The Landmarks Commission convened on Wednesday, April 8, 2026, at 6:00 PM in the Council Chambers of Waukesha City Hall. Five members were present (Mike Chrisien, Marty Larson, Carmen De La Paz, Tony Lanza, Andrea Dorantes); two members were absent (Matt Retzak, Linda Gourdoux). The meeting included updates on paint and repair grant funds, review of several certificates of appropriateness, and selection of the 2026 Landmarks Awards.
Good evening everybody. This is the City of Walkershaw Landmarks and Restoration Commission. We are celebrating Wednesday, April 8th. I'm going to call this meeting to order. Marty Larson. Andreantez. Carmen Della Paz. Mike Christine. Tony Lanza. I'll open it up for any public comments today. Nobody here? Great. Thank you so much. Moving on to the approval of minutes for item number two six-zero three one eight seven minutes of March 11th, 2026. I'll make a motion to approve. Thank you. A second. I'll second. I'm abstaining, so I wasn't here. So I wasn't here. I. I abstain. Perfect. So we will take this up again at next month's meeting. Perfect. Thank you so much. And we're moving on to landmarks commission paint and repair grant funds. All right. So as you know, uh paint and repair grants are approved at an increasing scale up to a maximum of three thousand dollars. Uh typically uh about uh fifteen percent of the cost of a project. Uh but the landmarks commission may use their discretion to change a board amounts based on project scope, overall impact, fund availability, or any other circumstances. Uh for 2026, we have 25,000 dollars available, and uh we have been told by the county that they do not expect to have a delay this year. We don't have the contract signed yet, but they've told us that it's certain enough that we don't have to delay approving paint and repair grants. Um so we we they're basically they're working on the contract now. So we we will uh have the money available this year, uh and you can approve grants as of this month if you if you choose to. Um we do have uh six thousand four hundred thirty-two dollars left over from two uh incomplete projects from twenty twenty-five. Uh I did talk to both of those applicants and both of them told me that uh they expect the work to be done uh in the near future. They said they're both on uh schedules with their respective companies for early in the spring. Um and one of them actually has some of the work done, and we may be able to get the get the grant out uh to him based on the amount of money that he spent so far. Um and you have not approved any grants yet, so uh you have the whole $25,000 available. Uh and uh just to note that approvals will need to be conditional on approval from the county and from the SHIPO compliance. Uh and as of this year, we have sort of a new standard uh for approving a grant, it'll have to be a spot slum or blight designation. Um which is does not mean that there is slum or bright blights that's currently existing on the house that uh the grant is for. It just means that the work is uh preventing or it can just mean that the work is preventing uh future condition of slum or blight. Um so in other words, it can't be for work that is uh that is purely aesthetic, but it can be for work that uh is something that's essential to the house. Um the I guess the uh positive uh for that is uh any property in that's uh historically designated can be eligible for a paint and repair grant. So the the uh we don't have any currently in the cables park historic district, but uh uh those ones would be eligible this year for the first time. I've got a question. When you said it's for cosmetic or not for cosmetic only. So is paint cosmetic only or not?