the remainder uh behind that we're going today uh to get a use variance for that back area.

Uh but the first two bays you could, you know, based on those two uh sawtooths there in the front, the that'll all be commercial uh the office uh tenant, and then in the back, uh which is well off the street will be planned to be uh if we get the if we get the variance.

So the basement will be amenity spaces, laundry room, storage room, fitness center, dog wash, mechanical room will remain down there, and the existing roof uh is a green, it's a green roof, and that is it's unoccupied, it's gonna stay a green roof.

Um the building rises six uh stories to a flat roof with wide projecting concrete fascia and tall parapet wall.

Uh the exterior of the of the steel frame structure is clad in brown brick with precast concrete accents.

Um the front elevation faces east on the doggus street here in the lower left corner.

Um has the same vocabulary uh as the uh the south side uh which is facing the uh Carnegie Library, and um they all have uh this the brick piers with these deep recessed single pane pivoting windows.

Uh the windows actually pivot on a center pivot and they they go all the way out.

They're really cool.

They're uh single-pane uh windows though.

Uh, but we're we're keeping them.

We we've gone through them, we've done uh some research with them, and and and most of them can stay, but we don't want them to be able to be open, so we are gonna close them because if there's no way you could put a screen on it or protection, so if you open it, somebody can actually sit out on one of those deep sills, so we don't want that.

So we are gonna keep the the windows and we are going to just lock them in place, which most of them are like that right now.

They're all locked in place.

Um and Kate saw them.

We we took the uh a walk through the building and and and it's really neat.

The uh the south elevation here.

I mean, the reason it's angled like that is when you go up there, you can see you're just looking right out at the courthouse, you know, and it's got a great view.

Um, and then it you really can't see to the side, but it because it's all all brick on on the sides of those angles.

The north elevation is uh painted concrete block and is recently painted with the basketball mural.

We all know the basketball murmure, and that faces that parking lot.

Um, and it used to be the old YMCA building was there, and that's why there's no no uh uh windows there.

And we don't plan on doing anything, we don't want to touch that mural at all.

So that's that facade is staying as is.

Um in the back, it's also a CMU.

You can see it up in the upper left-hand corner, and that uh that's basically staying the way it is as well.

And all these windows, even in the front, they all have PTAC units right below them, and that's how they they basically did most of the heating and cooling in the building, except for the interior spaces.

There's a different system for the corridor.

But we are we want to bring that right back.

We want to just replace those P TAC with modern PTAC units, put them back in and kind of keep you know, each individual um apartment, studio apartment is that long bay, and and that will be basically entirely heated and cooled with that PTAC unit.

The um obviously we're gonna have uh required ventilation for kitchen exhaust and uh and toilet rooms that'll go all the way up to the roof.

Um so yeah, so we are planning to add nine windows.

Um I was gonna say, do you want to show which facade and then I'll I'll um so all of the window well let me first say we're gonna put apartments down here, so we're gonna put up one, two, three windows on the following, but not as long.

They will be so that it's just gonna be a little higher still, because we don't want to have the first floor that low.

Um, and then all of the other windows, each floor is gonna get one on that facade there, which is also CMU.

Um, but it's uh it's a strange elevation.

Um it's hard to see uh in the elevations, but that that elevation we're gonna put in uh first floor, got same window to match.

Um all of these windows here on the back are are not fitted windows, they're awning style, and they come in.

So we want to match exactly those types of windows on on the um on that facade.

Oh, yep, there they are.

Will those stay operable?

Can I ask them the new ones we're planning on having the uh the awnings?

Yes, we want to keep those up.

Uh we want to keep them at the new ones that we're putting in are going to be fixed.

First floor only.

Um, all of these are gonna be fixed.

Yeah, that's we were planning.

Um sorry, those are located in the stairwell or hallway.

No, these are gonna be a little bit of a apartment here.

That's so we wanted a bigger window right here in here.

Um, and actually we're gonna be using that whole, oh no, that not this one.

We're gonna be filling that in because that's actually in the ceiling space of each unit.

You can see the difference.

So we're gonna be putting the P TAC right there and then the window right there, and that'll just be that same room and rhythm.

Uh so it'll look just like this facade here.

So in our apartments, this space is the kitchen, and this space is the living room.

Um, so that's really all that we're changing.

Um we are changing the sign.

There's an old sign that has the three letters, yeah, the three threes, and then it says Monroe building, and we are just gonna change that to do a vertical look to that, and and but basically the same style.

Um you can go to the site now.

Um the the site is really tight, so there's only about 10 feet between here and the property line, and very minimal work, but I want to let Nathan uh here from uh Keplinger Freeman talk about the site.

Good morning, everyone.

Uh my name is Nathan Lopier.

I'm with Keplinger Freeman Associates.

I put together the site drawings.

Um so yeah, as Joe stated, there's pretty minimal site work occurring here.

As you can see, the building takes up the majority of the site.

Um the building's so narrow that a lot of the existing utilities are routed very close together.

Um so the main the main site work occurring is uh a new gas lines going into the building.

Um it currently isn't served by natural gas, so we have to cut up some of the the concrete.

Um that's illustrated right here.

Um and then did some coordination with Jeff, and we were able to squeeze in uh tree pit.

Currently, there are no tree pits on site, so we're getting one tree uh 500 cubic foot.

Um we're able to work around the existing utilities, so that existing concrete is gonna be ripped up as well.

Um so that's all of the concrete work that's occurring.

Um, and then we're putting in a new fence around the perimeter of the site just so we can secure the building and everybody's entrances are you know free and clear.

Umrigin we had a cedar board on board fence, the client wanted that, but you know, we heard your concerns that's that residential, so we switched that to an ornamental fence, um, black steel, you know, wrought iron picket style.

Could you show where where the fence began where your gate will be basically, and then and going back?

The fence starts right here.

There's a double gate, and then it follows the property line all the way up and around the size of the door building.

Um we have to maintain certain clearances that illustrated.

Um yeah, so that so the fence really is its starting tilt with the right here.

This is the two really nice fruit trees and adjacent properties, so kind of kind of frame full side.

How high is the fence?

Six feet.

Yeah.

Yeah, we had to maintain the uh egress around the building because this is one of our one of two aspects.

Uh the stairs, it's a it's like a scissor stair, but they're separate stairs.

There's two separate uh enclosures.

But one goes to the back and one goes to the front.

So we have to maintain that clearance all the way around.

And we have that's about it.

So that's our uh that's what um to maintain.

There's an existing guardrail that's actually utilized for this lodge, shows up on the site prep line, so we actually have to remove that uh.

We're hoping the county would put another uh guardrail back to their dumpster is right here.

Yeah, correct.

Yep.

Yeah.

So your fence is actually on the property line?

It's on our property line, yeah.

Yeah, the guardrail is on the guardrail is actually on our property.

So you have to move it, right?

Put our proper our fence on the property line, and then hopefully they'll put a guardrail.

Yeah, if you go to the other site drawing, Kate.

Shows up in red.

Hold on.

Whoop.

Yeah, you can see the guardrails.

It's the plan, so is the alleyway still, you can still sneak through that alleyway?

It's gonna be closed off.

It's all closed off, yeah.

Yeah.

And that's the reason for the fence back then.

Yeah, right.

But we're still maintaining the visibility now with the ornamental as opposed to a uh privacy fence.

There is an ornamental fence already.

Uh picture of it.

Uh ornamental fence, very similar to what we're planning.

It goes to the back of this.

Is there an elevation?

Is there an elevation of what the ornamental fence looks like?

Oh, yeah.

It's already small.

Yeah, it's uh let me see if I can get this back there.

Okay, yeah.

And that's because the other one.

Okay.

So this is a commercial, you know, heavy duty seal.

Okay.

So it's uh it can take some dings, it can it really will hold up.

Sounds good.

With the uh are you doing any cleaning to the facade or any change you're putting in new PTAC units?

Are you putting new grills in?

Because the grills kind of match the brick.

We are because it kind of presents as a homogenous yes.

Um we are gonna put in all three drills.

Um putting in two drills the back.

You know, we want the we don't want to change the uh cleaning uh there are some of the mostly the bricks are fine.

Actually in good shape.

Um it's that facade or the uh uh the pre-cast concrete on the top.

You can see there's stain up there.

Um so we're gonna clean it with uh just real um white.

We haven't we haven't completed our CDs yet.

So we are in the middle of a high pressure wash, low pressure wash, just to just to get we didn't do anything there, we would use a little bit of top.

Um your new windows putting will be thermally broken dual pane windows?

The new windows will be thermally broken.

Are you doing it existing windows?

You're not adding storms or any kind of interior.

Okay.

We we were to plan out.

Okay.

Um we are trying to meet the energy code, so there's so the existing building has uh on the inside insulation that's directly on the block, and then plaster, directly on the all of the plaster.

I've never seen a building that every interesting thing.

This is our complete up all the spray fire proofing, everything has come out because everything's any more tiles every there?

No.

There's talking, but you know.

Um one of the things that we've got to do.

It was 1968.

Yeah, I mean so one of the things that we're not sure about is the talking on the window.

Okay.

So we are going to do that task.

And so we may have to take them all out and put them back in.

Um fixing them.

We're taking all that installation out, and now we're going to put them back region or then should talk on that.

So we're actually losing a couple of inches in each room.

We have to put more insulation into the after all.

Okay, so you're compensating for the new windows are an analyze aluminum that match what's in the buildings actually.

Have you tested the mortar?

If everything else actually is stand down, this is aggregate.

But we don't have to.

I'm not saying anything.

We're over that.

Well, if you yeah, because we could see cost of city tax.

This this is a tax credit project too, isn't it?

Yeah.

Ryan.

No, not we don't get the nope.

But that's nice.

Looks like a great great project.

And our attorney has just to comment on the case.

Yeah, it's just a comment.

Any other comments?

Any other comments?

I I do have some interior photos too, if people would like to I'm just a few that I do.

I will mention part of the design of that sawtooth and facing the Columbus Carnegie and well, it's facing the courthouse.

You can views.

Yeah, no.

It used to be a building owned by attorneys.

Yeah.

Yes, yeah.

All extra.

My father-in-law was one of them.

So yeah, so that's it was designed in that sense, I think.

It's a condo building.

There's three owners.

Right.

And so we're buying it our own our client.

Because it's so if you got three attorneys off that are owners.

But thank you.

Thanks.

Um so I will uh report back to zoning with uh recommend to approve as submitted.

Yeah, with the revised fence.

But you will they will still submit to you what the new windows are.

And you can just yeah, I will think for the record, yep.

And uh they meet your I'll make a I'll I'll request that.

Okay, they weren't in this packet of information.

Right, so we don't have any floor plans either, so it's right.

Exactly.

This seems to be an exterior package.

Yep.

So uh any other discussion?

Uh there's uh just to let you know, we were we did get the grant for the training.

We were awarded the grant for the training, so uh there was some training last week at the um uh the statewide preservation office uh uh statewide preservation conference in Cougarstown.

Uh but we should just uh I I'll uh ask you to put your heads together.

Uh I can send out the uh their offerings.

Uh again, this is the uh National Alliance of Preservation Commissions that put on the training.

Um we're also going to get uh uh tour from um Bob too.

He's gonna give us uh sort of more of the historical background and we'll have a session um just about the development of the city.

Uh and more than just the board is invited to these trainings as well, just so you know um the online ones will be uh available to uh all CLG communities across the state, so hopefully we'll get a lot of people um to attend as well.

Uh but I will send round the list of offerings and uh we can come back look again at them and and determine which ones are are the priorities for for this board and then we'll work from there.

And then finally, I wanted to quickly introduce we do have a new lawyer, land loose land use lawyer.

He's sitting at the back.

I should have had him come and sit with us.

Yeah, who is so uh would you like to come up and introduce Connor?

Connor Rourke.

Uh assistant corporation counsel uh for probably about the past month or so I've been uh the zoning and land use attorney.

So guys have any legal questions, send them to the question.

You will be joining us at our meetings.

So you will have a seat at the table.

Sounds good.

Okay, yeah.

When uh well, especially for nice to meet you.

One or I was gonna ask if there was a replacement.

Yes, we do.

Yes, we do.

Excellent.

Um so I believe that is everything.

Um so we have a good uh an interesting agenda to come at the next meeting.

Um and uh yeah.

I just wanna mention that uh Kate and I were both at the preservation uh conference um in Cooperstown, and it was it's some of the seminars that I attended were fantastic, and particularly the ones that talked about experiences and examples of what they've done in their cities.

Um conversations in terms of new you know, Newburgh, Kingston, and so forth.

So that was really quite informative.

And that's all I have to say.

So if there's a motion to adjourn, a second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye, we are adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for the