of the City of Wilmington Historic Preservation Commission to order.

Thank you for coming.

We appreciate your attendance at this evening's meeting.

Hearings before the Historic Preservation Commission are quasi judicial in nature.

This is a design review process to determine if the proposed project is congruent with the historic aspects and special character of the historic district or landmark.

Decisions of the Commission are based on the record of these proceedings, the Wilmington Design Guidelines for Historic Districts and Landmarks, and the Secretary of the Interior Standards for Rehabilitation.

Evidence submitted to the Commission for review becomes part of the record.

Appeals of commission decisions are to the Wilmington Board of Adjustment and then to Superior Court and are based on the record.

Appeals must be filed within 30 days of the date of the Commission's action.

Public comment is heard during the public comment portion of the agenda item.

Those who want to address the commission are sworn in as witnesses.

The chair will recognize those who want to address the commission during the public hearing comments should be directed to the commission.

To ensure that all comments are properly recorded, please come to the podium to address the commission, state your name and address, and please speak clearly.

This room is equipped with an assisted hearing system for people with hearing loss to use please switch on the T-Coil on your hearing aid or ask city staff for assistance.

At this time I would like to request that all cell phones be either turned off or put on silence mode a reminder to the commissioners if you have received or been made aware of any outside evidence related to any of the matters please recuse yourself.

I would like to ask that each commissioner to introduce themselves at this time we will start with you Daniel.

Daniel Hill Mary Ann Kaiser John Muzzy Romero.

Tara Murphy Edward McCaleb Michael Smith Steven Salke.

And we are also joined this evening by the fit following city staff members Don Snowley Historic Preservation Planner, Amy Bradshaw Planning Coordinator, Jeff Walton, associate planner, and Melissa Huffman's assistant city attorney this time if there is anyone in attendance that wishes to speak and has not been sworn in please stand and you will be sworn in by Miss Broadshaw.

Thank you.

Miss Netherly would you like to present item number one please madam chairman members of the commission my colleague Jeff Walton will be presenting this item to the commission this evening the uh application before you tonight is for 20 North 4th Street.

It's the uh former uh law enforcement facility uh that was sold to the uh first Baptist church which is which is an adjacent neighbor um as you know uh revisions to all facades of a building are subject to the design review in the historic district regardless of whether they can be seen from the public right of way the building occupies corners of Market Street North 4th Street and Princess Street the site is character the site has character defining features on market North Fourth and Princess Street the photo before you shows the uh curtain wall that that will be demolished as well as the cooling tower on the interior and uh this is an existing um I think uh existing garden that will remain some other photos of the site um this is kind of a uh photo simulation of the site itself and its current condition um shooting this is uh once the curtain wall has been removed they're proposing an uh on an art display and the expansion of the um community garden fencing this is the view from Princess Street uh just to kind of briefly run through some of the scenarios that they're looking to replace um uh the original purpose of this building was as a uh detention facility for the the county court uh system so it was built as a jail facility so a lot of the internal functions were for uh inmate incarceration purposes so you see a lot of the uh narrow windows and restricted access the apkin is proposing to um open those uh window accesses to a more office professional office sort of uh feeling inside so you can kind of see the before and after for the sites that the appearance proposing um all these uh images are internal to the site and so they will be only viewed uh from the uh Baptist uh first baptist church that adjoins this parcel in this slide they are looking to add additional doors on the back of the building which my pointers aren't really working um

So you can kind of see the before and after for the sites that the appkin is proposing.

Um all these uh images are internal to the site, and so they will be only viewed uh from the uh Baptist uh first Baptist church that adjoins this parcel.

In this slide, they are looking to add additional doors on the back of the building, which my pointers aren't really working.

Um they're looking to add glass doors in this area as well as add um railings for an outdoor uh space on top of the building.

If the HVC elects to issue an approval for the COA staff is recommended uh conditions in the case summary, and I'd like to submit the case summary and all attachments into the record for tonight's meeting.

I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Are there any questions for Mr.

Walton?

Not a question, but before we proceed, I'd like to recuse uh from this item.

I work for um the applicant's uh architecture firm.

All right.

We need a motion to recuse.

We're good.

If there's no objection to his recusal, no, we're good.

Anybody have an objective?

Okay, thank you, Daniel.

All right, at this time, are there um the applicant is present?

Yes, sir.

If you'd like to come forward and make a brief presentation, that would be terrific.

Thank you, Madam Chair, Commissioners.

My name is Bruce Bowman of Bowman Murray Hemingway Architects, and I'm the uh owner agent for uh uh First Baptist Church Holdings or FBC Holdings.

Um this is a uh uh project scale that you you may not be uh used to dealing with.

I'm sure there are a lot of smaller doors and things and such, and this is you know, when you're standing next to it, it's like the Titanic uh, especially um uh on the um uh portion toward Market Street.

The uh owner wishes to remove the screen wall and um cooling tower um uh for a variety of reasons.

There have been a number of um here you can see um some of the plaster, get my cursor to work, some of the plaster soffits have uh rusted off and and become a hazard.

Um the cooling tower that is behind in this big uh uh red box here is no longer used for the mechanical system that has been replaced in one of these uh other mechanical chambers back here.

At one time this cooling tower ran the jail, the courthouse and the historic courthouse, all those have been uncoupled, so it's you know it's of a scale that just doesn't fit anymore.

And uh really the uh I'd like to consider the front of this building really is more intended uh to be um Princess Street and uh you know it's much more um pleasing uh views of the courtyard and and you know harmonious um uh design though uh modern of an era from the past.

Um and I I think this is the thing that really could improve the aesthetic of the block, and I wanted to um guide the client to find a solution that would um uh uh allow for the sort of safety hazards and the mechanical antiquated stuff to go away, but put something back that uh would be appropriate or uh make the composition seem complete.

And so um Jeff, if you could uh who is uh Don, okay.

Uh I saw you running the thing.

Maybe I can do it myself here, but okay.

So here we go.

Uh before currently, rather uh after uh what we're proposing is to uh extend mouse is a little not gonna cooperating here.

Okay, the uh we're extending the community garden space here, and I think if I saw correctly in the staff report, uh you wanted to keep the fence line back where it currently is, but the planner itself could move out, or I suppose the planner could stay where it it is now, either of those two options.

Correct.