[Music] [Music] e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for e e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] wait how does that happen I think he going to call video about to make sure I look good perfect whenever good after good afternoon welcome to the regularly scheduled meeting of the city of cor gaes historic preservation board we are residents of gaes and are charged with the preservation and protection of historic architecturally worthy buildings structures sites neighborhoods and artifacts which in part A distinct historical Heritage of the city the board is comprised of nine members seven of whom are appointed by the commission one by the city manager and the ninth is selected by the board and confirmed by the commission five members of the board constitute a quum and five affirmative votes are necessary for the adoption of any motion libr registration any person who acts as a lobbyist pursuant to the city of KL Gables ordinance number 2006-11 must register with the city clerk prior to engaging in lobbying activities or presentations before City staff boards committees Andor the city commission a copy of the ordinance is available in the office of the city clerk failure to register and provide proof of registration shall prohibit your ability to present to the St preservation board and applications under consideration this afternoon the lobbyist is defined as an individual Corporation partnership or other legal entity employed or retained whether paid or Not by a principle who seeks Toc encourage the approval disapproval adoption repeal passage defeat or modifications of any ordinance resolution action or decision of any City Commissioner any action decision recommendation of the city manager any City board or committee including but not limited to quasi judicial Advisory Board trust Authority or counsel or any action decision or recommendation of City personnel during the time period of the entire decision-making process on the action decision or recommendation which foreseeably will be heard or reviewed by the city commission or a city border committee including but not limited to qu you judicial Advisory Board trust Authority or councel presentations made to this board are subject to the city's false claims ordinance chapter 39 of the city of cro Gable city code I now officially call the city of cro Gable historic preservation board meeting of March 20th 2024 to order the time is 4:05 p.m. present today are board members to my left Miss da Mr Arin half Mr Maxwell to my right Miss Spain and Mr Silva and myself Caesar Garcia ponds um first item on the agenda is the approval of minutes we have two minutes um that were provided do I have an approval of either or both of them a motion I'll move to approve is um both items there's a motion to approve the mici by Miss D second second by Mr Maxwell um all in favor I I I opposed motion passes um notice regarding expar Communications please be advised that this board is a quasi judicial board and the items on the agenda are Quasi judicial in nature which requires board members to disclose all expar Communications an expar communication is defined as any contact communication conversation correspondence memorandum or other written or verbal communication that takes place outside a public hearing between a member of the public and a member of a quasi judicial board regarding matters to be heard by the Quasi judicial board if anyone has made any contact with a board member when the issue becomes comes before the board the member must State on the record the existence of the expart communication the party who originated communication and whether the communication will affect the board member's ability to impartially consider the evidence to be presented regarding the matter um does anybody have any expart Communications they wish it is close at this time we'll have the opportunity to do again so at the the each case um Madame peress are there any deferrals on the agenda item for today good afternoon um yes we have two deferrals uh one is for case File lhd 2024-25 19 Toledo Street to be deferred to the may5 2024 hearing and um the other is Case Files CP 2024-the deferred to the April 17th 2024 meeting what was the case number 006 006 246 COA the first COA oh it was the first one I have is 005 no then thank you we updated it before I can get here thank you Miss Ben um swearing in if any persons in the audience will be testifying today please rise to be sworn in also if anybody is on Zoom that wishes to be speak today must be visibly on zoom and sworn in um let's do the end audience first and then if anybody pops up on Zoom we'll do it again is there anyone on Zoom no nobody's raising their hand thank you okay let's move into the agenda first item local historic designation case File lhd of the local historic designation of the property at 415 Aragon Avenue legally described as lot 16 and the West half of lot 15 block of corable section B according to the plat thereof as recorded in plat book 5 at page 111 of the public records of miam day County Florida I know you all normally like to hear Elizabeth Madia voice you get me instead so here we go the property of 415 Aragon Avenue is for you for local Historic Landmark well okay Landmark designation the single family residence was designed in 1924 by Frank Wy Woods for John stel the application was initiated by City staff in response to code violations and I'm not moving this come on as per article 8 section 88-103 of the Coral Gable zoning code a local Historic Landmark must have significant character interest or value as part of the historical cultural archaeological aesthetic or architectural Heritage of the city state or Nation for designation a property must only meet one of the criteria as outlined in the code this property is eligible as a local Historic Landmark based on the following three criteria historical cultural significance criteria four and that it exemplifies the historical cultural political economic or social trends of the community and Architectural significance criteria 1 and two in that it portrays the environment of an era in history characteriz by one or more distinctive architectural Styles it embodies those distinguishing characteristics of an architectural style or period or method of construction 415 Aragon Avenue is located in Coral Gable section Part B a residential neighborhood of single family homes located between leun Road and Hernando Street it sits on an interior 75x 110 lot on the north side of the street the property contains a single family residence and accessory garage building at the northwest corner of the lot that you can see on the site plan the structur the structures are all located on lot 16 the West half of lot 15 provides a sidey yard to the east K Gables was originally conceived as a suburb of Miami and attracted investors from Across the Nation during the south Florida real estate boom of the 1920s George Merck Drew from this Garden City and City beautiful movements of the 19th and early 20th centuries to create his vision for a fully conceived Mediterranean inspired City city that is now considered one of the first modern planned communities in the United States landscape architect Frank button drew the first comprehensive maps of the city in 1921 and 22 one of which is on the left side of this Slide the initial Construction in Coral Gables was concentrated in sections a through D which were located uh in an around or near and around the Merck Plantation section A and in the direct vicinity of the Granata golf course as you can see from the plat map of section B on the right Merrick offered both larger Lots near the golf course and smaller lots to the north and east of that of the course Lots in section B were first offered for sale in December of 1921 and the red arrow is 415 Aragon this home was commissioned by John stabil in 1924 he was a well-respected contractor with a flare for ornamental cement work he worked with Merck from the Inception of Coral Gables and was lotted for his excellent and tropical withstanding construction and was often cited as the contractor for homes commissioned by americ and designed by H George fin Walter Deo or Keenan Elliot in 1923 he built one of the earliest commercial buildings in Coral Gables uh located at 290 Aragon it's the old books and books building the stal building it's shown here and is currently a local Historic Landmark it housed his masonry masonry business which included ornamental work as well as making Barrel tile when procuring the tile from Cuba and Spain could not keep Pace with the building in Coral Gables in 1924 he was awarded the prestigious contract to build the Coral Gables Congregational Church in December of 1924 Frank Wyatt Woods a wellestablished architect from New York arrived in Miami for vacation he was experienced in Mediterranean inspired architecture and visited Coral Gables he became fascinated with Merck's Vision stel offered him an office space in his building and commissioned him to design three homes one of these homes was 415 Aragon Avenue to Coral Gable's benefit Woods decided to stay and these were the first of numerous Coral Gables Commissions in later years Wood's work was credited with aiding and shaping a new direction of mid-century modern design in the Miami area 415 Aragon Avenue was constructed during the land boom era when homes were built almost exclusively in the Mediterranean Revival style which Drew from Spanish moish and Italian precedents Merrick chose this architecture as he felt it harmonized best with South Florida's climate and lifestyle this home honors Merrick's Vision in that it was built over a crawl space to provide ventilation and separation of the high water table has thick Mary walls to Aid in keeping the home cool along with light colored textured stucco exterior walls that reflect the sun's heat Vari reex varied recessed casement windows with projecting Sills and porch features were arranged to provide much needed cross ventilation and light and this tropical environment as described further in the designation report the Home Ex exhibits many additional character defining features of the med Revival style many of which are listed here on the screen as the home takes cues from Italian architecture which is a style Woods pursued in Coral Gables in subsequent years in particular substantial carved masonry Barrel Vault entry Hood camped uh in Copper and supported by carved masonry brackets at the front door the delic the delicately Twisted columns and the Slender chimneys the hood feature was removed at an unknown date additional uh Mediterranean characteristics include the Juliet Balcony feature the bass relief tonum the series of arches the masonry scr scroll work transitioning to the parapets decoratively grouped round Vents and metal railings in 1940 a small approximately 9 by4 bathroom addition was added at the northeast corner of the home off of the East wall of the sleeping porch and you can see it its location is called out in red on the screen the property retained its 1940 configuration and most of its character defining features until this past year when substantial unpermitted work occurred which included the removal of historic features and the initi of a rear addition at present all work has ceased and mitigation of this unpermitted work is ongoing in 2003 a permit for roofing and a permit for interior Renovations were approved however work on the site far exceeded the scope of these permits in July of 2023 the city staff noticed the removal of the Twisted columns and railings on the corner porch code enforcement issued a violation and stipulated that the removed columns be secured and prepared to be reinstated subsequently work continued without a permit and as seen here the last of the railings were removed and the to openings were reduced in Fall of 2023 activity at the rear of the home was noticed and by October 2023 it was clear that an unpermitted Edition was being constructed a stoper order was issued the images on the left of the slide illustrate that prior to the unpermitted addition the rear of the home remained as originally designed with the central Terrace the photos on the right show The partially constructed unpermitted addition that infills the recess on the East facade and the central Terrace on the rear facade the roof of the back half of the home appears to have been removed changed in type and sloped towards the remaining historic home the addition removed historic Fabric and encapsulated various sections of the original exterior walls nonetheless this 1924 home significantly contributes to the historic fabric of Coral Gables the projecting Flat Bay spans most of the front uh width of the facad it steps back at the Eastern end to a flat roof main living area spanning these flat roof sections is a front-facing Barrel tile gable roof extending back at the center of the home the fenestration is recessed with protruding Sills and various and size and configuration uh 10 of the original wooden casements are replaced with aluminum awnings in 1970 with a permit specifying the original openings and Sills are to be retained decoratively grouped round vents are found above the windows on various facades two chimneys rise a half story above the roof line one Rises through the Western portion of the gable roof and the second along the east facade of the the home with a decorative curved bracket on top of the parapet Rising along its side across the front projecting Bay and wrapping around the southwest corner are a series of semicircular arches at the southwest corner of the home is an arcaded covered porch within the arched front entry the original curved wood plank door with its carved spindles remain and centered under the gable roof is a Juliet Balcony Ensemble on the right is this balcony feature uh the masonry bass relief tanum that most that is most likely the work of John stal and is one of the Hallmark features of this home The Ensemble retains its original balcony and railing as well as the Twisted columns below the the masonry panel centered above the arch are three decoratively arranged round vents scrolled masonry features provide a delicate transition from the gable roof to the parapets of the front Bay in the arched front entry the original curved wood plank door and with its carved spindles uh is still extent the metal railing that curves with the front entry steps is also to the east of the entry is a small window Ensemble that retains its original window and its curved uh metal Grill work also shown here is the in Italian inspired chimney with the decorative curved bracket on top of the parapet at the northwest corner of the home uh of the property I'm sorry is a one-story 20x20 accessory building it originally served as the garage and servance quarters for the residence in later years the servants quarters was used as a rental property there is an actual permit for this uh the building has a flat roof with simple parapets the textured stucco matches the main residence the vehicular opening was enclosed in an unknown date and two windows were installed however the infill was recessed so the original garage door opening size and location is maintained and there are doors leading to the living space on both the south and east facades in conclusion 415 Aragon Avenue is amongst the earliest homes in the city it stands as a testament to founder George Merck's vision for Coral Gables the single family residence and patch garage were built uh were designed in 1924 by architect Frank W Woods for John stel when Woods came to visit Coral Gables in 24 seil commissioned him to design three homes one of which was 415 Aragon Avenue this launched Woods's career in Florida designed the mediteran Revival style the property is an example of the homes built during the city's founding years it's retained its historic Integrity for nearly a century and significantly contributes to the historic fabric of the city we therefore recommend approval based on its historical cultural architectural significance thank you Miss Couts is the owner anybody here to speak good afternoon board members Lauren Khan with offices at 1450 brickl Avenue I'm here on behalf of the property owner 415 Aragon LLC um we' reviewed the report we've met with Miss peris we have a meeting scheduled this coming week with the building official official the director of rear um Our intention is to return to this board with a certificate of appropriateness for some of the work that's been done it we understand that it may need some modifications so that it meets not just building code but historic standards um we also intend to restore some of the architectural original historic features of the structure and um we are going to be proposing a modest addition in the sidey yard it'll be recessed we'll work through that um with a historic um so that so that the home is really the primary structure the existing home um so we're looking forward to returning um to the board with for the COA okay thank you very much um any questions for staff um or the owner's rep before I go to public hearing any questions okay let's open it up for public hearing does anybody wish to speak in favor of this case anybody wish to speak in opposition to this case for the record all the public comment that was received in advance of the meeting was circulated to the board members thank you Miss beness we did receive it uh okay so closing public hearing bring it back to the board is there any discussion on this particular item and I know that we have in the past maybe made resolutions saying based on staff reports and the testimony given to make the motion um I'm going to ask that maybe we have a little bit more robust um beefed up motion items as part of the motion so uh maybe we do want to start with some discussion before we make the motion Mr Silva uh just a question for for staff I guess this is so this is kind of a messy case right um we're being asked to designate based on the condition of property is in today correct um and can we can we make as a condition of our designation any future work or is that we need to designate as it is now it's typically normally based on what's being presented to you if there's an accelerated like COA attach Sometimes some of that work contributes to the designation but in this case you're basing it solely on what was given to you thank you so my my two sents are that that the home even if even in its current state retains enough of its Integrity um that it could be uh designated um obviously it has had some intensitive work done to it um I'm very glad to hear that the applicant is willing to to maybe correct some of that work uh in a future certificate of appropriateness um I'm glad that it's being brought to us um now um before any more work has has gone forward um so so just how does this work now because it's kind of in in limbo right we have we have a a notice evolation with zoning I guess the applicant is meeting with zoning and and building to resolve the permitting issues but historic is involved in those discussions correct correct so if those involve revisions to to the permit they would need to to go through you only if we designate and forgive for all the questions correct so if we do not designate you would not be involved in the future conversation corre thank you thank you Mr San for clarification the action required of this board is to designate or not that's the only action before us today there are ramifications to that decision any other comments or discussion about this particular case or item I just have a question which I think was answered but I didn't hear it um did they agree to put back what they took off of this house uh without a permit I do not know if that's been discussed or not we haven't approached that yet we we've discussed with Miss peris which aspects she thinks do not meet um the historic Integrity of the house and so we'll be modifying those um we haven't come to an agreement exactly what they are but also if things do not meet building code they will have have to be removed as well wait I don't know what you just said and I don't understand it and I'm pretty sure I don't agree with it um are you talking about the columns if they don't meet the like the those spiral columns they're not there anymore right correct that that was one of the things that Miss Perna said you know is is pretty much a deal breaker that those need to be returned that those would have to be returned and the architect was going to work on a detail to get them figured out because right now they've been completely removed and thrown out what were you thinking I mean honestly what were you thinking was not she just the representative owner mentioned what they were thinking doing that in Coral Gables on the front facade of a 1920s home excuse me sorry I digress one sort of question for clarification are there any permits in the city regarding this property today yes and they're approved permits the work has extended beyond the limits of that so anything they went past their approved scope of work including some exterior work that was done and the addition at the rear so anything that is not included in the permit needs to be corrected and would have to meet the criteria of our board and one of the things that we talked about how it works but it is how it works that's what I'm asking yes and and that is the goal and one of the things that we talked about with the owner when we had the meeting was about adalum tax exemption so she's going to be restoring all of these elements and putting back the right windows and doors and we can maybe get them to get back in place get back Mr yeah um I understand our Focus today is just is there enough historic material on the house to designate it I too think so but I have and I maybe I shouldn't talk about them or ask questions but I have I have I have questions obviously if we designate that's a local designation you can't have demolition okay if we don't designate if we don't if we don't designate then that opens a whole new ball of wax that will open doors for these people who have already damaged historic features and once they were told can't do this then they continue to do it and then after the second time then they continue to to do even more work that is impacting historic features in the rear so there there there are three times and they kept doing it and doing it and doing it okay I think it's inappropriate and so I'm going toward a question which is when one designates and one does approved uh modifications to to a home then there are are ways that there there's there's uh there tax rebates and and things for that for for the cost of all of that and uh there's an abatement a freezing of the the the the the tax base for 10 years uh I I have questions about whether in this kind of a scenario or all this damage has been done whether this owner and and the and the the people involved are going to be able to a Avail themselves then of of those costs but I don't think it would be appropriate if it has anything to do with removing the inappropriate materials are there fines involved for violating things you know I've got all of these questions you know so mostly I guess with respect to the designation I want I want to have a feeling about how that's going to impact the benefits that a designation would have afforded positive uh things for for the owner are is are they going to is it is the Slate wiped clean or or do or or does that does that benefit go away in in there's fines running on the property now okay um we're meeting with building and the building official I believe next week on Tuesday to go see the site and see what work has been done and what needs to happen moving forward for their permitting if this gets designated today I will be involved in that meeting if it does not is that Manny Lopez you're going out Manny Doug there's and one will be there yeah so we're we're all trying to get this building back in order the right way and if we're involved that means that anything they do to the building moving forward um they would have to meet our criteria zoning building code Etc so one final question then how do they restore the features I mean one part is that you know they messed with the Arches and then they poured a slab and changed the you know the the height of the the the Okay so so does a mitigation include ripping all of that out but how does one restore these kinds of features that were his you know were were they would have to be replicated I think I think that it needs to be micromanaged if they're having to make faux replications of columns and things I don't think you can go find columns that were period that have they're any place else no but I I I'd just like to voice that I'd like to see acute micromanagement of absolutely everything that goes forward on this especially in the plans of what they're doing to to make the best they can making good on what was was destroyed thank you Mr columns and everything else so so the way to do that is to vote in the affirmative to designate yeah Mr MAA okay I have a question contemplate another scenario if if possible Miss peris could we defer until they've actually done the work it wouldn't have to meet our criteria if it's not designated so like if they got if they if we did not move forward with the def if we defer today no permit can be issued because it's under process for the designation so an action needs to be taken for them to be able to move forward with any new permitting um so we either are involved in it why by designating the building and making sure that everything is done correctly and the permits meet our criteria an SCA would come before you all Board of Architects would likely have to review any addition that they're proposing and changes to the building um and then we can then kind of micromanage by creating conditions that certain specifications details um shop drawings need to be submitted to staff during the construction process and that's how we monitor it to make sure that at the end it's the right you know end result or you take an action the other way and they go forward with building as they need to to legalize the the modifications made so is it revocable so if if they don't do it is Max into the mic but if I may intervene there's the the decision that's made by this board today if the board Wishes the historic preservation office to be part of the ongoing efforts to restore the house you should vote to designate if you choose to not have the stor preservation office involved in the renovation of the house you should choose to not designate Mr Dan um mine was just a question on on page 14 of the presentation if you look at like that top photo it looks like you can see some of the spindle columns um like that they that they broke down I was wondering are there any of them still on site like any of that debris or or has that been tossed cuz you might be able to salvage at least even if we could Salvage the front one and then maybe the side ones are are replicas but when was first noticed they were instructed with a red tag to retain everything that was taken off to my knowledge it's gone there's there's a pile of something on the east side of the property under a tarp which we can't go in and you know look for stuff it may be there I don't think so okay if we do have it even if there's you then you cast one you mold mold it and cast it absolutely and maybe we can use that one for the front you know and then the side ones can be replicas and then the railings I think we can I mean a lot of times these railings rot anyways so you have to repair them and and refabricate them so I think that can be done so I think I think we can desonate it Mr Silva just just one more question or one more comment really um if if this designation does go forward um since we are technically designated it designating it as it stands today I want to make it very clear that that that does not give support to having it stay in its current condition right we're we're expecting it to come back and we're expecting for for appropriate things to be done as this is corrected the designation would not legalize any of the work done without permits and any future work would come before this board as a certificate of appropri or you have the opportunity then to talk about all the details we just talked about so we're still on discussion we're not asking questions of staff for the applicant does anybody have any board discussion anything amongst ourselves okay would anybody like to make a motion get page motion Mr D what's your motion I like um I like a motion to um designate the property based upon the three k criteria found in article 8 section 8-13 of the corable zoning code and the findings of historical cultural significance as well as architectural significance so that's a motion is there a second I'll second it second by Mr Dano any discussion okay let's call the role Mr arft but where do you yes Mr Silva come up Miss Spain yes no no I'm the Mr Maxwell yes and Mr Garcia Pond yes is that everybody Mr arinal did you vote I did okay motion passes 70 thank thank you um next item case File lhd majorka Avenue legally described as the east 25 ft of lot 7 and all of Lot 8 block 30 cable section B according to the plat thereof as recorded in plat book 5 at page 111 of the public records of Miami day County Florida thank you same same deal here we go so the property at 808 Mador Avenue is before you for consideration for local Historic Landmark designation it's a referral uh from the board of Architects to you all um as per article [Music] 8 section 88-103 of the cor Gable zoning code a local Historic Landmark must have significant character interest or value as part of the historical cultural architectural aesthetic or architectural Heritage of the city state or Nation for designation of property must meet one of the criteria in the code this property meets uh the following three historical cultural significance criteria 4 exemplifies the historical cultural political economic or social trends of the community architectural significance criteria 1 and two it portrays the environment of an area and of History characterized by one or more distinctive architectural Styles it embodies those distinguishing characteristics of an architectural style or period or method of construction I apologize if some of this is repetitive we have to get it onto the record 808 Majora is located in corable section Part B just north of the Granada golf course it's a 75x 112 1/2 ft interior lot on the south side of the street on the property uh is a single family home and a detached garage at the southeast Corner George Merrick founded Coral Gables in the early 1920s based on a vision for a Mediterranean inspired City this City's developmental history is divided into three major historical periods that you can see on the screen during the initial development period architectural design combined elements commonly used in Spanish moish and Italian architecture and has come to be known as the Mediterranean Revival style mer Merck and his team felt this architecture harmonized best with South Florida's climate and lifestyle and during the 1920s structures and amenities were built almost exclusively in this style the home at 808 major occurred during this initial phase as indicative of the type of architecture that was the founding premise of Coral Gables it exemplifies Mediterranean ideals and climate adaptations espoused by George Merrick and his design team Coral Gables was originally conceived as a suburb of Miami and attracted investors from Across the Nation during the south Florida real estate boom of the 1920s mer Drew from the Garden City and City beautiful movements over the 19th and early 20th centuries to create his vision for a fully conceived Mediterranean inspired City now considered one of the most important uh first modern planned communities in the United States uh landscape architect Frank button drew the first comprehensive maps and of C Gables in 1921 and 22 one of which is on the left of this slide initial Construction in C Gables was concentrated in sections a through D located near the Merck Plantation section B went up for sale in December of 1921 in accordance with Garden City precepts that guided Merck's development of Coral Gables some streets were ploted with smaller lots to accommodate various income brackets and modest homes that were built with the same highquality construction and Mediterranean bival style as other structures that shaped the new city the home at 808 Major Avenue was built in section B on a 50ft wide lot the property expanded to 75 ft wide in 1954 with the acquisition of half of lot 7 as in this aerial photo 808 majorka um as seen in this photo one is 808 majorka was one of the first homes built on the street it was a one-story moderately priced home that followed Merrick's Vision early records show that Robert and Leona BAS moved into the home in November of 1923 and 6 months later Leona was hired as one of the first teachers at Coral Gables Elementary she remained at the school for 36 years and owned the home for 15 of those years the original permit for this home has not been identified or located to date however a few locks away a contemporaneous home that offers comparative primary documentation as seen here on the bottom right 533 alkazar Avenue with only a few changes to details appears to be the mirror image of 808 Major Avenue this this photo shows it near in completion on March 21st 1923 in late 1922 the Dexter gear Construction Company commissioned architect H George to design 10 homes and Coral Gables and they have been identified as permits number 430 through 439 in December of 1922 the Miami heral reported that all 10 of those homes were sold prior to their completion and that another 10 were being commissioned the second set of commissioned homes have not been identified to date but given the almost identical Mirror Image uh of the home in the time of its initial occupancy in November 1923 it is highly likely that 808 Major Avenue was amongst the second second group and also designed by think the home was designed the mediterran vial style amongst the character defining features are the textured stucco walls variety of parapets and Barrel tile accents of the flat roofs the shoulder chimney with with its distinctive geometric masonry cap decorativ grouped Square events as well well as the smooth-faced masonry base and the recess cement casement windows with projecting Sills additional features are discussed throughout the designation report the property at 808 Major Avenue includes a single family home and a detached auxiliary Building located near the southeast corner of the property the one-story residence is built of masonry over a crawl space with textured stucko the home retains its rectilinear and step Bay massing it has had no additions the step bays at the rear of the home are designed uh as a sleeping porch and a back porch but both are now enclosed as living space the home is under a flat roof and a series of parapet types Adorn the home the fenestration varies in size and configuration Windows are recessed and casement in type with protruding cells Square vents are Decor decoratively arranged as a single or triangle above the windows on all facades and wrapping around the home as a smooth faed stco base the parapets and chimney are notable and distinct mediterran Mediterranean Revival Style style features of the home at the northeast corner of the house was originally a screened entry porch is now enclosed for living space the curaline ear Spanish mission shaped parapets to Mark the porch and bring attention to the home's main entry the coping of the flat parids flanking the mission parid are clad in two-piece Barrel tile centered below each parit is a single Square vent on the east side which is the bottom left uh two additional distinct parapets Adorn the home these are moish inspired inflexed curtain Spade type parapets centered blow each of them are a triangular arrangement of square vents on the west facade near the northwest corner a rectangular shouldered chimney straddles and rises above the simple parapet The Chimney Cap has a masonry geometric screens in keeping with the morish inspired parapets on the East facade exterior alterations of the home are almost exclusively fenestration related in 1972 the property was purchased by Tropic properties upgraded and sold a year later at this time the original wood casements were replaced with awning windows and the front rear sleeping the front and rear sleeping screened porches were enclosed in various manners in n in 2019 casement windows were reintroduced into the home and some original porch openings were further reduced at this time these alterations are detailed further in your designation report during the N during the 2019 window campaign both of the large front porch lentils were removed the photos supplied here of 533 alkazar Illustrated with the porch most likely originally looked like the window permit shown on the right does does show the front facade lentil and the drawing does not indicate that is to be removed staff visually assessed the property from the public RightWay and examined permit documents building records and historic photographs to evaluate the alterations to the home and their impact on the overall historic Integrity of the property we have determined that the property at 808 Majora possesses significant Integrity uh sufficient Integrity for designation at the southeast corner of the property is the original detached garage it is one story under a flat roof with simple parapets the textured stco matches the home the detached garages are important features of the early uh homes within the city this one appears to have been converted into living space at some time in conclusion the home at 808 majorka built in 1923 was the earliest homes built in Coral Gables design in the Mediterranean rival style this home exemplifies the founding design premise of Coral Gables in accord with Garden City precepts that guided Merrick's development of the city some streets were platted with smaller lots to accommodate various income levels and modest homes were built with the same quality of construction and Architectural features as other structures that saved the city saved the city in the early 1920s the single family home and its detached garage at 808 Major Avenue stand as a testament to Mer's Vision therefore this property retains its historic integrity and significantly contributes to the historic fabric of the City of Coral Gables staff recommends approval of local historic designation of the property based on its historical cultural and Architectural significance thank you Miss Scouts is there anybody from the owner side that wishes to speak okay um from the board any questions for staff this is a great time to ask questions if we have questions for staff okay let's open it up for public comment uh does anybody in the audience wish to speak in favor of this application anybody wish to speak in opposition hearing none closing public comment bringing it back to the board any board discussion on this item and again I encourage the board to provide some specificity to the motion and if you wish to use the staff report it's on page 18 well I'd like to thank the staff again for providing so much detail and so much information that really does support the findings um of the three criteria and for explaining how the property still possesses significant Integrity for historic designation thank you any other comments or thoughts from the board Mr Silva um I think that the home does retain almost everything um and it certainly in its original massing um and I appreciate the fact that that the windows were were brought back to the casement right we see that a lot inappropriate Windows um we try to avoid that when we can um but I'm glad to see that that was so this is It's kind of its second window third window life right and now it's back to what it was supposed to be so so that's that's great um and as far as I can tell the only the only thing that was lost from this house from the original was that lentil over the port so I definitely think it Mer's designation thank you Mr Silva any further discussion does anybody wish to make a motion I'll make a motion motion to approve um based on staff recommendation of historical and cultural significance exemplifying the historical cultural political and economic social trends of the community I.E early date uh architectural significance two parts portrays the environment of an era of historic of History characterized by one or more distinctive architectural Styles and embodies those those distinguishing characteristics of an architectural style or period of method of construction thank you Mr Max there a second I'll second second by Mr Aaron ha any discussion or questions let's please call the rooll okay Mr danana yes Mr yes Mr Silva yes Miss span yes Mr Maxwell yes Mr Aron yes Mr Garcia Pon yes motion is approved 7 to zero thank you um the 242 is deferred correct um so we'll go to the next item speci certific of appropriat before we do that I'd like for the record to show that Mr danana appeared before the first item was read um just to put it on the record um SCA case File COA special 20245 an application for the issuance of a special certificate of appr of appropriateness for the property at 10:31 alhamra Circle a contributing resource within the alhamra circle historic district legally described as Lots 19 and 20 and the East 19 ft of Lot 21 Carl Gable section c according to the plat thereof as recorded in plat book 8 page 26 of the public records of Miami day County Florida the application requests designed approval for addition and alterations to the resid and site work thank you so location map the property in question um it's part of the elhammer circle historic district which was designated in 2008 uh which comprises properties uh single family residences on both sides of the street from leun road to ceva Avenue um this home was designed in approximately 1923 1924 was permit number 204 in the city so very early while the architectural firm of Hampton and ryer this is uh phot approximately um a year later uh the carport was added to the west side of the home as you can see in this photograph in 1928 architect Phineas Pace designed an addition to the east side of the home which is a pretty substantial addition the application request is on approval for a one-story garage and gazebo addition to the side west of the residence a new covered Terrace to the rear and various site work there are no variances that have been requ wed as part of this application uh the proposal was reviewed and approved by the board of Architects with conditions uh there are three of them as noted in your staff report um the city architect eventually approved the um the drawings with the conditions the that board of Architects uh was based on satisfying those comments based on what I see I see that all of them appear to have been addressed except for maybe one except for maybe a but you can you can confirm that um we have some set some staff conditions our only major um alteration that we would um suggest is that the Coral Rock on the base of the addition that's visible on alhamra be eliminated because that is such an important important character defining feature of this home um that we don't want it to compete but I will let them go through their presentation and then we can continue thank you Miss counts this is the home as it is now you introduce yourself applicant or owner wish to present um my name is Michael Tyler I'm co-owner of the house with my wife Maria and I've lived in 10:30 Al hamur Circle for about 20 years I moved from 10:31 Al hamur I'm sorry I moved from 10:30 to 10:31 El hamur Circle because when my wife and I first got married she wanted to live across the street from the house she always wanted to live in when she was a little girl which is 10:31 Al hambur Circle thank you and my name is Robert graos I'm with Village Architects um and actually with the um Board of Architects I believe that we had um uh complied with all of their uh requirements I'll have to read through that work closely if there was something we did not comply with I thought we did for their approval um and this house has been in front of the board of Architects we've gone through several times with window openings in fenestration uh the court that um is on the base that was one of their comments at one point we were trying to find a good uh location for the coral which it seems like probably best just to remove the coral and do the stco base um we do agree with all of Staff comments um with what they're talking about um so you know there's not much else uh that we want necessarily to say on this we were here to answer any questions um so if there is anything that we can help you with in understanding um we can go through that um so please ask us any questions okay so if you don't wish to do a presentation you want us to ask I mean there's if there's any questions I mean with the design has been through a lot it's a very small little addition on the side um you know if you want us to walk you through what's going on we can um but that's up to you so let me bring it back to the board um are there any questions or comments from the board to staff or The Architects and one of them could be you want to see the presentation or if you have any direct questions Mr Silva thank you I just have a a quick question um again you can make the presentation if you like but um so staff had a list of 10 conditions um and you indicated that you would agree with all of them correct um one of them involved a request to remove that that Coral base right correct yes um so that Coral base kind of comes along and picks up the line of of one of those undulating existing Coral things so that that you would replace with with a stuckle correct delated like a stuckle break and and then moving onto the other side um you had some Coral columns and what what are you proposing to replace that with well the coral columns which are on the Gazebo there are two of them um those we personally don't mind those being clad with coral if this board you know feels that that may be too much you know we would take those out but that was Again part of going through the other boards of you know trying to incorporate Coral um we had Incorporated coral on the um covered terrorist as well which now we're even taking off the little um you know the barrel tile cap to that just to keep it nice and clean so thank you thank you Mr Silva any other questions from the board to the applicant or staff all right thank you I'm going to take it to public comment um does anybody in the audience wish to speak in favor of this case does anybody wish to speak in opposition okay closing public comment bring it back to the board any board discussion on this item Mr sld I think it's a very well done addition um I I think it's it's very clearly differentiates between the new and the existing which is part of the existing part of the Secretary of interior standards um if you're okay deleting that that Coral base I think it's probably a wise move to to go to stuckle there I don't have an issue leaving those columns in the back as Coral okay good um was can I clarify something if you don't mind was your intention to have it like honed Coral or to be more Rubble Coral or it's it's sort of seemed like um like there's a a grout line indicated like a horizontal like going up so is it is it intended to look like blocks or it is intended to look like a block um as it goes up okay yeah it doesn't have to be likeed and F it can be you know like the ex okay it wasn't I just I wasn't clear on what it was I don't have a problem with it in the back as being freestanding columns so yeah and and I think I think even though we're matching the height of that of that existing parit I think the fact that it doesn't have that that that Spanish tile coping frates it enough to as kind of distinct yes and just again more background that height was debated several times of higher we' tried it and so yes we're all very happy with the height that it does match and without the barrel tile it then definitely sets it apart the initial proposal wanted to remove the carport entirely so they' they've come quite a quite a long way with with their proposal so we're okay so Carol what was it that you were saying that you weren't sure that they had complied with of the three uh items on the board of Architects I think it was the first one yeah it says remove Keystone at proposed rear elevation and I wasn't sure what that was referring to on the rear elevation now uh where we have the barrel tile on top at one point they wanted a keystone or Keystone Fe or a coral Stone feature so Keystone was added on that that was REM yes I didn't know if it was the wall behind the behind the Gazebo or okay on that all right check check again we had tried portal everywhere how how long have you been at this two plus years it sounds like it to get to you guys any other discussion amongst the board members not asking questions to staff or the applicant no I think I think it's a nice addition um and I agree I think take the coral off the front uh garage wall I think it it'll differentiate a little better but other than that I like it thank you does anybody wish to make a motion I'll make a motion to approve um based on the staff conclusions that uh listed in the report items number 1- 10 uh beginning with window door muttons glass extending down to material specified for a new pool deck uh motion to approve with the conditions noted for 1031 Alhambra Circle and the special certific appropriateness um yeah okay sorry yeah and approve the special certificate of not appropriateness with the conditions noted above thank you Mr Maxwell is there a second I'll second second by Mr Silva any discussion on the board call the rooll okay Mr Arin haft yes Mr Dan yes Miss da yes Miss Spain yes Mr Silva yes Mr Maxwell yes Mr Garcia Pon yes motion passes 7 to zero thank you very much thank you very much um next item Case Files COA special 20242 an application for the issuance of a special certificate of appropriateness for the property at 1615 Country Club pra a local Historic Landmark legally described as the North 4.46 Ft of lot 18 and lots 19 and 20 Carl Gable section e according to the plat thereof as recorded in plat book 8 page 86 of the public records of Miami day County Florida the application requests design approval for additions and alterations to the residence and site work thank you promise y'all I'm sitting down after this one so this is uh the property at uh 1615 Country Club prao it was uh designed in December of 1939 and was permit number 6119 in the city it was designed by the architectural firm of auso and shumi and the Mediterranean transitional style it was designated as a local Historic Landmark December of 2014 the application request design approval for a one and two story approximately 1600t addition to the rear uh to the northeast of the residence and site work no variances uh were requested in conjunction with this application and it was reviewed and approved by the board of Architects uh in January they approved it with a comment to add a window to the second floor uh the comment was not incorporated into this submitt so we have some um conditions of approval um which are in your report but we do recommend approval with those conditions does the applicant wish to speak sorry about my voice um my name is Luis hoi I am with East Shore Architects we are at 237 South Dixie Highway and I'm here to present the historic preservation board to the to the historic preservation board the addition to the resident 615 Country Club Rado um so as you can see in this first slide um the original photograph and how the house is today the house has been altered a lot in the front um it used to have a a trellis um as an entrance and it used to have a a courtyard with a fountain unfortunately two additions um got rid of those and added that roof that goes across nonetheless we've um we're not touching the front at all and what we're doing is adding to the rear and the way we've added to the rear is to try to incorporate the Secretary of interior standards by just tapping into the house at places where it's not seen from the street and um where you can you can still appreciate the entire house and its in Integrity so this is um the the property it is just um south of Milan on Country Club prao on the on the east side um the houses on either side that flank the the subject property are one-story homes as you know this was built in 1939 it's um post depression pre-World War II house oh I'm going the wrong way sorry um so this is the site plan um to the left is the existing property and in pink is the area that we are planning to demolish which is a patio that big rectangular piece and then a small section of the kitchen and the circular stairs um the staff report says that we are taking down part of the garage we're not doing that at all we're maintaining that back wall of the garage we're reconfiguring the opening that goes out um so that we can provide an entrance to um to their new laundry area and kitchen area the the site plan to the right shows um the addition which is a two-story addition and the link on the second floor is a small Bridge brought in from the corner of the existing house and brought in also from the new addition so that so that you can see the difference in you can still enjoy the original house um and on the first floor behind the garage what we're doing is we're doing a link with a one-story with a one-story um element so that our addition floats entirely away from the um existing home so this is the the floor plan on top you'll see um what's there today in pink what we're going to remodel the walls being torn down as I said are just those two areas um we're adding a mud room a laundry room and a vestibule all of that will be one story and then a a kitchen and family room to update the house um and we're putting a covered porch in the back and what we're going to do with that covered porch is it's going to be a trellist flat roof but covered we have details of what the original porch was like in the front of the house and we're going to try to match those beams and and um and do that that way second floor as you can see um we are tying it in we we're converting the one bedroom into a upstairs family room adding a hall bath in case they ever want to enclose that back to to another bedroom and adding a master bedroom and bath with a small bedroom that'll use that that bath and and that bath number two connection is the the bridge that separates the addition from from the existing house this Photograph here um shows the existing front and um what you would see from the Street in in beige which is behind the garage and way back um at the time we we put those air conditioning units up there the the code says that you have to have air conditioning units um from the setback whatever the building setback is in well the Cod is changed and now it's um 5T from the sides you can put the air condition regardless of what the building setback is so we're going to revisit that and if we can get rid of them up there we're going to we're going to do that for sure because it's a pain to have them up there um this is the rear of the house so um on the top photograph you see what's existing the little section of um the kitchen there and that door with the circular steps is what's being removed you can see that on the on the top photo to the right um and then the bottom is our addition we're matching Windows we're matching roof pitch we are distinguishing um the addition bands are different we don't have the outlookers that the house has we have a regular fascia we're not putting the the lap siding at the gabled end that the house has um but in essence we wanted to to complement the house on its own this is the the side so here you see the garage to the right you see the recessed one-story link that has the air conditioners above so that that whole Corner that whole side of the historic house is still evident and then the two-story addition which proportionately we've matched to the um to the existing house um but differentiated as I said with FASA banding and suckle work this is um the other side um so here that addition is way back you don't you don't really see much of it but this is what you would see again um that bridge connector between the two you can see it we've recessed that back the 8 in so that it floats away from it and so that the addition and the new the the addition and the old house um remain intact these are some perspectives of what we're planning to do so the first two um is a Southworth aerial view um that's the front and you hardly see from that side the addition on the northwest aerial view you see the garage the one-story link and the twostory addition with bridge and the southeast aerial view you see the addition there um and how it's linked with the bridge and um and then in the other one you see the the porch and oh there's a little there's a little gazebo on the property um that we're maintaining and that's the line that we use um to to create the pool patio and the porches and and everything else there's a huge tree on the other side of that gazebo so it was it would have been impossible to do any addition over there thank you thank you I've got a Mr danana I've got a question for City attorney cuz I've actually uh was called out to this house I think like a year ago wasn't it or something or two two or two years ago so I I I did meet the owners and I gave them some suggestions on what to do but I don't know we can talk outside for a minute if that's appropriate for the and while the discussion continues if you want or we can take a brief two-minute recess if you can step outside that'll be great um any questions for staff for the Architects about the project this is a great time to ask questions of staff and The Architects just Mr Silva I had a question car I'm not sure if I heard you right you said that one of the board of Architects comments was to add a window and you're not sure if it was done or so oh yeah so yeah can I answer that question I don't know the answer board of Architects um soing your own work so so yeah they um they thought it would be appropriate to add another window um due to the program and the tightness of the of the property to add a window in the ba another window in the bathroom wouldn't really work out and if we added one in the closet which is our only walk-in closet we would have to put drywall in front of it so after the meeting was over in discussion with Anna we looked at it and we felt that the aition was significantly back that we didn't need that window at all um so we left it at that if um if you want another window we could add it um this was the front facing front facing okay yeah no for the record I'm I'm fine without adding the window I just wanted to ient that window with the door inside inside I could move it to the right if you feel that it needs more you know more negative space on the other side just wanted to understand where that was coming thank you Mr Jana so for the record uh after speaking with the attorney it's it's fine uh there's no uh Financial um what is it based on the information that Mr Don shared I don't see a conflict of interest and Mr Don has stated and he can see on the record here he's free of bias and ready to vote on this today correct thank you Mr danana any other questions for staff of the architect I have one if nobody else does for the architect you mentioned the the new rule about the AC's and the sort of AC patio that you created yeah it definitely is not something that I think works towards the benefit of the existing house um would that balcony exist if it were not for these AC units it would be a parit roof and it wouldn't have the tall wall um the problem is that the the available space that's left is in front of their living room or in front of their dining room we've already put the pool there um so while you see it in pure elevation you don't you don't really see it in perspective right um the new rule is that from 5T you can put the air conditioning equipment right so before it was if you had a 10-ft side setback the equipment had to be within that 10 ft um our problem is that we only have seven and a half and typically you need 5 plus 4 to be able to do that all the equipment is there now and the equipment was legally put there because we got approvals for the Mechanicals but in review to come here zoning said you got to move that mechanical equipment I think on page a405 the renderings I don't know if you have that one the ground view renderings I think you showed the area renderings uh how do I go back to it keep by the PowerPoint back up please so are you're not replacing the AC un no we are we are we're adding we're there's two there we're adding two we just thought that it would be more convenient to put it up there which which the ground view renderings not the aerial renderings which one is that the ground view a405 the Northwest ground view not back oops should be 19 on your slide P 19 so that the quad the quad renderings the renderings with the four on a sheet that there you have another page that is from the ground do you not have those on your presentation okay so for us who are looking at this on page 405 the top leftand rendering is a ground view showing that the balcony where the air conditioning units would be may not be as visible from the street as it is in the elevations um because it is very prominent in the elevations thank you any other questions for staff for the applicant and this is a great time to ask questions of all right uh thank you very much we're going to um open up the public hearing um does anybody in the audience wish to speak in favor of the application does anybody in the audience wish to speak in opposition to the application okay closing public hearing bring it back to to the board is there any board discussion between board members you're very specific about that direction any questions comments of one another Mr Sil comment again um so on this house where it's it's really about the massing and the Simplicity of of the language I think it's interesting when you look at at that North Side the north proposed elevation where you see kind of the existing wing and the and the new wing and and really the masing is almost exactly the same but it's the Gable end but but the the detailing is is very differentiated and I appreciate that that you know the existing has the rafter taals and then we've got a regular Eve on on the addition the the reg the the original has kind of one style of molding at the second floor and and the addition has a slightly different right so so it sort of all reads together um but I appreciate the the level of detail you went through because it's very important on a house like this right right it's it's all about these slight differentiation so that we understand what's new and what's thank you Mr s anybody agree disagree any further comment great okay is there a motion I can make a motion Miss ban like to make a motion to approve with the conditions noted in the staff report the design proposal um for the property located at 1615 Country Club prao uh and approve the issuance of a special certificate of appropriateness with those conditions is there a second second second by Miss D we have a motion in a second any questions or comments of the motion I'm have to okay let's call the role Mr arft yes will Mr yes Miss D yes Mr Silva yes Miss Spain yes Mr Maxwell yes Mr Garcia Pon yes motion passes 7 to zero thank you very much thank you very much next item thank you thank you an application for the issuance of a special certificate of appropriateness for the property of 1498 Sevilla Avenue a local Historic Landmark legally described as Lots 1 to three inclusive locks six C Gable's Country Club section part one according to the plat thereof as recorded in plat book 8 at page 108 of the public records of mday County Florida the application requests design approval for an addition to the residents variances have also been requested from Article 2 Section 2-101 4 C and article 14 section 14- 210.52 minimum rear setback good afternoon um the property at 1498 svia Avenue was designated as a local Historic Landmark on May 22nd 1984 on July 20th 2022 the historic preservation board approved a 300t second story Edition located above the 1926 one story link between the house and the 1968 Edition the drawings indicate the Edition proposed had a smooth Stu finish and which uh would be painted to match the existing structure and a new roof which would match the existing slope and finish the scope of work has since been modified to include extending the two-story Edition to the east to line up with the edge of the 1968 Edition um construct a covered Terrace and enlarge the pool patio by extending the existing site wall the addition will be minimally visible from this right public RightWay um in addition a variance has been requested from Article 2 Section 2- 101 D4 C and article 14 section 14 2105 C and D of the corable zoning code minimum rear setback to allow the proposed addition to have a rear setback of approximately 5' 6 in versus the minimum rear setback of 10 ft as per article 14 section 14 2105 C and D the official front of the home is alhamra is the Alhambra Circle elevation making the East property line the rear of the property the the structure as built um as originally built was diagonally situated on the corner of seevilla and Alhambra Circle the applicant is requesting to build a two-story Edition behind an existing 1968 Edition the 1968 Edition has an existing setback of 5'6 where the minimum rear setback is 10 um given the the ASB built conditions of the residents and the unique um conditions of the site staff is in support of granting the variance um the staff has also included the same conditions of the original approval from that 2022 application to include the glass should be clear no tint or no reflectivity Monon shall be high-profile and the stuckle on the new edition shall be differentiated from the stule on the original 19226 1926 structure and the 1968 Edition uh therefore staff recommends a motion to approve the variance to allow the proposed Edition to have a rear setback of approximately 5' 6 in and approve the conditions noted with the conditions noted above the special certificate of appropriateness thank you Miss benas does the applicant wish to speak or present I'm sure hi I everybody I'm sorry did you say your name oh no um okay got it yeah good afternoon my name isard bort I'm the architect and co-founder of Arco architecture located at 2490 Coral W Suite 301 Miami Florida I want to thank the board for taking the time to hear our presentation today the SI located at 1498 Sevilla and uh it was already previously approved by the board on July 20 of 2022 uh we are presenting today a request for a variance uh for the rear setback uh the scope of work is being revised to extend the already approved two-story addition On The Ground Floor Terrace for it to match the end of the existing residence as requested by the client to have an even more cohesive design uh this revision however does not change any aspect of the design from what was approved in the front of the house uh I just want to knowe renderings of the rear side and I'll make it to the PowerPoint but they are available on sheet g103 of the set provided um even though the address is 1498 Sevilla towards the end of the permitting process uh we found out that the zoning department denotes alhamra Circle as a primary front due to the partial layout on the plat book uh the code requires a minimum of 10 uh feet uh rear setback and we're requesting a variance for it to be 5 ft instead the closest point to the proposed addition will be to the appropriate line that that will be to a property line is 5.48 Ft uh which is where the corner of the existing residence is and from there the property line angles out uh I want to point out as well that there is no neighbor to the rear as it faces the bmore golf course uh by extending the family room and aligning it to the end of the existing house it creates the opportunity to add a Terrace matching the adjacent sun room and extend the pool deck which is very tight around the pool on the second level the primary bedroom becomes larger and has more presence uh and also we now avoid an awkward Roofing condition which would have had require a Cricut at the intersection of the two roofs uh you can see uh here the front elevation before and after nothing here has changed from the original approval by the historic board and lastly for our original approval we are still differentiating our design from the rest of the house as requested by staff by having a smooth stco finish score lines in the stco and by not having uh window seal trims which are original to the historic site and with that I conclude my presentation does anybody have any questions for the applicant or for staff I'll start with my question um do you have a drawing that shows the difference between the original House the previous approval and this approval the three different pieces no I we did not put it in the presentation is there any way you can describe it on any of your drawings yeah yeah it's uh so the the approved design it was basically the can you pull up the drawing oh yeah sure me oh can we present the can you place the presentation back up thank you there you go so let me go here in the floor plan um so you see on the left the is the existing on the you can use the button and you can point and you can probably point at this screen too if you'd like so oh on here yeah perfect you can point right there if you want oh there you go cool thank you so uh you see this this uh this is the existing house and this is where it currently ends so on the on the original approval we were just extending that on the we were just extending that to the second floor as this is a flat uh roof on the on the existing house so if you see here on the side plan it's it's currently a flat uh portion so it's it only attaches the two structures on the first level so the original proposal was to make it a second story so but it created like an awkward corner here so after after we got approval from the board and from the historic board board we decided through during the permitting process to extend it all the way and it it really ties the the the design together uh the the you know you don't get the complicated roof condition at the end and you know creates a nicer project can you show it in elevation as well please so here it is so the upper one is existing conditions not approved conditions no it's existing as it's right now and the approval would have been just an extrusion of the line on top straight up correct with the same LA and as we're proposing yeah so from the front from the front nothing changes uh you know that's the that's what the house looks like right now and and this is the you know where we're extruding it okay I think that was important to say because it makes a big difference between what was there what was approved and we're looking at now there is as you mentioned not much difference on the front elevation all correct it does not change at all it's just an extrusion on the on the back thank you yeah any other questions for staff Mr Silva a question for staff so the the address of this house is is s right I understand that that Z wise I guess the fronted street is is not Sevilla right but if it were seevilla the side setbacks would be would be 20% of the lot up to 20 ft right with a minimum of 5T on one side as long as you can make up the balance of 15 so if if the frontage of this house were Sevilla this wouldn't require a variance is that correct because you're at 5 foot6 from that side I think that's I think that's we can ask the architect correct yeah and that's what when when soning uh gave us the comment we were like no this is the side of the house what are you talking about so we with them and and he they walked us through it like no we consider it um the alhamra so they base it on how it's pled right corre not the FR yeah right but I just want to be clear about so it would not require a variance right if the frontage was what the address says right and there was an addition already put there in 1968 with that 5'6 setb right okay thanks that was my question thank you Mr Sila great question any other questions for staff or the architect great time for questions all right no questions thank you very much going to take it the public hearing now open it the public hearing does anybody in the audience wish to speak in favor of this case does anybody wish to speak in opposition hearing none closing public comment bringing you back to the board any discussion um between board members any thoughts comments on this particular application well just generally this house I've been watching because I walk my dog past it all the time and I really appreciate the low simple wall that you did uh it's it doesn't have the big columns the way a lot of the uh uh newer construction does have and it really respects the house and so um I think so so far you you're doing really an excellent job and I appreciate app the clarification of the extension of the previous approval and how it does not make a significant impact on anything seen from the public RightWay any other comments questions Mr Silva just yeah I agree um I wasn't on that board that approved that that that project originally um but but I do think that it's it's in it makes sense and and I agree with with Mr pound that ites that this revision doesn't really materially affect the the facade from the front and speaking to the variants because I think it's important to take a look at these very carefully right um I think that that in this case to me it seems as if this house we be just restoring kind of what should be right it's just a quirk of the planning that that that results in this variance being requested so I would be in support gr VAR thank you um does anybody wish to make a motion and there's two motions there's a variance motion or three a variance motion a design proposal and an seoa can we take them all together yes okay certainly we can take them all together if somebody wants to make one Omnibus motion I'll make a motion Miss Bane i' like to make a motion um to approve the conditions noted in the staff report the design proposal for uh addition Insight improvements to the property located at 1498 seia Avenue and approve the issuance of a special certificate of appropriateness with those conditions noted above in the staff report and also to approve the variance to allow the proposed addition to have a rear setback of approximately 5T 6 in versus uh the minimum re setback of 10 ft as as required by the zoning code thank you Miss B is there a second second second by Mr Maxwell any discussion on the motion questions on the motion um let's call the rooll Mr Arin yes Mr danana yes Miss da yes Miss Spain yes okay Mr Silva yes Mr Maxwell yes Mr Garcia PS yes motion passes 7 to zero congratulations at this point we're going to take a quick five minute recess before we start the next item so we'll come back at 5:35 5:35 thank you e e e e e e e e e e e for e it's Monday Wednesday and Friday but he will for e e for at least hey Anna yeah thank you you e okay let's call the meeting back to order meetings go back to order at 5:40 recording in progress the next item is case File CP 20241 an application for the issuance of a special certificate of appropriateness for the property at 3932 tendia Avenue a local Historic Landmark legal Al described as Lots 3 4 and 5 block 39 CW Gables Country Club section part three according to the plat thereof as recorded in plot book 10 at page 52 of the public records of day County Florida the application requests design approval for the demolition of the original auxiliary structure additions and alterations to the residents and S work thank you and good afternoon again um um the property at 9:32 tendia Avenue was designated a local Historic Landmark in August 2023 the scope of work requests design approval for demolition of the original auxiliary structure additions and alterations to the residents in site work as a designated Landmark retaining as much of the original fabric of the site is a priority when proposing a new addition the design should be compatible with the historic character of the building in sight and must preserve the historic sorry building form an envelope the scope of work includes demolition of the original 1926 garage 1940s garage converted to a screened in porch 1980 garage Edition and a 1981 rear Edition the Redevelopment of the site includes a one and twostory Edition to the West that includes a new two-car garage kitchen family room laundry room and guest bedroom on an and a one-story addition to the east to include a gym master bedroom bathroom and closet attached to the original structure by a glass corridor the proposed site work includes a new pool outdoor kitchen and Patio the proposed addition to the West requires the demolition of two 1980s additions that are not contributing to the historic fabric of the site in addition to the historic building should be subordinate to the historic building and read clearly as an addition staff is concerned the width and prominence of the proposed garage as overwhelming the existing on story portion of the historic structure and recommends that the addition is set back from the front wall of the Phineas paste Edition the one-story Edition is located behind the historic structure in place of an existing 1980s Edition and will not be visible from the public rideway the walls of the addition are proposed to be an aluminum storefront system on all three sides inconsistent with any of the existing materials of the historic fabric the design should respond to the historic context and needs to be further studied to create a cohesive Ambiance between the old and new the one-story addition to the east will house a master suite and gym and will be connected to the original house by a glass corridor the glass quar will replace the 1941 garage Edition that has been modified the one-story Edition is finished in a smooth stuckle and includes a stepped parit at the front and gabled roof to the rear similar in pitch and material to the existing structures the proposed window and doors are more in keeping with the historic structure in size and proportion but the pattern and the patterns differentiate it from the original window design the addition does a successful job of taking cues from the historic context to create a compatible design and this is just kind of a layout and highlighting where the two additions are located on the east and west side of the of the site um including this in the proposed site work includes the demolition of the original detached garage and construction of a new Pool and Patio and outdoor kitchen the demolition of original historic fabric is considered drastic action as it Alters the historic character of the site um per section 8- 107d of the Coral Gable zoning code the board shall consider the following criteria in evaluating applications for special certificate of appropriateness for demolition of designated properties one would be the degree to which the building structure and Improvement or site contributes the historic Andor architectural significance of the historic site or District the structure is original to the construction of the house and has been minimally altered this is a contributing structure this contributing structure is considered to be a char defining feature of the site as per the historic designation report approved um with the designation in 2022 um number two whether the building structure and Improvement or site is one of the last remaining examples of its kind in the neighborhood country or region the detached auxiliary structures were common in the original development of the City of Coral Gables but many have been altered or demolished uh number three whether the loss of the building structure Improvement or site would adversely affect the historic Andor architectural Integrity of the historic site or District the the removal of his original historic fabric is should be considered a drastic action number four whether the retention of the building structure Improvement or site would promote the general welfare of the City by providing an opportunity for study of local history architecture and design by developing an understanding of importance value of the particular culture and Heritage again detach auxiliary structures were common in the original development of the city and there are other opportunities for this type of study uh whether the origin architectural plans have been presented to the board for the ReUse of the property is the proposed demolition were to be carried out and the appropriateness of said plans to the character of the historic site or District if applicable and demonstration as well as the posting of a bond requirement that there are sufficient funds in place to carry out such plans the proposed Redevelopment plans are not compatible with the original structure and need to be further studied no bonds have been presented to staff at this time whether the and number six whether the building structure and Improvement or site poses an imminent threat to the public health or safety um the structure is in stable condition any deterioration is due to lack of maintenance number seven whether the applicant has demonstrated an the retention of that building structure and Improvement her site and would create an unreasonable or undue economic hardship as described in section 8-15 none have been presented to staff at this time and number eight whether there is compelling public interest requiring the Demolition and none have been presented at this time the proposal was reviewed and approved by as noted to recommend the approval for the demolition of the auxiliary structure the accessory structure by the board of Architects under December 7th 2023 um in conclusion the purpose of the designation of historic landmarks and districts is to promote the educational cultural and economic welfare of the public by preserving and protecting historic structures um as proposed the additions are not compatible with the existing development of the site and architecture of the historic structures The Proposal is overwhelming the original 1920 structure and requests the demolition of original to of the original two-story garage as per the designation report the two-story garage with distinctive exterior stair case and detailing is considered to be a character defining feature of the site and its demolition should be considered a major alteration staff met with the applicants on multiple occasions to express concern over the proposed demolition of the original auxiliary structure and Redevelopment plans staff recommends reconsidering the organization of the new additions to take advantage of the existing vacant areas of the site and exhaust all attempts to reuse the original garage prior to the consideration for demolition therefore staff recommends denial of the designed proposal for demolition of the original auxiliary structure additions and alterations presented today um thank you thank you Miss pus as somebody from the owner applicant wish to make a presentation okay good afternoon Carlos prio Tu uh principal at Tu studio uh until recently with offices in Coral Gables U we just moved away um I would like to uh show you a model that takes you through the history do do you mind if I do that a physical model feel free may I do it there you may or I could do it here if you all want to come over better okay Mr chair if we could just make sure that um cgtv can zoom into it I just want to make sure that it's um appropriate for those on zoom and theor is there put it where you want to put it and then we'll see if the camera works okay can the camera capture this location over here okay there it is so Carlos looked around just don't get in the way of the camera thank you okay great okay so the original um building was built only on Lot 4 uh the whole property was Lot four and that time um thetion can everyone on the board see okay yeah please you can actually touch it also but um anyway so 1925 um Pearson and Skinner are The Architects and they designed the primary home which is really a cruciform there's a two-story component uh the main entry exists as a one-story element on one side on the opposite side there's a small leg that extends out there was also built at that time but we suspected it was only slightly later that year because um there is a slab covering the septic tank within the body of the garage building so this is 19 by 1926 this is The Ensemble and there's a really nice photograph of it in in the report um in 19 um 30 5 uh 36 Phineas paste was asked to do an addition to it but at that point the property was now three lots so originally it was only this much it was a 50ft lot basically at that point the Phineas paste Edition which is a library element is an extension of the smaller thinner arm of the structure now that there are three Parcels the the next Edition which is in 19 1941 is for a garage building so at that point we think is when the two garage doors or maybe before that they were sealed up and um additional openings that we believe existed on this side because there are still when we took down the the drywall inside and we have photographs you can see that there were Windows there those were filled in then In 1980 this was Leroy Albert 1980 it was Harper bzc and then they came in and extended uh like Phineas Pace had done U the facade along the front edge uh which is this kind of strange leg here and then this very tall one story garage building a year later there was an additional uh structure placed in the back sorry very cool um and that was a family room kitchen addition so um when when our clients came to us um their request had been that they really wanted to get rid of all of the um additions that had been added to it that really did not represent um any real um promise so this one was removed I I do want you to notice that this Edition actually lines up almost exactly with the front of the of the original structure uh the 19 81 the garage building which at some point when this was built was turned into an open air kind of porch and then because the original uh two-story garage structure was right in the middle of the property the the challenge U for the clients is and in fact the last photograph that uh Anna showed you I don't know if you noticed how how close this really is to the building I mean it's oppressively close to it so to to really be able to take advantage of really the backyard uh we felt that it was important to eliminate this structure so if you would let us take you through our thinking and then we we can always come back and discuss this further so I'm going to what I'd like to do is just put the model together and then show you plans and elevations and renderings if you don't mind I'll be fast okay so part of this is really our renovation and ation of the inside what's really interesting is uh the living room has a ceiling which is a paneled ceiling very much like um the property down in um in South a uh oh my God I can't remember bineas paste if you've seen it yes the deing estate has a great paneled ceiling so this is kind of like a very baby version of it but it it requires that the Phineas Library um there what we're doing is trying to bring back really the woodwork on top and uh take advantage of uh some of the trusses um and really just bring them out and really show them up the part T was to take advantage of what was once an open loia here and use that as a spring point for a linear circulation spine so that allows us to still have this as a front door this becomes all of it becomes a living room but we use a a glass Corridor which we articulate to be like a Pergola uh with the ability of having some planting on the top over the elements that extend beyond it we have a wing which is the uh master bedroom Wing that also has a gem the idea being that this is completely transparent so it allows you to look deep into the property We Shrunk the front of this element so that the scale of it was also smaller than uh the entry feature which is right next to it the spine continues through on the back it continues to read uh a little bit like a Pergola glazed pergola then there is a larger element in the back which is now completely invisible from the street that has a kitchen um all of those amenities in a large family room with a feature in the back that is treated like a a fireplace but is in fact has other functions and then the garage when I show you the plan you'll see we we struggled to push the garage as far back as possible um so in fact it's not as far back as the element that's there now it protrudes U about 5'4 in beyond the Phineas Pace facade whereas this is I believe 13.9 or 14.3 I don't remember so if I could show you some some drawings now could you please show the the set of drawings please okay thank you would you mind if I just took you to the plans or would you like me to figure your your presentation okay well in that case I'd like to start I'm sorry let's go okay sorry let's go back here um oh take you to where we start there you see the uh the idea of the linear uh Corridor uh the intention um is to we we actually do remove we we turn around two of the uh lower uh Treads of the stair so that now they engage the existing stair engages with that Corridor um here you can see part of our intention to bring the garage further back um because in of the earlier conversations um staff had commented that they would like the garage to move further back which we did U but we still felt that it was important to have the circulation element so the garage moves [Music] back the um I'll just take it to the next floor this is when uh the the mouth mouthpiece of the little wooden element in a Inus show Falls and you're just kind of standing there hoping that no one notices so can it check to make sure that the PowerPoint is working properly yeah can we turn it off and turn it on again yeah let me go back one now it's it's Frozen not you oh excellent thank you so the second floor all we're doing is really uh renovating putting in new uh AC systems and bringing all the surfaces back together there's a smaller second floor towards the back behind the garage that's been pushed all the way back um beyond the end of the Phineas paste elevation the reason being that that makes it very difficult to see um pedestrian level from the sidewalk here it probably is visible just slightly Beyond elevation of the existing and elevation of of the new one the uh the glass Corridor that um I had mentioned uh with uh the facade to the gym and then on this side uh we're restoring some of the openings that were part of the Finas paste putting a canopy there and then this is the garage building Beyond existing back um you'll see I'm sorry just really quickly does not like to go back okay just go one further back here I wanted you to notice uh some of the articulation from the back from the open Loa from the 1925 building uh to some extent inspired the articulation of the garage on the front side elevation here you see the garage building with the two existing windows and a louvered element above um we believe that the stair was modified to some extent the steps that are there now may be original but the U tread to Riser configuration is sometimes much taller riser to a tread it's kind of a a dangerous uh stair but one thing about maintaining this and putting it to use is that we would have to bring it up to meet code and at that point it brings the ceiling down so you have 6' 3 in clear from the new slab height um and in the drawings there's a section that shows you what the elevations are within that space and it has to do with the uh crown of the street and the 16 in requirement this shows um a view of the family room which is a glass enclosure which faces into the private Garden in the back that's not visible from the front in any way and then you can also see the U the twostory element that exists way back uh here which is slightly lower than the two-story element of the historic building we brought some samples of roof tiles in the metal if you'd like to see that and then sections giving you an idea of uh the configuration of the existing building here this is cutting through the living room in the Pearson Skinner building um this is a section uh further down um giving you um kind of an idea of just sectionally how the linear circulation operates and then the heights of the spaces U Beyond section through the glass Corridor it has a parit on either side which allowed um zoning to uh to for us to keep it and then a slightly different articulation on the on the master bedroom Wing back there where it's really not visible from the street but it plays off um some of the Arches that exist in the back of the open Portico some renderings showing um bringing back the the glass openings to what they were originally in terms of configuration the articulation that really wonderful kind of moment at the front door the Finas paste door there this gives you an idea of the glass corridor and then The Ensemble um that's it did you want to come back to the model I'm and I'll take the model back or would you like to keep it there and let's leave it here for now okay okay that was a lot any questions for the applicant or staff I have one if nobody else Mr Aron have no so I don't want to I hate to start with this one but you mentioned the garage would need to be brought up to code you you glanced right through that really quickly so um the the existing elevation of the garage is lower excuse me than the existing house the existing house actually has two floor elevations U the garage is lower because the cars were driving right in um I believe the code is that you have to have uh the ground floor brought up 16 or at least 16 inches above the average crown of road across the street if we were to follow that and there's um yeah in the set of drawings if you have it there I'll try to bring it back you can bring the presentation back up pleas it's in yeah it's uh oh it's not here CGV please could we have the set of drawings again thank you oh no this is actually this is Tony's bre here we go so I I think on your screen you probably can see it a little bit better and so this is the the slab over the a portion of the septic tank there's a secondary opening of the septic tank right beyond the right Beyond the Wall so Mr J you're saying that even in a historic home in a garage that's used for automobiles you would have to raise the floor well because it's no longer a garage can't be used as a garage so it would have to be made habitable and I believe 76 is minimum you can have seven but not as major space I think that's a secondary consideration aesthetically at least for us the way to be able to take advantage of the rest of the property for the clients is to be able to have access to it the garage no longer serves its initial function it has other functions and could have other functions I'm sure but um it is not visible from the street I mean you could probably peek at it but thank you you're welcome anybody else has questions for Mr Tu the architect of Staff pretty complicated project I have a a quick Miss Spain question go ahead go ahead okay so I uh I I know that that out building that they want to demolish is legally non-conforming but um I don't believe You' be able to build that nowadays um because of the zoning code you know if you have an apartment above a a garage that's separate from the house um although maybe they have the square footage on the site I mean it's a unique condition that that building has um I I think it's right historically significant I would hate to see it be demolished I'd like to see it repurposed into something really cool doesn't have to be um doesn't have to be a a garage I'm not sure how you deal with the crown of the road situation uh I know we have had properties in the past that qualify as Coral Gables cottages and so so they're able to utilize that uh as long as there's a portica share they can utilize the back garage as living space so they' had to go through that um also bring it up uh with the ceiling height but I I just can't imagine you couldn't with that huge property incorporates that somehow into um um something unique is that a question for no it's just a statement I was just soing it out I apologize may I comment Please Mr ch I'm not sure where to start the um it is unique and I think what makes it unique is that typically it occurs on next to a perimeter when they were built and a lot of the other ones we see it's usually pushed to one side of the property and if you look at the photograph you see that the 10 ft between the existing um between the original house and the property line was just enough to get a car to go back in there right it to turn it into something like a cottage you know a second an auxiliary unit the the challenge is that it's in the middle of the site so you know all of a sudden you're you really are kind of violating the the backyard to bring people in very clever I think you could I think you could figure something out I I know if I live there with my children and I had a teenage son he would love to live back there yeah so the the our client would also had a deck so he probably could answer some questions that I wouldn't want to risk I get it I we'll hold on for any specific questions from the of course yeah I'm always here yes um you know as a board were required to follow the corable zoning code and staff just uh went through a quite detailed analysis of telling us why and applying the 8- 107d criteria that this um um garage should not be demolished so I just wanted to give you an opportunity do you have any um direct uh responses to some of these um criteria that we have found have been um satisfied to prevent demolition I I think yes thank you thank you um so the use is not necessarily unique since it was a recurring uh element in other houses there are many more EX examples of a garage situation with a residence that exist in the gables uh in the past some of these have been demolished and they've been demolished as recently as last year with board approval but there are many others that still exist this one because of the acquisition of the land on either side is no longer really historically functioning the way that it was set it's it's kind of its real function has been severed um it has no I would argue and we could argue at length on this there really are no details in that building that have significant value in terms of referring back to the house that was built just before it was by the same Architectural Group it it has no detail and I I don't know if there were details there that were removed but when you look at it the layout of it is also it's bizarre the stair actually does not even align with a door that takes you into the into the garage from the side there's a misalignment there above there's a a 2 and 1/2 in aluminum pipe and there is articulation on where that balcony would have been um but other than that it's it just it's really look it's only going to hurt me but the the fact is as an architect looking at it it it just does not have a lot of meing value in terms of the house that sits right across from it which is now going to be restored and and brought back and that one has a lot of detail and and speaks a language that is much more articulated when you look at the front of the Skinner Pearson house you know someone spent time and thought working on it you know there are these elements of Coral Rock you know just the the geometry of it the proportions that is valuable and um some of the other ones are are really very broad broad suggestions on what you should keep and in the long run we're we're always making decisions like that uh I I think because it occur it bifurcates the site it it really creates a situation that um I I think is reason enough to allow this one to go but that's probably not particularly I'm you're going to give me a c or a d I know you may even take send me home and I'm going to have to write a paper but so there for the explanation there was a specific question about the demolition of the garage is there anybody else on your team that you wish to speak at this time would you like to speak or if it's part of the application yeah yeah then now would be a great time okay I think I can use the so can cgtv put up the PowerPoint please there we go great good afternoon or good evening Mr chairman ladies and gentlemen of the board my name is Tony morleo together with my wife Tanya we are the owners of 932 I should say stewards of 932 tendia Avenue we've been Coral Gable's residents for the last 30 years the last 20 of which we've resided in this home and we're extremely happy to share our plans with you today I'm going to spend most of my time talking about the detached garage because I think it's the key to unlocking the potential of the site and it's the key to unlocking this project I'm going to walk you through in a little bit more detail why the the garage is located where it's currently located although Mr Tu did an excellent job of explaining that to you I'm going to walk you through some substantial alterations to the original structure um I'm going to go through that eight criteria that was mentioned earlier and why I have a different point of view on how we do meet the criteria for demolition for this garage I'm going to share with you a recent precedent uh of a home where the garage was allowed to be uh demolished recently within the last 16 months or so and how there's a similarity between that home and our home and then finally I'll make an equitable argument or position on balancing interest and then I'll finish it with some minor comments on two other parts of the uh of the plan which is the garage and the the addition in the rear Mr Leo before you begin what do you anticipate the length of your presentation to be 15 20 minutes I speak I can speak as quickly as possible if you give you a heads up if you want me to speed it up just give let's do 15 minutes and try not to be repetitive Mr Tuesday's presentation we do thank you you're welcome um when friends and family visit our home undoubtedly the first question we get is your home has terrific bones but why is there a two-story garage detached garage sitting in the middle of your property and the answer to that question is just a historical anomaly the the the home was built in 19 26 here's a photograph from 1928 that was in the Miami News the owner at the time was the Fels they weren't the original owners but they did own it in 1928 um but the the garage itself was built probably sometime after 1925 which is when the original home was built I've taken the liberty of copying the survey to the left I've added the line so you can see where the survey lines are you can see where the different parts of the additions are with respect to the lot Mr CH went through that I won't belabor the point but the original home sits solely within Lot number four the Phineas Pace Edition is Lot number three we know that lot that was not available to Skinner at the time they built the home how do we know that in 1928 the City of Coral Gables Merck's company uh Coral Gables Corporation sold the lot to Pauline Coler so it couldn't have been available to Mr Skinner at the time that he built the home that's why the lot that's why the lot the the detached garage is contained solely within that lot we also know that the um that the lot to the left probably even though the records aren't available probably wasn't available to Mr Skinner in that original photograph I've circled the boundary marker that was used in the 20s usually 3 or 4 feet high that separates Lots you can see the beginning of the driveway I'm not going to belabor the point the reason that garage sits squarely in the middle of my backyard today is because that's all they had to work with back in 1925 I will add this document that was recorded in 1980 and requested by the city it's a Unity of title the unity of title requires myself and any previous home owners and any additional homeowners to treat all three lots as one track of land the benefit to the city is it prevents somebody somebody from selling the individual Lots which is 100% the right thing to do otherwise I could keep the original home sell the two lots on the side make a bunch of money and have somebody else build oversized homes on these small Lots the implied benefit to the homeowner is hey you get to enjoy this new track of property this big piece of land you get to enjoy it as and and and use it and unfor that detached garage prevents us from fully enjoying our property today alterations to the property this is the the pictures of the garage from the inside both garage doors have been blocked and sealed and replaced with windows they're gone it's no longer a functional garage there is a slab an elevated slab it's an underground tank I don't know what's in that tank we've been told it's more than likely an overflow tank for the septic tank that's located immediately outside on the other side of that wall the septic tanks that were put in in 1925 weren't sufficient for a family today so somebody probably added a septic tank that tank according to the South Florida durm will need to be properly abandoned it needs to be filled it needs to be cleaned Etc all that has to be done but the garage was modified to include that tank the windows on the west side of the garage have been blocked you can clearly see the block the window on the right is no longer there the window on the left was blocked it was an air conditioner was put in at one point somebody put some plywood and they blocked it up but those wind windows are gone the staircase uh staff noted that the staircase is of value the staircase themselves the wing walls have been modified this is 1972 drawing that was submitted it's difficult to read I'm not an architect I've read parts of it it includes adding a two two feet to an existing high wall to the staircase and includes adding 8 in concrete blocks you can read the materials that I've submitted when you look at that wall today this is a front view of the wall in the middle is a picture of what the steps look like to the left the wall is 4 in in depth you can see the plaster it doesn't look like the original plaster to me it's clearly been modified to the right the wall has 8 in in width is that the blocks that we referred to in 1972 I do not know but I do know that the wing walls have been modified the steps and I apologize that is my foot I don't know the size of people back in the 20s but clearly they must have been smaller because getting up and down these steps is incredibly difficult getting up one can survive coming down you got to go down sideways we don't allow anybody to go up there because it's absolutely unsafe the r many of the risers as Mr Tu says are larger than the Treads so the safes are UNS unsafe criteria for demolition all right the staff read these to you we obviously have a different point of view the first one is is the structure uh is the degree to which the building or structure contributes to the historic or architectural significance of a site staff says that the construction of the house has been minimally altered I disagree with that blocking off two garage doors um getting rid of the driveway that led to those garage doors blocking the two windows and adding a septic tank to me is not minimal alteration so I do not agree with the assessment on number one on number two um is the building of structure one of the last remaining examples of its kind no this isn't an entire house we're demolishing it's a detached garage there are plenty of detached garages that are still out there albeit none are probably located squarely in the middle of somebody's backyard number three the removal of of the uh is the loss of the building or structure would adversely affect the historic architectural Integrity of the site the answer to that is is no the home and the addition and the Phineas Pace addition are being preserved 100% they deserve they deserve to be preserved they deserve they deserve to be um renovated um and we're not requesting any material changes to the original home or the Phineas Pace uh structure the fourth one is have we proposed any plans any anything at all that would let you that to of the additions that we're working on to promote the general warfare of the city again as staff notes there are multiple detached garages that are still out there that you can study if you choose to do so we agree none of them are going to be um located in the middle of the property um are the architectural plans been presented to the board for the ReUse of the property if the proposed demolition would be carried out and the appropriateness of said plans as as staff noted we received board approval 80 and a quick story about that BOA meeting during the boa meeting there was a member of staff that was present and attended the meeting at the end of the 80 vote the chair of the boa looked at the member of the staff and said you guys are going to prove this aren't you I mean this is beautiful the the staff member did not comment it was an inappropriate question if you ask me the staff did not have an obligation to comment and she was in her right not to comment but as a homeowner we left there incredibly proud about this design thinking that we had to a beautiful solution to this old home and now we find that we're we're we're basically a pingpong ball in a game of ping pong back and forth and uh staff does not like our design quite frankly we don't understand it they were effusive um in their appraise for the design um is the building or structure does it pose an imminent threat to the public health or safety um the underground tank May pose a health risk I don't know the stairs are certainly a safety risk um and expose us to liability should somebody fall down those stairs um is there a compelling public interest to require the demolition um I don't know but I know there were letters that were written on behalf of this project which I believe have been sent to the board as well they're all in supportive of the project and finally is there an unreasonable undue economic harm here and the answer to that is yes I cannot enjoy my backyard I don't have full utility in use of my backyard I've got a two-story structure that is no longer fit for its original purpose that can't be used as a garage it can't be used as a servant quarter and I've got to live with that in the middle of my backyard recent precedent again I'll go quickly you're fine okay uh Alo Avenue 117 Alo Avenue was presented to this board in November of of 2022 you can see on the left there's a photograph of an aerial the detached garage isn't located in the middle of the backyard it's located like 99% of all detached garages it's off to one side or the other um it h it it it has plenty of room there the garage seems to be in good shape this board unanimously approved the demolition of that garage um and the reason the sole reason that this board relied on to proove that the demolition of that garage is what Mr T referred to which is the requirement to elevate the floor of that garage the floor of that garage has to be 8 in above the base elevation the base elevation is calculated but taking the mean of the road or the sidewalk once you raised that floor to 8 in above the mean of the road it left a 6ot ceiling inside that Garage on AO the architect argued that was unreasonable the board agreed we have the same exact similar situation here if you don't if you don't feel sorry that the garage is in the middle of the backyard or everything else that we've argued about that same condition exists today and I argue it's persuasive to this board to come to the same conclusion um there's the sketch I've blown it up so you can read it a little bit easier that shows it shows the slab it shows where the elevation needs to be it shows that there 6.3 is what the height of the first floor of that garage would be and the code requires seven and so I I I don't know what I what I can do with that garage at that point and then finally I I'll just I'll end it with the balancing of interests here on this first section of of um of my presentation president ation is absolutely a worthy goal I mean there's zero doubt that historic preservation is the right thing to do for a city like cor it's why my wife and I have been residents for 30 years it's why both of our homes have been old Spanish homes but like any other worthy goal there's usually a tradeoff right and sometimes historic preservation can can unreasonably burden a homeowner sometimes unnecessarily sometimes it can restrict a homeowner of their rights which is why we have to balance the benefit to society with the burden to the individual homeowners this is a slide it just has two pictures I think it's the best way to demonstrate whether there's a benefit here that's driving down the road on tendia Avenue looking at my home the picture on the right is actually if you were inside my trespass Jump The Wall come in and you still can't see that garage I have a hard time finding a benefit to society a benefit to the community and keeping that garage nobody can see it I can't use it the garage doors are gone they've been blocked up the windows are gone they've been blocked up it has an underground storage tank the original ribbon driveway that went in is gone the curb cut that was there one one time ago it's all gone the garage has zero purpose to be used today what's the other side of the equation well what's the burden to the homeowner this is me standing in my hypothetical new family room and kitchen looking out that family room and this is what I get to look at every day that it's hard to argue against that being a burden to the homeowner I simply don't see it all all structures aren't worthy of the same protection the main home absolutely worthy of protection the Phineas Pace Edition absolutely worthy of protection this garage not so much not so much lastly um and I'll be quick here um just two more slides I promise um the staff has issue with the the garage in the front that we're we're planning on proposing Mr T showed you the existing Garage in the front I think sometimes we're looking at gift horse in the mouth we are we are looking to eliminate all of the warts of the past we're going to do a do over we're going to say all of these additions that were poorly thought out poorly planned and approved by the city we're going to eliminate them we're going to get rid of them and we're going to start over we're going to deliver a much better Pro product today than exist back then and I and I'd ask you to keep in mind when we're doing this when you're balancing the equity here we're not developers we've lived in this house for 20 years I'm not trying to eliminate the detached garage to maximize the square footage of my property to this I'm not this isn't a profit-minded request I just want to enjoy my backyard I'm not looking I'm not looking to make money here and to flip this property the garage that we're proposing is significantly better than we have today I could leave this garage the way it is but I don't want to I don't think it's the right thing to do I don't think it's what this home deserves I don't think it's what Phineas Pace would have wanted next to his Library the same thing with the with the addition that's in the back if you zoom in on that addition look how poorly I don't I can't believe it was approved if you zoom in in the corner the wall runs directly into the window of the original house I mean I it's poorly constructed it's poorly designed and I'm going to go through a great deal of pain and money and eliminate that and start over and so with that I'll conclude I hopefully I wasn't that long I went as fast as I talk minutes you did 15 minutes fantastic I look forward to your deliberation and I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have thank you Mr M um does anybody from the board have any questions for staff or the applicant any questions about anything that was discussed so far this is a great time to ask questions once I go to public comment we come back it'll be board discussion and not question time so this is Question Time Mr S I just got a a quick question uh staff was discussing um kind of the curtain wall being proposed on on the rear additions can you talk a little bit about the materials or I think you were object you're objecting to to the Alum right both I was sure well so um so the kitchen family room Edition that is going to be installed though it's not visibly uh it's going to it won't be visible from the public RightWay is a more contemporary design Style with a modern kind of um storefront system and steel columns so it doesn't really play into any of the material palette that exists on the site and that was our concern with that so there there's another way to restudy it to bring in more of the maybe stucco ends columns things like that that can bring in more in line with the rest of the house that would be more appropriate thank you can you talk a little bit Mr T about the your thoughts behind that and materials sure thank you so we decided to use a glass wall at the front in that area that's more like a Pergola because first we felt it made a lot of sense to be able to give a glimpse of the backyard but it also was a very clear way of differentiating the existing historic structure from a completely new structure that was trying to play off of some of the historic U language um and the scale of it so we use that same language it's really it's just it's uh they're glass walls and glass doors in the back where it's private because now we have the ability to have um an open space we have a swimming pool and we have landscaping and to have that family room which is not visible from the street um it really differentiates itself from the other structures that are more visible so whatever is visible other than the corridor we felt could be a more modern language and you're intending to use the same kind of an aluminum window painted to to match the casement throughout or is this going to be completely different aniz so it it'll probably be uh you know fluorocarbon finished in a medium bronze which is the material we have a sample here so that Medium bronze is is a little bit like a a medium tone wood um and um to have all the all the metal work on that rear and in the pergola as well match the metal on the windows on yes all the all the metal work um from the photographs we really couldn't tell whether was they were painted or they were just wood and some of them they look light in some dark and there were a lot of window systems that were either Cyprus or a medium kind of wood and we thought the medium bronze which is not that common would be a nice way of kind of mitigating the use of metal thanks for clarity the proposed work is going to be consistent the metal work is consistent the window work is consistent yes thank you yes any other questions for the applicant or staff okay I'll have a question for uh Mr Tu and Mr Alo mentioned in his presentation as well can you go to can we get the slides back up please and could you identify the 1925 parcel Lot number four and I know that you both mentioned that the driveway was taken away and the new garage was built and the old garage can you go through the timeline of that yes that that may be better look at on I think that the diagram didn't really align right I think Mr better in your presentation than Mr M's presentation do you have a a I show it to you here so these are the L lines here got it there were there were three lots that I assume were identical sizes they were 50 50 50 and so this one goes all the way down here um the um the original house I believe was a little bit more than five or so feet from there on the east side you can see how close it was and in the photo photograph you can see it's really a one lane roadway what's the that Dimension between the wall and that um the driveway line is it 10 fetish 10 fetish I think it's so the driveway came on and actually the photograph if we look would you like to see I would love to see the photograph that was just to actually we have a better photograph in in our it's just higher res sorry there so you can see and that that post that post actually seems to be could be as much as 2 feet away from it but that looks like it's less than 10 ft the driveway anyway but the wheel base would have been you know less than 6 feet anyway and that driveway would have been removed in the addition when that first garage Edition was built absolutely it goes right through the addition yeah and can you show that that next diagram that shows the three the sort of building Evolution yes here we go and let me what you can see it here in the existing uh 10 ft is about this point here so when they put in the garage in uh 1941 that driveway probably was used at that time to get into the garage but they added a second door and so the curb cut must have grown at that time so at the time of 1925 there was no other place to put the driveway no it had to be it it it's also the only way you could get into the garage because the garage is set back the car could never make that turn otherwise thank you any other questions for the op interest staff and it's a great time to ask questions okay um thank you for the presentation taking it to public hearing does any body wish to speak in um opposition to this case does anybody wish to speak in favor of this case Okay closing public hearing and now bring it back to the board for discussion amongst ourselves anybody have any questions CS thoughts comments the plans are beautiful your plans are beautiful I mean they're really it's it's really other than the demolition of of that building the plans themselves are really stunning quite not nice yeah doesn't help you I mean I I agree I think it's a phenomenal design I think it looks great um I like that you know you're removing the you know the additions that were uh not as nice um I mean my biggest thing is just it's it's the garage like there's kind of like precedent you know to to to to leave them but I I also see that if you are going to incorporate it like raising the you know raising the slab raising everything what does that render him there like I mean he's going to have I guess he could take out the second floor and do a double height uh I don't know you know like a mezzanine or something I was thinking that too but I didn't want to say it but I I just I I agree I think it's in the wrong place I think um It's just tough because you know it's you know the only thing that kind of comforts me is that it was an addition in 1926 it wasn't part of the Original House in 1925 so I guess could be viewed you know a little bit separate from from the uh from the original house but I'm having I'm just having a tough time like you know what's the right call there uh but I I do think the design is beautiful and it looks great um you know I think it it it you know treats it gives a lot of respect to the existing house it's just it's just that garage um it's a tough one can I get clarification from staff um on is the was the garage an addition or just constructed phase two of the original project of the house so for the designation report the two-story garage was constructed in 1925 um the page of the original permit of the garage structure was not located but the permit book indicates that permit 1759 was issued for residence and garage additionally a sketch accompany a 1926 septic tank plan shows the garage that its exterior staircase was original to the property so U Mr Dr maybe it wasn't a second phase it was just okay the second part of the construction that ended in 1926 unless the applicant has any information otherwise thank you any other discussion amongst ourselves so I'll I'll bring up sort of something there's the the pro the project was designated in 23 was that correct was it last year so this is one of the case and Mr Silva you mentioned it earlier in another part is when do we designate something and what is designated at that time so my thought process is a lot of different things and this is a very difficult um decision to make I think is if this project if this if Lot 4 was designated in any time previous to 1980 um it would be a different conversation we're having today because you would you would have to come for an sea to come to then do the additions to the project that had the other garages that made the the ability to make these additions and change all these garages but it wasn't right it was designated in 23 which means all of these decisions and things that affect the design of this garage um happened without the benefit of the historic preservation staff and the C preservation board to help review this uh so this is the result of that kind of a thing so when when I when I see this project I think of our duty designating a property is not only looking at the property of today but protecting the property for whatever time going forward in this particular case it took a hundred years to designate this property and in those intervening 100 years a lot of decisions were made that are now boxing in and I like the term that was used by the applicant balancing interests of the applicant to the historic preservation of this home my difficulty on this is 99 out of 100 times I would never want to remove an out building because of the defining characteristic of out buildings in KL Gable similar to my thoughts on alleys and the master plan of the city um but in the in this particular case of balancing interests I I find a compelling argument um to do something with that particular building in that particular location I had the same thoughts that Mr Dan had and Miss Bane had is Mr CH is an incredibly talented architect and could probably figure out what to do with that space um just because it's in the condition that it is today doesn't mean that the doors can't be opened up and you can't Revitalize or rethink that space in a completely different way um but what I'm having some difficulty with is the use is no longer relevant for its intended purpose originally and its ongoing use I think is in Jeopardy based on the requirements of the code um I don't know where I am at the end of this thing but those are the things that I'm suffering with at this time and if anybody else on the board wants to share their thoughts I'm happy to hear them Mr Silva yeah I I I'm struggling with the same thing right I I think we're all looking at this and saying Not only was this was designated as as as a triple part but this wasn't designed as a triple parcel right so that's that's what's giving me PA that's what's causing the problem and that's what's what's what's creating this difficulty right I I agree with Caesar Mo most of the time an out an out building is is part and parcel to the property we're not going to consider demolition in this case because of this sighting and because of to me also the code issue is is is something that is that is important right right like this is it's not really possible to to do this as a as a garage anymore because of its location and because it's kind of been boxed in so that means we have to convert it and I believe that that because you're touching so much of the house I think that triggers a required upgrade to that building I don't think we can leave it I'm not sure that's something that the building official would have to app on but if we if we touch that building you're going to have to start messing with a finished floor elevation and and all these other things and and it becomes kind of untenable unless you as Mr D was saying pop out the second floor and and you know um so so yes I'm I'm struggling um in terms of the other issues that staff brought up because I do want to discuss those as well um the really there's three three major things right the demolition of that garage is one first and foremost second is the placement of the new garages right um and in in regards to that I think number one it's an improvement on on the previous right it's it sits the the other one almost sat proud of the entire house and this is setting back a little bit um but as I look through the plan um I think that it's important and you can see it very clearly in the model that that the position of that garage comes forward of that of the paste Edition because if not you're left with kind of this awkward condition at the Gable end right if you if you push this back right right like you kind of yes the building sits a little strangely like I prefer I prefer it kind of over biting the the thing just architecturally um so I don't have necessarily an issue with with that location and the the third issue is the material materiality of the rear and of that trellis um I have less of an issue on the trellis actually because that's kind of a stick built right um and it's meant to be very transparent um and I think I think there it sort of makes sense um I would encourage you to take a look again at that that rear addition at the the fenestration there um but again it's hidden from view it's in the rear of the property it's clearly an addition right so I think there could be made maybe more of an effort made to to tie it all together but but um that is not a deal breaker for me for me the the primary issue is is still the garage right like without demolishing that garage this scheme can't go full so that's that's something that we need to work out today and thank you Mr Z any additional contributing comments for the board Miss benas did you have something you wanted to share with the board just wanted to make a clarification but um Mr Silva actually went that way but the building official at the end of the day would have to make that call about raising the floor and not we've had I've have at least two examples recently that he has not required it and one was a for a cottage designation so it and I know it is something to take into consideration but again it may also not affect the Redevelopment of this building thank you question how would that work with like insurance though like would you would that if you're below flood zone or whatever that how does that work I mean I don't think staff is qualified to answer that question I don't know just wondering any anybody else want to share their thoughts okay um I'm happy to entertain a motion and I'll wait well I guess let's let's take the temperature of the board I guess right that's what discussion is for there's not a straw vote you can make your comment do think that they need to be aware that you need five votes not you know just a majority of who's here it's five okay I read that great introduction that explained understand that but he may not have been listening and I don't want him to go wait a minute I got four votes and so we're not taking a straw vote if anybody wants to share their thoughts with the board now's a great time to do it if not somebody can make a motion this side of the table is already spoken M I just like to ask question of the Architects on the board about their thoughts on whether or not a demolition would adversely affect the architectural integrity and history of the property I think I'm asking The Architects as an architect I gave you my opinion Mr Silva gave you his opinion I don't know if there's another architect on the bo that be nice I I mean it's like I said before I think it's something that that I'm struggling with I think the in terms of the historical Integrity I think that that is kind of a marker and a memorial that this thing was once three separate building sites um which which is important um but you know those things get erased Mr Maxwell you sure okay there you go the Design's excellent uh and it really I mean I go by this house all the time I walk by it and always look at it and admire it um even the earlier additions were actually fa sympathetic over time and and this is very sympathetic I think that the the real question is like you know the Gomer of all these Lots over a period of time has really put you know this ancillary building you know in in a really difficult position and and it's functionally not only is it functionally obsolescent it's not only it's not desired anymore really and and it really can't be put into anything anyway you know it it's it's not a structure you could really build on uh it's lightweight wouldn't pass any code today uh had to be significantly rebuilt but it is a piece of History it's 100 years old and so it's hard to lose um so I mean that's my quandry there but uh I I think that the design and what's being proposed you know supersedes that and I think that there's a lot of other I think there are a number of other these buildings uh you know that are ancillary you know two larger homes like this um and if this hadn't been put together as three lots over a long period of time it would just be another story so that's my opinion thank you Mr [Music] Maxwell all right still awaiting a motion if one is forthcoming so if I can just make another comment it seems like there's a a two-part analysis here because if anybody is going to make a motion to approve demolition then there needs to be a separate consideration because staff is also said that the um proposal is um I think overwhelming to the original 19 um20 structure so I just want to keep that in mind if anybody wants to make a motion and I'm frankly torn as well so I'm not going to make a motion thank you Mr D so um the chair would be interested in any motion by anybody on anything always and make a motion you don't have to make the Motions as recommended by staff you could make individual motions you can make any motion you want and again if there's no motion Madame secretary um Madam City attorney what happens we need a motion of some kind um otherwise we'll be stuck here um all evening um it could be a motion to defer a motion to continue a motion to Grant and I just want to clarify if you don't mind Mr chair that the application today is for demolition additions and alteration so it's all bundled together in one application so the motion would be uh to either approve the special certificate of appropriateness that includes all of those things or deny it that they're all wrapped up together in one application today is that correct we can't parse it and approve one piece and not the other we can choose to do that I I believe you could but today is an application the application has presented to you today is one I think you would have to defer to the applicant if they would want to get peac meal um approvals or not it's their application that they could um appeal as it's presented well at this point we don't have any motion from anybody um and just sorry for clarification if nobody wishes to make make a motion doesn't it fail we we need a motion of some kind to defer to continue to adour Madam City attorney if nobody makes a motion what happens we need a motion a motion is required we need to adjourn this meeting and there will have been no action taken and it we'll come back to the next meeting can we ask staff can can we ask staff again because we had some interesting M can you speak into the microphone please can you lift the mic up thank you is M mic perect yeah um can we ask staff again to address some of the criteria because I'm really focused on we have to apply these criteria and there were some interesting arguments that came back about why um about disagreements with some of these um items so specifically could you again talk about your uh position with regard to um 8107 D1 that um this is a contributing structure that's considered to be a character defining feature of the site and also specifically to 8-17 D3 that um staff's position that the removal of original historic fabric which it considers this structure to be is considered drastic action you could specifically address those Miss before you answer so Miss D this is staff's recommendation it is upon each of the board board members to look at these and decide for ourselves so I appreciate asking staff for their clarification but you can decide whatever you want and so can Mr Maxwell and myself thank you Miss benas yes and and just to state that that presentation I was received um on Monday evening so I I'll respond to I I made my recommendation but I can't respond to exactly his comments just I haven't had time to go through and create a rebuttal but um so number one is to agree to which the building structure and Improvement or site contributes to the historic and or architectural significance of the historic site or District um one of the things that I included within your application package is um The Landmark designation report within that report we create um a sheet at the end of the report that that lists character defining features of the site and the building and any details that remain on the building one of those was that was listed in that review back for the designation of the site in um 2023 was was um the existing two-story accessory structure because it was an original development of the site and in included within the um original permit and that kind of answers both items too because number three is whether the loss of the building structure Improvement or site would adversely affect the historic and or architectural Integrity of the historic site or District as the site was designated a landmark we look at all sides of the site it's not that we're looking at it directly from what's visible from the public RightWay and what's not um in this case again this is original historic fabric of the site and per the Secretary of interior standards that is something that should be considered a drastic action or a major modification of that site does that help thank you that was very helpful thank you m m thank you here anything so I have a question for staff actually [Music] um where's the I'm looking for the drawing that shows it like the timeline of the add oh here it is so I guess because I'm not sure have we designated additions to be historic I guess what I'm getting at was with like the Phineas Pace Edition in 1936 if they were to come with a proposal to let's say demo that how do we treat that addition like so I'll actually I'll let Miss Bennis answer um so the way that you like the design during the designation process and Report that's that Des that determination is made as to what what contributes to the historic fabric of the site and so there are going to be things like the 1980s editions that were done that wouldn't contribute I mean even with age and and the the conditions of the building that aren't original the fabric of the building that's one of the things but in this case you look at what was contributing to the site if there's any other um there's Associated Architects and designers that were that were contributing to the site that are um known well known in in um cor Gable and um each piece was kind of looked at individually even in the designation report and there's a similar diagram to the breakdown of the site that describes how one does or does not meet that um criteria Mr Danna this was designated in 2023 which means all of it is designated yeah yeah and it's up to this board through this process to decide what we think is important and what's not important yeah yeah no I agree um I was just thinking that cuz I I don't know I think the LA the short time I've been on the board at least I don't know if we've approve usually when people want to you know demo the addition we're kind of okay with it because it's not you know historic um but um I don't know I just I just think it's kind of like the way the house is right now with that structure back there like you know we have an opportunity now for them to do a really nice project you know restore a really you know beautiful house and and you know let's say add another 100 GE to this house or we reject it make them keep that structure in the back and it's kind of like what happens next with this house like will it continue for another 100 years or is it just going to sit there and and deteriorate so I mean I think I'm leaning more towards the you know let's restore this house let's let's you know I think it's a good project and and hopefully it gets another 100 years you know and and the house looks great um I don't know that's just kind of where I'm leaning thank you all right all right let back to does anybody based on the discussion is anybody interested in making a motion of any kind I'll make a motion here to start process let's see what we can do um it's a difficult one I'd like to make a motion to approve the the um U the COA here for 93210 DM uh special certificate of appropriateness uh to approve the design as it and the demolition of the existing building in the back also to note that um a historic part part of the building is being demolished okay two actually several parts of it um and that consideration be given to the western side addition not the Harper buic but the other piece that's uh designed by to incorporate that in rather than demolishing it and wherever that there's any kind of connection between any of the buildings the new buildings and the historic buildings that there be a score line some kind of Separation The stuckos be different and that no new stucco be put on the existing building to maintain its um Integrity uh that all the windows and doors should match the originals and and that sort of thing so that would be my motion that's the yeah I didn't understand it I'm sorry I didn't either so let let me ask if there is a second to the motion or do we want to start before we start adding friendly amendments can we clar I'm kind of confused on the motion kind does staff want to restate the motion or should I ask Mr Maxwell to restate the motion Mr Maxwell I can share my understanding of the motion and you can correct me if I'm wrong um to approve the design proposal as presented for the demolition of the original auxiliary structure additions and alterations to the residents and site work on the property located at 9:32 tendia Avenue and to uh approve the issuance of a special certificate of appropriateness with the conditions you noted to distinguish the new from the old with the stco no new stco on the existing building and windows and doors to match the existing home thank you Miss attorney okay that's correct Mr Maxwell that's correct yes is there a second um Mr Silva can I offer a friendly Amendment you well can you the second at first no I think this Miss theity you may offer a friendly amendment I would like to offer a friendly amendment to have the applicant work with staff on the finra at the rear of the of the new addition Amendment accepted then I would second okay there's a second by Mr Silva any questions thoughts on the amendment uh excuse me on the motion any other friendly amendments any thoughts um I will request a friendly amendment of both the building on the left the side the profile on the front that has sort of W wiggle to it it seems out of place with the rest of the house the the main entry curve is incredibly powerful and the slight curves that are sort of framing that piece at the end um I think detract from the entrance my friendly Amendment would be to make them straight down as opposed to the edge so the architect is nodding Madam City attorney did you understand my request because I don't what's that room called Mr Tu what's that room the gym so the gym facade would be um not curved it would be straight understood if if the um um mover and seconder accept that Amendment Mr Maxwell yeah accepted Mr Silva no you cannot um is there we have a motion and a second okay an acceptance of all the Amendments um is everyone to vote you want to hear it again no I got it okay let's call the rule okay Mr Aron haft yes Mr danana yes Mr n yes Miss sped I heard you I think you have this I'm going to say no no okay uh Mr Silva yes Mr Maxwell yes Mr Garcia Pon yes motion passes 6 to1 thank you very much thank you um I'ma I'm going to request another 5 minute break but this time a real 5 minute break I just need some water [Music] e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for e e e e e recording in progress okay this meeting is called back into session 710 the last item of the [Music] day is a case File lhd 20227 consideration of the local historic designation of the property at 1221 milon Avenue legally described as lot 9 block 39 Carl gaes Granada section revised according to the plat thereof as recorded in plat book 8 at page 113 of the public records of mday County County Florida on remand from the city commission um since this is on remand of the city commission I'm going to ask staff both Miss panus and the city attorney's office to give us a frame as what exactly we're doing here today thank you Mr chair um to the applicant my name is Stephanie thror I'm the deputy City attorney I serve as Council to the historic preservation board I just wanted to give a brief um overview of the posture we find ourselves in as it's kind of a unique one for this board it's been a while um as long as I can remember since we've had one like this so just wanted to give a brief overview to the board and the public in September of 2022 this property was designated by this board by a 7:1 vote that decision was appealed to the city commission um and in May after of 6 months later in May of 2023 there was a public hearing on of the appeal at the city commission the city commission then heard the appeal and found there to be insufficient evidence to affirm or deny the board's decision and after much deliberation the city commission remanded the matter to this board to further review the designation and provide a more detailed explanation as to the reasoning for either designating or not designating the property a local Historic Landmark clearly we believe that the record below presented at initially to this board in 2022 and at the commission is part of this hearing today but we would like you to think of this as a denovo hearing as the city commission has asked that you review the designation and provide a detailed explanation as to your ruling one way or the other to designate the property so knowing that you all I think all of you were on the board when this was heard originally not all of you okay a few not um since most of you were we know that you um have had Communications about this we let you know when it was appealed so hopefully there haven't been any expart Communications outside of what was presented to you initially if so we asked that you disclose them and let us know if you are um have any concerns about your ability to rule on this m matter but we should consider this essentially as a new designation though there may be some evidence um presented that has been presented to you previously happy to answer any specific questions as they arise um but otherwise I will turn it over to miss pus if I could just verify with the board does anybody have any expart Communications about this topic since it was last heard I have none I've talk to no board members regarding it nor anybody in the public so I have none no okay none we have no exper communication um thank you before Miss bedna starts one thing that I'm going to encourage the board as I have been all night is the specificity in which your comments are to be made particularly when it comes to the board discussion let's have a thorough board discussion so that the applicant has the benefit of it and the city commission has the benefit of it and when it comes time to make a motion whatever that motion is that we add specificity that motion as well thank you Miss Bas before we start could I just ask if the applicant has any questions before we move forward please absolutely applicant a new type since you heard from the attorney and everyone else any questions for the City attorney we understand why we're all here today okay thank you thank you right so I know that there are a few new members of the board so I'm going to go over the designation presentation that was made um all new all right the property at 1221 mil Avenue is before you for consideration for designation as a local Historic Landmark the single family home was designed in 1923 by architect Lewis Brum um as previously stated the City attorney has given you a brief case history but this application was started by uh deter historic determination letter submitted by the applicant um as per article 8 section 88-103 of the C Gable zoning code criteria for designation for historic landmarks a local Historic Landmark must have significant character or interest or value as part of the historical cultural archaeological aesthetic or architectural Heritage of the city state or Nation for designation a property must meet one of the criteria outlined in the code 1221 mland is eligible as a as a local Historic Landmark based on three criteria criteria four it exemplifies the historical cultural political and economic or social trends of the community and Architectural significance criteria one it portrays the environment in an area in an era of History characterized by one or more distinctive architectural style criteria two it embodies those distinguishing characteristics of an architectural style or period or method of construction 1221 milin is a residential single family home in the Granada section it is a 50x 100 interior lot on the north side of the street between Columbus Boulevard and Madrid Street Coral Gables was originally conceived as a suburb of Miami and attracted visit investors from Across the Nation during the south Florida real estate boom of the 1920s George Merrick Drew from the Garden City and City beautiful movements of the 19th and 20th Century to create a vision his vision for a fully conceived Mediterranean inspired city which is now considered to be one of the first modern planned communities in the United States the city's development history is divided into three major historical periods the home at 12 mland was commissioned by Coral Gable's founder George Merck and designed by Lewis Brum a member of his design team disposes GE Merck's mediterranian of ideals and is a very early example of what are known now as Coral Gable's Cottages the 1921 map of the left of the slide show shows the initial layout of coral gabl when Lots first went on for sale in November 2021 as sales took off Merck looked to EXP expand his land Holdings records indicate that he extended he expended a tremendous amount of time in extending his Holdings North to tamami Trail in the area highlighted in purple note that he initially only held Lots on either side of Granada Boulevard denoted as section F by fall of 1923 section F which is highlighted here in purple was was significantly expanded Merrick renamed it the Granada section and redirected hundreds of workers to lce Street sidewalks and water Ms mil Avenue was one of the Souther was the southern border of the section and is the red line on the plot map unlike earlier sections the Grana section was platted with large areas allocated for moderately priced and smaller sized homes to Showcase his vision Merck commissioned Architects H George Fink Martin Hampton and Lewis Brum to to design 58 Mediterranean inspired homes to demonstrate that though smaller the moderately priced homes in Coral Gables would have the same quality of construction and aesthetic as the larger homes in the Grenada section mer stated that these 58 homes would quote embody new and radical departures from the usual type of small house designing and compact with compactness beauty and comfort that will appeal to smaller families each home will be a different finely detailed design the eight homes on milin Avenue commissioned by George Merrick are shown here by Red Blocks 1221 milin Avenue was one of these homes and is denoted by the orange arrow as intended these homes provided a model for and sparked interest in developing my Avenue with moderately priced homes the blue blocks here are the other homes on the street built in 1920s milin Avenue retains this context to date I think there might be something missing there so apologies um records indicate that as Merck began developing Granada section his brother-in-law Paul KH um contributed financing with it which included this home at at 1221 mil Avenue KH was um was married to Merrick's sister um in 1927 Dr John Tom halsworth purchased 1221 mil Avenue and lived in the home for 37 years Dr halsworth was renowned Economist and Professor who was recruited heavily by the University of Miami to develop their School of Business Administration he was Dean of school from 1929 to 1941 in 1964 Dr Holdsworth sold the home to the University of Miami for $1 the property has then passed through several owners until the current owner purchased it in 1998 May chose to develop Coral Gable's Mediterranean inspired City because he felt this type of architecture harmonized best with South Florida's climate and lifestyle the home at 1221 milin Avenue honors Merrick's Vision built over the built over a crawl space to provide ventilation and separation from the high water table the home has thick masonry walls to Aid in keeping the home cool and varied casement windows and porch features arranged to provide much needed cross ventilation and light in the tropical environment the home was designed by architect leis Brum who came from Coral Gables from California where he had substantial experience designing Spanish inspired buildings the home includes in its existing condition many additional prominent and character defining features of the Mediterranean Revival style which include but are not limited to textured stucco combination of roof types and Heights projecting Bays arched openings in particular the street facing segmental arch with distinctive Corner knobs Spanish inspired chimney with diamond shaped cutouts detached garage with whose parit were designed to mirror the main home Wing walls rail tile roof decoratively arranged groups of vents in Diamond configuration and recess casement windows with protruding Sills and swooped masonry hoods in this slide you can see the home over the last century visual assessment of the property as well as examination of the permit documents of the historic photographs indicate that there were few changes to the character defining features of the home at 1221 milin Avenue prior to the unpent alterations um a discussion of the unpent alterations is included in the designation report uh alterations that occurred prior to 1998 included enclosing the two screened porches denoted in Blue on the survey the current Stile roof was installed in 1997 and in 1981 a roofed porch was added to the rear of the home along the east facade of the garage the orange arrow on the survey indicates its location and the photo and the center and at the center shows its soon it's shows it soon after completion apologies the current owner purchased the property in 19 98 and this slide illustrates some of the alterations undertaken since then the alterations were done without a permit and a code enforcement Cas is ongoing additional details are provided in the designation Port the unpent work included um open porch area at the front facade was enclosed for living space a raised concrete pad was laid along the west side of the home as denoted in the green on the survey this patio now blocks the access to the original garage the garage door was removed and the garage became connected to the home as a living space as well as rear as well as the in the rear at the 1981 porch that was enclosed for living space and then again enlarged in 20 in 2021 the photo above this survey shows that the addition painted white abing the rear of the original garage is now painted yellow uh here's a photo of the the current photo of the home the taller shed roofed Bay was the original screened entry porch note the street facing segmental arched opening with the distinctive Corner knob features also evident on this photo is the texture of the stucco on the west side of side note the arched openings of the entry porch in prominent chimney one of the Hallmark features of the home are swooped lentil lentils two of which can be seen here from the windows flanking the chimney above these windows are examples of grouped grouped round vents decoratively arranged in a diamond configuration in the photo on the left you can also see another grouping on the original garage the photos of the Center at at the center and the right side of the slideshow in the original East facade of the home there is a pop out Bay whose shed roof was originally tiled the photo at the top right is the original sleeping porch like the pop out Bay it's historically had barreled tile on its shed roof and is now unclad the photo on the lower left is we're looking yeah apologies the photo on the lower left of the East facade on the recent infill in the front house the orange arrow on the top slide indicates this location it's it's not clear if an opening on this side was recently enclosed or if the area of the addition was not finished as it obscured by vegetation the photo on the left shows the rear facade of the home it it is looking at the northeast corner of the original sleeping porch you can see that two windows in filling the large screened opening whose location and original sizes are easily discernible in the change of Stucco texture the changes on the right are the enclosed 1981 porch at the top and at the bottom are their more recent extension to the rear of the home the home was designed with two Wing walls their locations and configurations are documented in 19 in this 1967 historic photo and circled in red they are currently obscured from the street but appear on the 2021 property surveys in conclusion the single family home at 1221 M Avenue was one of eight home one was one of eight homes on mland commissioned by City founder George Merck in 19 23 in accordance with Garden City precepts Merrick envisioned milin Avenue as a street of moderately priced attractive houses he commissioned three members of his design team to demonstrate that these smaller homes were built with the same high quality construction and Mediterranean Revival style features as other structures that shaped the new city in the early years the home at 1221 milin Avenue was designed by architect Lewis Brum who in tandem with in tandem with the team member George Fink was largely responsible for developing the city's Cottage City's Cottage genre this home was one of the earliest of the cottages of the cottage types and it played a significant role in the development of the Coral Gables Cottage criteria in the city hence the property at 122's Avenue significantly contributes to the historic fabric of the City of Coral Gables St staff would recommend approval sorry lost my train of thought um staff would recommend approve of the local historic designation of the property at 1220 mon mil based on the criteria four um exemplifies the historic cultural political economic social trends of the community when first launching Coral Gables during 1921 and 22 Merck's team designed and Built Homes throughout the community to demonstrate their Mediterranean inspired Vision in 1923 as Merck substantially increased his land Holdings he began to develop Street Scapes following the Garden City precepts unlike earlier sections the Granada section was ploted with large areas allocated for moderately priced and smaller sized homes records indicate that as Merrick began developing the Granada section his brother-in-law took on the financing of several of Merck's initial commissions the home at 1221 milin was one intended of the was one of these intended homes provided as a model and sparked interest in developing milin Avenue with moderately priced homes the houses on the street represent Merrick's vision of these smaller homes and was built in an archetype upon which Coral Gables was founded Criterion two it portrays the environment of architectural significance it portrays an environment in an era in hisory history characterized by one or more distinctive architectural style uh founder George Merck Drew from the Garden City from the Garden City and City beautiful movements of the 19th and 20th Century to create his vision for a fully conceived cohesively designed Mediterranean inspired city which is now considered one of the first modern plant communities of the United States the use of the Mediterranean Design was one of the featured selling points in early promotional materials the home at 1221 M Avenue was was built in the Mediterranean Revival style and Define that defined the vision of the city in Criterion two it embodies those distinguishing characteristics of an architectural style or period or method or construction the existing home possesses numerous character defining features of the Mediterranean Revival style as listed previously in the designation report so staff would recommend approval for the local designation of the property at 1221 mil Avenue based off the criteria and evidence thank you Miss benas um would the applicant wish to make a presentation and before we begin two things one is I had an aside with Miss Spain where I was commenting on Miss bess's pronunciation of milin versus Milan so if anybody saw me sort of talking that was what it's about very very funny to me um the miss bedus the city took 15 minutes how long do you think your presentation will be today there's three of us speaking mine maybe five minutes MRIs ble is there a time Mr heisen bottle how long do you think you'll be I think it'll be 20 minutes I have quite a lot to say Mr pathman okay that's almost an hour that's too long so I I know that this is important but then Mr will go okay I don't want you to go fast I want you to hit the high points and the important points I know everything's important everything's important sir okay so I think it's important to allow them to I understand I'm just trying to set an expectation their concerns so let's let's aim for half an hour and see what we can do that's 2510 that's about 30 minutes before we start do we want to see if we'll have availability of Quorum after 9:00 p.m. because that's the other thing to take into consideration it's 7:30 if we have half an hour we should be fine so let's aim for it and see where we are I have a hard stop at 8 okay you guys are listening to the issues we may be facing I'm ready to go okay thank you so thank you good afternoon my name is Peter salamas and along with my wife an seated over there we own the property at 1221 Milan Avenue uh to prepare for today's hearing I watched every HPB hearing from the last two years oh my God I really wanted to understand what the board looks for in declaring a home historic what I learned is that there's no escaping the truth a home either satisfies the code or it doesn't and my home does not most importantly it hasn't maintained its Integrity as there have been numerous significant changes this is extremely hard to dispute please take a look at the screen put the this is the original house plan you can't see much so we made it something look at this screen if you'd like okay do a rendering thank you here we go so these were renderings from those sketches this is what it looked like in 1922 for four elevations and these are all the changes that happened to the front elevation over the years in the interest of time I won't read them all but there are some significant ones there we can always go back I guess later if you have any questions regarding that and this is the another elevation the side elevation these are also the changes I think I should note that all the windows have been changed there's no original casement windows the the openings have changed there's just tons of changes obviously some of the mentioned here are not significant but many of them are I just wanted to show all the changes that have been made over the years this is the other elevation um it should be noted I did not say unattach my I did not attach my garage to the house that was done in 1982 prior to me buying the house and yet another elevation Barrel tiles removed they're all s tiles and all the homes changes over the years I hope that helps clear things up on what's been done to my home um um and that in and of itself according to the code means that my house cannot be declared historically significant Nothing Else Matters could have been a George Fink Masterpiece where the Beatles And every US president stayed over the winter it does not matter it cannot be declared historic nevertheless I feel compelled to mention that my home also does not have significant character interest or value and and it does not satisfy any of the required criteria I believe that with my home the historic preservation department whom I very much appreciate and respect made a mistake I think that because they were presented with a 1922 old Spanish home they weren't completely objected perhaps their passion to protect an old home clouded their objectivity as you know the reason I'm here for the second time is because the city commission remanded to you with instructions for the historic preservation department to specify exactly how my home meets the code they wanted to see the report identify a cultural Trend then demonstrate specifically how my home exemplifies it and the same for an historical Trend they wanted to know specifically the architectural features and if my home possesses enough to be considered a cottage home the revised report fails to satisfy the commission's request because it can't it can't identify a cultural Trend or an historical Trend because there aren't any associated with my home and of course it's impossible to exemplify a trend that doesn't exist regarding my home's architecture Richard heisenbottle will demonstrate later how it is exaggerated and mischaracterized so I really learned a lot watching all those hearings uh so I'd like to reference two in particular in the hearing on the Alfred Browning Parker home at 55005 hammock Park Drive Miss Rando who's not here opine that a home doesn't have to be a masterpiece to be considered significant we saw some examples today and I also saw in the hearings two very good examples are the homes at 12:07 no that's my home there but the home at that's my home the way over there there we go the home at 1207 Genoa and 831 Capri which your board designated last June and March respectively you can tell just by looking at those homes that they possess attributes my home lacks not only do they reach an architectural standard they also have been significantly altered their integrity is intact the other hearing was the one on the garden of the Lord everyone recognized how the garden of the Lord is a place that has so much meaning to so many people in fact Miss Spain you felt the need to apologize before your motion uh when Mr feron was asked on what condition he was justifying designation his response was none he said it was more ethereal and Mr Maxwell you talked about how old places matter I hated your advice by the way and I bought the book why old places matter and I read it now I know this might have absolutely nothing to do with the code but I feel that the ideals the ideals outlined in that book are not only extremely important but they support my need to build a new home Thompson Ma the author of why old places matter States this in his epilogue said I came to realize that we save old places not for the old places themselves but for what they can do for people this idea became the central focus of the National Trust guide book for the next 50 years preserving for people a vision for the future though this idea may seem obvious to those who are not practicing Professionals in historic preservation it res it represents a profound philosophical shift for the field it encourages us to see through the bricks and mortar of an old place to focus on how these places help people flourish an old home that doesn't Foster meaningful human connections doesn't satisfy the most important criteria for why old places matter it should be replaced by one that will and which in time will be an old place that matters it only takes one generation which is why sensible preservation doesn't protect a home simply because it's old neither does the code I now invite Richard heisenbottle to the podium he will explain why my home doesn't reach the standards for integrity historical significance and Architectural significance then my attorney Wayne pathman will speak to conclude our presentation thank you very very much for your time thank you thank you good evening ladies and gentlemen for uh the those of you that don't know me my name is Rich heisenbottle I'm president of RJ heis Architects and as most of you know we have a incredible background in historic preservation projects that date back to 1976 uh and we run a an architectural firm that that is 37 years old today um uh that and at one of its major um primary uh areas of work is opining on preservation matters we are expert Witnesses in in many many occasions and I'm joined uh today by Nina Caruso who's our director of historic preservation Services uh Nina with her degree in architecture and a masters in historic preservation uh but today she has one one task whatsoever and that is to click the button and change the slides for Rich um so more more often than not you you you you may be asking yourselves how did Rich get himself involved in the single family house because you know you kind of probably many of you certainly know what we do we typically support historic designation projects um and and you know and and have gone around town for many years uh saving many of the of our most important landmarks we spoke out and and managed to save the chal Block in downtown Miami we tried and we are still trying every day to to save the Coconut Grove Playhouse um and and U most recently we're the experts trying to save a wonderful little Arnold Building up all the way in Lake Park so so why am I here to speak against historic designation of this of this home at 1221 Milan I I'm here because I believe that staff has completely overstepped and grossly exaggerated the historic and architect Cal significance at the home and that their that their staff report is extremely flawed let me continue Mr solon's uh uh the homeowner of 1221 has engaged The Firm to conduct a review of the local historic designation report uh for for the property my review focused on analyzing the information presented in the staff report assessing whether the criteria for designation was mat and making alternative recommendations as appropriate you're going to get an alternative recommendation later tonight my analysis has concluded that the criteria justifications for historic designation have not been substantiated for the following reasons under under the consideration of historic cultural significant criteria four would require that the home exemplifies historic IAL cultural political economic or social trends of the community right we all know that staff summary of significance for criteria a historical cultural significance does not clearly State how the home exemplifies historical cultural and political economic or social trends of the community the reader is left to surmise or guess what the home what why this moderately priced home is somehow part of the historical or cultural trends of the community no context for local state or national cultural economic or social trends is provided to Simply make brief mention that the south Florida real estate boom is not enough to prove the point that because this home was moderately priced it was part of a historical cultur Al or economic Trend there are no citations no footnotes no evidence to support the claim furthermore staff states that this home was built as an archetype upon which Coral Gables was founded page 25 the home is by no means an archetype upon which Coral Gables was founded this claim is unfounded it's an exaggeration of the building's importance in professionally evaluating the criteria I find that the criteria number four is not substantiated at all regarding architectural significance criteria one the home is supposed to portray the environment in an era of History characterized by one or more architectural Styles staff's summary of significance claims that this home was built in the Mediterranean Revival style that defined Merck's vision for the city rest assured that this home certainly did not Define Merrick's vision for the city nor is this home an example of the Mediterranean Revival style the early this early home 1922 not 23 displays characteristics of the Spanish style in predates am's vision of the Mediterranean Revival style the Spanish style home is a result of the fact that Lewis Brum was a California architect relocated to Florida bringing with him his knowledge of Spanish style architecture and there is a difference and three with regards to criteria two the home would have to embody those distinguishing characteristics of an architectural style or period meth meth of construction staff's summary of significance claims that although the home has been altered it possesses numerous character defining features associated with the Mediterranean Revival style the summary list all features associated with the Mediterranean Revival style and calls those features character defining in my professional opinion these features are not character defining or distinguish ing characteristics of the home distinguishing characteristics are those marked by Excellence or more conspicuous by Excellence this poses a question for all of you are any of the features of this home in those photographs that Peter showed you earlier and the ones Nina's going to be showing you soon are any of the features of this home marked by Excellence or made conspicuous by excellence no section 8103 of the code establishes the criteria for designation for historic landmarks or historic districts and States buildings that buildings are significant if they possess Integrity of location design setting materials workmanship or Association in order to qualify for designation as a local Historic Landmark or District Individual properties must have significant character interest or value as part of the historical and archaeological and aesthetic or architectural Heritage of the city state or Nation there are two important questions to ask yourselves when considering this section and whether it qualifies and I ask ask you does 1221 mil Milan possess Integrity of design setting materials workmanship and Association I think the answer is no does the property have significant character or interest or value I think the answer is again no in my opinion Thea 1221 originally displayed architectural features associated with the Spanish style influenced by the 19th century Spanish territory in Southwest United States you all know what I'm talking about Lewis Brum that California architect was inspired by this architector he brought it with him a study of the homes architectural features reveals that this is more closely associated with the Spanish style of the Southwest United States in fact we would call this Spanish eclectic you can see some examples of Spanish eclectic on the on the right hand side of of this slide there they're almost they they're almost exactly the same we'll go more into that in a moment in the original Spanish style the home represented characteristics of a distinguished AR a distinctive architectural style with the distinguishing characteristics of the period however with its multiple alterations the home has lost its architectural Integrity this is supported by the fact that the staff report dedicates more than 8 pages I think it's 11 through 21 maybe nine to discussing the alterations to the home between 2009 in 2011 calling them quote notable changes then the report discusses each change in detail contradicting staff's point that it possesses Integrity for designation sufficient Integrity for designation when we evaluate a home for historic designation we must evaluate that home for its current architectural appearance we cannot designate a home based on the original design and the way it used to look the home must be evaluated based upon its current architectural appearance allow me to demonstrate a bit and get a bit more in depth and explain my position here I believe that staff's selection of eight homes on Milan is arbitrary what makes this these eight homes something more special let me continue in addition to remarking on the designation criteria I'm going to go point out a few inconsistencies in the staff report to make an important point about the importance of context holistic thinking and considering all of the facts when we propose a building for historic designation first and foremost 1221 was built in 1922 as indicated by the tax card this is the only substantiated evidence we have of when this home was built staff references 1923 in part of the report 1924 in another part of the report again the staff report places emphasis on eight initial homes on Milan Avenue that were commissioned by meric these initial eight homes on Milan came from a September 24th 1923 Miami Herald article that reports that there will be 40 new moderately priced homes on Granada in the Granada section and specifically mentions 12 on Ferdinand 18 on Genoa eight on Milan six on Capri and 14 on pizaro there are two other newspaper paper articles one on October 15th and another on November 1st reporting on a number of the moderately priced homes being constructed in the Granada section in the last paragraph of page six of the designation report a ninth house is thrown into the mix 1212 it's introduced uh leading us to be confused as to whether we're really talking about eight or we're really talking about nine another inconsistency in the report our research shows according to the tax record that one home was built in 1922 Peter's home one home was built in 1923 four homes were built in 1924 three homes were built in 1925 so what's the point of this Rich that's should you should be asking me right now the point of this is one 1221 Milan predates the newspaper article of the fall of 1923 note that these initial eight homes were constructed at different dates if they were constructed at different dates then how can they be considered the initial eight these are not the first eight when there were in fact homes built in 1923 24 25 and 26 to raise the question why is Staff singling out the eight homes on Milan Avenue when there were also 12 on Ferdinand 18 on Genoa six on Capri 14 on pizaro these are all initial homes back to the newspaper articles again for a second the first reference newspaper article dated September 24th States 30 new homes moderately priced and from new and original designs by George fank Hampton Lewis Brum will be started in the Granada section the same article goes on to reference later in the article 40 new homes this is inconsistency even in the article that we're referring to as as the basis for our decision making in October 15th 23 that newspaper article announces a new building Campaign which involves construction of 50 moderately priced homes the homes of all are all of Spanish design designed by George Fink Deo Hampton Ean and Lewis Brum and the emphasis here is on Spanish design here's in another article on November 1st which states that the plans for the homes will be drawn by George Fink Richard kenel and Mark Hampton leaving out any reference to Brum or Eman 12 houses will be erected on Ferdinand and I could go back you heard me already 18 on Genoa eight on Milan six on Capri 14 on pizaro again the point of this analysis to is to note that there is no significance to singling out the eight initial homes on Milan that are referenced in the designation report rather it is important to acknowledge all the initial homes on Ferdinand Genoa Capri pisaro all of the 30 40 50 or 58 or more moderately priced homes staff would have you believe that these initial eight homes on Milan were the initial homes built on Milan however the analysis of the homes still standing on Milan today demonstrates that there are 38 homes that were constructed between 1923 and 1926 of the 38 eight are actually historically designated and excuse me of the 38 only eight are currently historically designated and only one of the eight designated is classified as one of the initial eight homes let's pause and review the chart on the screen one home built in 1922 two homes built in 23 eight homes built in 24 18 homes built in 25 and nine in 26 with regards to criteria four historical cultural political or economic trends of the community and making a case for historic and cultural Trends singling out one moderately priced home 1221 Milan and inferring that it is somehow part of the historical cultural Trends in con is is nothing more than conjecture when there were 38 other homes on Milan and these are just the homes on the lawn at this point my presentation has been building up to make a recommendation here if the staff and the board wish to highlight the importance of the moderately priced homes and to ultimately help save these moderately priced homes I recommend stepping back from the individual designation and directing staff to evaluate the eligibility of designating the homes first mentioned in the newspaper articles from September 24th 1923 as a historic district you might consider calling that the cottage home historic district proper procedure would have us evaluate the Granada section as a potential historic district and not single out individual homes without proper context moreover when you view the Granada section plat map of 1924 we find that the entire area contains 50 foot lot likely intended for moderately priced homes here's a close up by that sandborn map indicating the homes built by 1924 in the qu quantity of those homes built by 1924 an analysis of the eight homes on Milan shows six appear to be consistent with the criteria for her historic designation only one is already locally designated one has already been demolished and in my view 1221 is not eligible for historic designation should not be considered considered even as a contributing home in a historic district which would have a lower bar why because it's totally lost its architectural Integrity let's switch uh back and discuss the Coral Gables Cottage criteria for a moment staff believes that 1221 meets the criteria for as a Coral Gables Cottage home and mentions that affordable homes became known as Coral Gable's cottages let's review the Section 8 202 that describes the criteria for cottage homes cor Gable's Cottage cottage homes must be a detached single family dwelling which is distinguished by its movement and plan projections and recessions asymmetrical arrangement of entrances frequently employed surface ornament for embellishment in at least 12 of the following features now I'm not going to go through all those features I promise you but let me say real quickly that right away 1221 Milan does not meet the basic criteria let alone contain the 12 specific features the basic criteria the projections the recess the asymmetrical entrances frequently important anybody SE ornament on this house because I sure don't see any ornament on this house of the 19 different criteria our professional analysis shows that this home meets only eight When comparing 1221 Milan to other potentially eligible houses on Milan or or in a proposed historic district the homes that are already locally designated it is important that we that this house it's important to point out that this house what this house lacks and that is again any degree of architectural Integrity the value of truly El able properties would be harmed by including a house such as this that lack of architectural Integrity will hurt the Public's perception of the quality and significance of what constitutes a Coral Gables Landmark to conclude I do not believe that the criteria for designation of a Historic Landmark under the crit of City of Coral Gable's code has been met Milan Avenue does not meet the basic criteria for eligibility it is not historically significant because it does not possess Integrity of location design studing materials workmanship or Association furthermore it does not have significant character interest or value as part of the historical cultural archaeological aesthetic or architectural Heritage staff believes that Milan 1221 Milan is significant to the City of Coral G's history and that it meets the following three criteria the criteria first of cultural significance staff fails fails to make the point as I said before about how this moderately priced home demonstrates historical or cultural trend nor do they provide any justification or explanation how the home exemplifies a historical cultural Trend moreover this home is by no means an archetype upon which cor Gables was founded as I said before staff's claim is unfounded and an exaggeration my conclusion is that 1224 Milan does not meet criteria a for cultural significance Criterion four moving on to architectural significance and Caesar I promise you this is the last page you're doing fine with regards to the criteria one staff summary recommendations claims that this home was built in the Mediterranean Revival style that defined America's vision for the city do any of you think this this home defines Merrick's vision for the City of Coral Gables this home did did not and does not define Merck's vision for the city nor is this home an example of the Mediterranean style of architecture the early home 1922 displays all the characteristics of the Spanish style and predates Mer's vision for the Mediterranean style frankly well the staff is correct that this is the Mediterranean style home or whether I am correct that this is a Spanish style home it's really a mood point the fact fact of the matter is that this home has been so severely altered that it no longer maintains its AR architectural Integrity as it stands today none of these features that are characteristic of the style are distinguishing my conclusion is that 1221 Milan does not meet the criteria B architectural significance criteria 1 and two because 1221 Milan has lost its architectural integrity now I'm here because I'm concerned that there are attempts to designate homes that have lost architectural integrity and very simply put that is bad preservation practice and significantly lowers the bar for what should be deemed as having architectural integrity and historic and cultural signif significance if the board again wishes to save moderately priced homes also known as cottage homes in the Granada section we recommend that you direct staff to evaluate the Granada section as a potential historic district and establish a clear period of significance between dates 1921 and 1926 thank you all for your attention and your patience thank you Mr heisenbottle good evening Mr chairman members of the board and staff my name is Wayne pathman with pathman law I'll try to be brief uh I may be a little bit repetitive uh of some of the things that rich said uh but I think it's important to start with what did the commission say you heard the City attorney say that they remanded it back with certain um directions to this board as to what you should find what they said specifically was Specific Instructions for the board to specify the competent substantial evidence for its findings and what it's basing its determination on then City attorney or excuse me then commissioner Rhonda Anderson added right is the uh if dealing with the addressing the architectural features of the home specify for us what are those features and then Kirk Melinda said show us why HPB thinks their points are valid one by one I would submit to you that staff has failed to do that if you read the report and I'm going to go over a number of those things on which have already been me some mentioned by Rich but what they're saying is in the report is specifically identifies three very very important points when was the house built why was it built was it by meric was it for a certain style and does it have the Integrity still to be classified as a historic home I would submit to you it doesn't meet any of those requirements why first of all the house was built in 1921 the tax card and I if you'd like to see a copy we have copies we can hand out but you saw it uh on Rich's presentation the tax card is very significant as a lawyer I deal with things like that whether it's an old home or a current home and everything else or building or shopping center whatever it might be tax cards are typically not created till a home is built because that's how they tax based upon and if you look at the the tax card itself it has the outline of the house what was built in 1921 now why is 1921 so important it's important because the entire staff reports starts in 19 uh excuse me in 1922 and that is not when this house was built this house was built earlier it wasn't in 1923 it wasn't in 1924 it was earlier as the tax card shows and I just want to show you real quick I meant to say excuse me 1922 but this picture here shows the outline of the house how can you show say and it would be complete conjecture opinion not substantiated by any record that we've seen seen so far in now the third hearing from staff that this house was built in 1923 it was either 1921 or 1922 the best evidence we have and I know that you're not a court of law but you're a quasa Judicial board is 1922 so in 1923 is when staff says George Merrick started buying property in the Grenada section and planting these homes in the cottage style whether it's Cottage or Mediterranean style well clearly didn't apply to this house this house was already built in 1922 so 1922 you have this house now fast forward and look at the Integrity the Integrity of the house is completely changed whether it was done with a permit or without a permit that's really not for your pre pre perview what's for your perview is what is the condition of the house today what does it look like does it have any of those original characteristics I'd like to point out that um and I'm again I'm going to try to brief and I'm changing my presentation a little bit because of time and Rich had covered things quite well uh but the most important thing is in integrity and how is integrity defined I thought it was very interesting that staff on page two of the report doesn't mention the entire section of uh the code which is section 103 where it specifically says it must possess Integrity it must have significant character interest or value it must meet one or more of the several criteria in order to meet the above criteria a property cannot be significantly altered this house is significantly altered how do you know that well staff made my CL my claim for me made my case for me as rich said between Pages 11 and 21 they talk about all the alterations not one paragraph not one page not even two pages but 10 so almost one half of the entire report by staff talks about the alterations that end of itself is enough to say the house has lost its Integrity it no longer has the Integrity now what is a definition of integrity in any meaningful Treatise in law Insider they Define the architectural elements materials color and quality of the original building construction that's what you're supposed to consider as Integrity original building construction the authenticity of a property's historic identity evidenced by the survival of physical characteristics that existed during the property's prehistoric or historic period again survival they didn't survive they don't exist today it is not a historic home when you look at staff's report they spent a lot of time talking about George Merrick but I would ask you to consider what have they proven what have they shown in their report or any that they've demonstrated here today or last time when they were before this board that shows it had anything to do with George Merck or anything to do with his ideas about the Grenada area the Granada area it didn't because the house existed beforehand and as Rich so well pointed out who designed the house why is it a Spanish style house because it had nothing to do with George Merck or his idea for Coral Gables now I'd also like to take some time um and you may not be accustom to this but under the rules I have a right to cross-examine and I would like to cross-examine Anna peris and her report I'd have a few questions for her Madam City attorney is this appropriate certainly Mr chair thank you Miss peras and I good Hello nice to see you too we start out in the afternoon now see you so I will be delicate my intent is not to have a trial here okay so you indicated in the report that George Merck acquired the property in this area and you say 1923 under 1924 in the report are you familiar with the tax card showing that it's 1922 I have seen the tax card okay are you familiar what a tax card is yes okay so you would agree then that the tax card shows a building or a home being built as of 1922 as referenced on the tax card yes and we have seen discrepancies in the date the built date in those tax cards and permits and other evidence but I'm asking a question what do you see on this tax card yes it says 1922 so that would be the best evidence of when this house was built would you agree given the report that was written by staff I would say no well again then what do you have or what did staff have to show that wasn't built in 1922 hold on one second because I'm sorry that I did not write this report so I do have to go back and I did stud I assumed you did it because you signed it right um take your time Miss beress yes thank you I the in the report was when the acquisition of the land was create was acquired by am in 1923 um and Merck substantially increased his land Holdings in that area and that is when the designation of those eight homes of the I mean that well originally the sorry 38 homes is it just want to make sure I have the number right I'm looking for what I presented in the so I'll go back to the the designation report stating that the stting that the land was acquired in 1923 okay but again my question was the tax card shows 1922 so would you agree then if America acquired it in 23 he didn't build this house I'm trying to find the date of the permit that was pulled apologies I would stipulate that if a tax card is already out the permit had to be pulled prior to that that's how it typically works in the system and again we've seen discrepancies between those two but but can you identify any discrepancies specifically or have any evidence that supports this the the commission was very uh straightforward in terms of what they wanted to see they wanted to see specifics and the commission wanted the direction to come from the board and that was very clear too in their resolution that was signed I'm not trying to be argumentative but I remember the commission saying please give us specifics one by one as to how you can show and this was an issue before the commission that it was built in 1922 and not 1923 do you have any specifics I do not have any specifics at this time on page seven of the report in the middle of the page you state the home was completed in 1924 but you did not provide any citation within text as to as a footnote or anything or how you know was built in 1924 do you have any evidence to show was built in 1924 at this moment I do not okay on page 10 of the report in the first sentence you state the home was commissioned by City founder George Merrick in 1923 one how do you know that I'm sorry which page was that page 10 of the report in the first sentence you state the home was commissioned by City founder George Merrick in 1923 sorry page 10 on the report that I have is photos um well the one I have which was anyhow the the question is 1923 how do you know that George Merck built the house in 1923 commission commission do you have any evidence any documentation any contracts any car building cards any permits anything like that anything of that nature the I think the what was referenced was the newspaper articles that so that's all you have nothing actually from the city showing I know of at the moment it was the newspaper articles that was referenced so would you agree that the best evidence so far to date is the tax card that show when the house was built again I would have to review all the materials listed in the um designation report as um part of the uh sorry as part of the references that let me ask a different way in your report it doesn't say that correct doesn't say no it does not say that the tax card was done correct and is there a reason why that was omitted in your report I'm not sure no in the report the staff were you spend almost 10 pages of the report discussing um all the modification that were done to the home would you agree that those were significant modifications we do describe them as extent exterior description and and alterations okay so would you also agree that that changed the Integrity of the house it has altered the house the Integrity I would not have but these are all items that have been looked at that have can be reversible and Have Not Included has not changed the Integrity of the house the Integrity of the house would have been lost if the house was no longer identifiable as a Spanish Mediterranean style house and um or a cottage type house but and to include sorry that we I believe the pages that you're speaking of for the report are Pages 12 through 21 um which we do describe that exterior alteration and and I'd like to just State for the record that five or maybe more of those pages are photos Okay but again my my question was specific there's no records the best record is the tax correct that is that in reference to the exterior just saying to the build of the house with regards to the exterior my question was you spent 10 pages describing all the alterations that's pretty significant you make a point of saying how significant it is in the report and I would submit to you that your own code says integrity and the Integrity of the of the house is lost and the integrity definition would you not agree from treatises is the original condition you have to accept the house today when you're designating something as to the condition the house is in now whether it was done with a permit or not right and I would go back to what I just stated that the Integrity of the house would have been lost if it was no longer recognizable to it style or type so again would you agree that the alterations were significant yes there have been significant alterations thank you do you know who Warren Adams was yes previous preservation officer okay do you have do you know you respect him do you think he's a knowledgeable person yes are you familiar with very minimally know him okay well he he was he did chair your department at some time I believe correct or he did no we never worked together no but I'm saying but at some before your your predecessor oh yes was the previous preservation officer he was previous he he is on the record on many occasions saying that if the Integrity of the home is lost you must take the home as it is today and if it's not original then it's not worth designation and that's coming from the prior chair of your department and has been said many times on the record here and we have quotes if we need to see them but that's what he said um I have no further questions for you thank you very much I appreciate it I would just like to conclude with after everything that was said by my client Mr salonus by a renowned expert Richard heisenbottle and now myself there is no way that this house should ever be considered a historic be should considered to be historic and receive a historic designation the best evidence presented today is the tax card the tax card in of itself refutes everything staff put in its report because staff's report starts in 19 23 it talks about George Merrick it talks about the style of the house which we know wasn't the case in 1922 when this house was built this picture if I were in a court of law this is the best evidence the judge or jury would look at this and say that house was built in 1922 it was not part of amic's design his concept for the Grenada area and therefore cannot be considered as a a mediteran Revival home it must be specific and the commission even zeroed in on that when we were before them on the appeal that they want to see specificity with regards to why this house deserves a designation we've shown overwhelmingly it does not there's nothing that was presented today by staff in the report or anything that they said on the record that in any way is competent substantial evidence to say that this house is a 1923 Mediterranean Revival home that George Merrick planned I would ask that you deny the application for historic designation let the salones get on with their life they want to build a beautiful home there uh that will be complimentary to the neighborhood everybody will be happy and they will not be burdened with the designation of historic designation for something that is clearly not historic I myself live in lived in a historic home I just sold it recently as even though I'm an attorney who represents lots of developers I work in Balance I recently my one of the biggest projects I worked on at the end of last year was trying to save and work on the National Hotel on Miami Beach so I try to look at balance even though I represent developers in preserving historic things and like Richard said and he's on that same side this doesn't deserve it this has no merit you know even George Merrick would be saying we shouldn't be preserving this house it's not one of mine it's not what I intended it just happens to be an outlier that was built in 1922 thank you thank you Mr pman does that conclude your presentation it does but I would Reserve in case any other evidence comes out that I have the right to continue my cross-examination thank you okay um Miss pus or the city doesn't do you have anything you'd wish to say at this time in rebuttal of the presentation by the applicant slowly please probably quick so um I was uh name Cara CS assistant histor preservation officer um at the city commission um appeal hearing uh this issue of the date actually was addressed um and I don't have the correct slide I don't think it was part of your slide that that Anna presented um but the date seems to be an issue and in all honesty it's kind of irrelevant because it's a 23 or 22 house it's old it's of the time period however the home um was constructed in the Granada section of the city there is a 19202 map that I don't know if it was part of your slide but you all have seen before it's it's the normal it's the map it's it was in the two designation presentations earlier um Merrick didn't own the Granada section in 1922 he hadn't yet acquired that land it's in purple it's not part of the map so you can't put a house on something that doesn't isn't platted so when in Fall of uh 1923 section F highlighted in over here this was all expanded uh and Milan became the border so in September of 23 the newspaper article announced the start of construction the Granada section the permit for this drawing I mean the permit drawings for this house number 402 list the lot and block in the Granada section which didn't exist until after 1922 had passed therefore we extrapolated that it was built post 22 in 1923 so thank you Miss CS m does the applicant wish to reut please so um like I said I watched all those hearings and on uh March 15 2023 Miss Gwyn did a report on 831 obiso in which she said and I'm quoting this does not preclude the home from being built prior to the street platting there are several instances of Mediterranean Revival homes built in the Granada section prior to the land becoming part of coral cables thank you so and um the other thing I wanted to mention is uh when um Miss peras was talking about integrity she defined it as Integrity lost if the home was not recognizable um back to my hearings that I watched it was the one on 430 Minorca when Warren Adams mentioned he said basic he said there were several significant features that have been altered specifically and it just so happens that these features that he mentioned are the exact same features that my home was also altered and he said uh specifically en closure of the garage door opening the original patio enclosed reconfiguration of Windows replacement of rough textured stucco with a smoother texture uh smoother stucco and the installation of inappropriate Windows he said these alterations ations have negative impact on the Integrity of the design materials and workmanship and those were all prevalent changes in my home as well thank you Mr s um does anybody have any questions for the applicant or staff at this time this is the time for questions Miss Spain I have a brief question about the report wait minute let me just get to it sorry um because I I think the report that we have um was an updated uh designation report because it talked about the case history and it talked about all this other stuff cor so I think the date on it should should be today's date yes oh on the top right yeah because otherwise it's it's can't be differentiated um between yeah and that was a typo from it being rescheduled I understand so I'll make sure that it's modified that's that was my only because once it gets back to the commission it's going to be confusing unless it has yeah yeah we'll have the right date on there in the header and and just one another thing you have listed in here the building and permit records um for the city of cor gaes and you also have the real estate cards that I believe the um Department received from kdik realy and they were very detailed as far as dates go um when we acquired those uh and so it may be that the the date is on one of those cards I don't know I don't know but part of the bibliography references the building permits and and those real estate cards yeah and that's usually one of the first things that we pull when we doing determination were done by the city and it's not I I found when I was you that they weren't necessarily uh all that accurate um but I you probably don't have the the building permit record for that for number whatever it is 400 and something yeah we'll we'll take another look but I know that's something that's all referenced in the I don't think it matters either I agree with I agree with car that the date really doesn't matter as far as things go but uh I mean if it was brought up at the commission maybe just take another look at yeah that's any other questions for staff for the applicant so Miss B I have two questions these are on the the final two items that are presented by the applicant one is the dates to what Miss Spain just said does it matter if it's 1921 1922 or 1923 if it meets the criteria no it doesn't matter okay it's still within the substantial development period of the origination of City of Coral Gables so we would feel it still meets the criteria and the second one is the extensive or significant modifications versus the idea of the Integrity of the original home you've stated on the record I'd like you to restate what you feel are the modifications that were presented by the staff and the applicant the very long list of uh modifications and your professional opinion as to their extensiveness significance and their effect on the Integrity of the home I'm not going to comment specifically to the list that was provided by the applicant because that's something that we received the last couple days but given that the report does have 10 pages of a description of the existing conditions and the modifications made um I think it's important to say that you know buildings over time develop and change and there are modifications to those buildings uh losing a building losing its Integrity would be that it's no as I stated earlier it would be no longer recognizable as it's within its architectural style or the type of building that it is um in this condition in its existing condition um with the some of the detail original details remaining uh we believe that the building still meets the criteria listed and that although there are some things that cannot be reversed there are others that can be and brought back and this is a good example of an opportunity for adalum and for uh restoring a property back into to with the evidence that we have of its original conditions um and taking advantage of something for the future because I don't it's not something that is being determined today but if it were to move forward with a cottage designation have meet the criteria but again the cottage designation is not what's being proposed today one final question and this would require a slide um if we could pull up the PowerPoint presentation please the cities Criterion number two of architect architectural significance embodies those disting distinguishing characteristics of an architectual stall or period or method of construction which is on the staff report page 24 do you have that yes so in this report it lists the specific elements that staff is using to say that it meets that criteria can we pull up an image and or plans or something and identify them one by one please cgtv could you please um thank you sorry let me find the slide so the elements here are identified as um Mediterranean Revival Style Elements and just to State what I had stated for under Criterion 2 is that um the existing home possesses numerous character defining features of the Mediterranean Revival style these include but aren limited to textured stucco finish slowly so one by one does this does this home have textured stucco finish yes the items listed are existing I'm just going to go one by one textured stucco finish and the second one combination of roof types and Heights does this one have a combination of roof types and Heights yes a series of arched openings does it have a series of arched openings yes was projecting sorry the uh there's two there's what's written yeah and there's what's up there so I'm going by the staff report a series of arched openings yes a distinctive knob arched opening facing including an is a distinctive knob arched opening facing the street which is sorry this guy Spanish inspired chimney with diamond-shaped cutouts it might be on the other side sorry for the angle um detached garage whose parapets were designed to mirror the main home again it's a little bit obscured but there's the original Garage in the rear uh Wing walls which are in the survey but are are um hidden I think behind some plantings on the side elevations uh Barrel tile roof are existing over the um overhangs Decora decoratively arranged groups of round vents in a diamond configuration which I believe remain here at the front in 2009 and are also present at the side and rear and the garage maybe not the rear the side and the garage um protecting Bays yes and a recess casement windows with protruding Sills and souped masonry hoods these were at the side elevation which you can kind of see sorry that's the wrong button the hoods and the Sills um are there now and how many is that can you that it does not need to meet any number of the it ask a question how many items is that one two three four five six 7 8 9 10 11 11 items that were called out specifically here thank you thank you Mr Ben the applicant like to hi okay can we just go back to that slide can we bring the slide up please again and let me say that it's not a question that I have you've stated your case incredibly well and I understand what your position is if you wish to restate it please feel free I just wanted to address what she said are still on my home um the there's a textured stuckle finish it's true it's not original with the house because there's multiple different textures throughout the house um arched openings okay Spanish and SP the chimney is not original there used there were never a barrel tile on top of it when it was designed you could even see today I think by this picture how it is and you could see or this was 1967 and you can see the picture of it today it looks nothing like it used to um the garage is not detached it is attached parapets I don't know what that means when you say designed to mirror the main house but it's just a parit there's no decorative feature on the parit to to make it um there is no Wing wall on the right side there is over here this is a picture from 1967 but if you look at the one from today there is no Wing wall over there um there is no Barrel tile roof you want to do this and look at the picture from today and go through the list as we just did withness versus looking at this image sure uh I just wanted where that list is there to to let you know use the one that's in the report I'm sorry a little confused on what you asked me to do Mr pathman do you have a copy of this report yeah yeah can you go to page 24 and show him the list and then go to a picture of the house today unfor I believe my page 24 is different than yours I'll give you m this is the report for this hearing Miss pus can you provide can somebody provide them with a copy of Staff report that's it ceria number two the same okay you where's okay it's not clicking moving forward we got it it's right there they have it he has it I have the list here I just wanted to show okay I just wanted to show a picture of the house as it is today okay can you move the slide there you go there let's go in order the same way Mr pathman if you want to read them out okay one by one as the chairman asked okay so thick masonry walls yes there are those textur sucko exterior walls they're there but they're not original construction of a CW over AC cwl space yes combination of roof types and Heights I suppose there are arched openings there's the window in front and the window to the side she did mention that a series of arched openings which I don't believe that there is Spanish inspired chimney with diamond shaped cutouts like I said it's not original and there are no diamond shaped cutouts detached garage does not exist um the wing walls like I said there one on the well you can't see from this photo here but it looks like on this photo from 1967 there's a Wing wall but currently there is not one and on the other side there is a very slight Wing wall attached to the what used to be the garage um Barrel tile roof nothing is original and they're all s tiles Decora I can barely say that arrange groups of round vents there are some of those projecting Bays the only Bay is you can't see from any of those is on one of the elevations a very slight Bay for the bathroom recessed casement windows there are no casement windows original with the house they're all jousy windows the only casement windows are the ones that I put up in the front those three but those are all new and flat roofs with stepped parapets there are no step parapets the parapets are all at the same level except the I guess for the garage so address that thank you um Mr chairman you asked a very interesting question which one and Madam Spain you said something that was interesting also but I think you have to look at them together the first thing you asked is what is it significant when the house was built what year if you read the report it says throughout the report 1923 to 24 and then it goes on to say why that's important in the report so they didn't answer the question that you asked it is important that 1923 and 1924 because they were tying it into George Merrick his acquisition of the property of developing the neighbor and the style of the homes the cards that you talk about um that said we looked through all of that and I'm sure the staff did too it doesn't exist for this house the only record we found was the tax record for the house which very interestingly they don't do the same thing today but they draw that design that you saw on the house that's an indication it was built in 1922 it doesn't have any of the characteristics as identified in this report which Richard heisenbottle testified to all the stuff that staff has put on and and I appreciate staff and and I know they do a great job it's conjecture it's hearsay it's speculation there's nothing that they provided today that shows or complies with the commission's request to be specific it's just a guess but the best guess is 1922 that's when the house was built and as our expert said it doesn't have any of the character characteristics of Mediterranean Revival and if you look deeply enough in Integrity as Warren Adams said that's the most important thing really that this board should be looking at when you go to designate a home the city had since MR Salon has owned it 25 years to designate it did he do some things to the house at alter yes but it wasn't because he thought it was going to be designated historic he did things he should have gotten a permit but that's not a reason to Grant the historic designation the real issue is is that the Integrity of the home still there in its original condition and clearly that is not and all the things that I cited and I have like I said documents I've looked at books I'll very clear okay I wanted to just make sure I made it clear enough because I thought the answer that was given by staff was very unclear thank you sir thank you all right any additional questions for staff or the applicant this is the time for questions Mr chair yes ma'am I just wanted to clarify the commission's direction has been brought up a couple of times and so before you all begin this deliberation I just wanted to clarify if it's all right with you what the actual Direction was from commission we've had a few statements I was going to go to public comment and come back to the board that's fine okay um is there anybody in the audience that wishes to speak in favor of this application any or this case anyone in opposition okay I am closing the public comment and I'm bringing it back to the board Madam City attorney thank you Mr chair I just wanted to clarify we had a mentioned a few times that it was direction from the commission to City staff I just want to be clear that the direction from the historic I mean from the city commission was to the historic preservation board for you all to make clear what substantial competent evidence you were basing your decision on not necessarily altering the staff's report but to make sure that you all were clear in what your decision- making was what you were basing that decision on so to the extent that staff report may or may not have addressed concerns brought up at the city commission the director from the commission was for the board not to staff thank you madam City attorney so now this back to the board you heard our charge um I'm going to remind everyone that the staff report is substantial competent evidence to give to us for us to determine if it is correct or not the applicant has provided additional substantial competent evidence with their opinions and now it is in our hands to listen to both the staff and the applicant and make a determination of our own based on our understanding of the criteria that is before us so if we're going to have some discussion which I would encourage let's have some discussion based on not just the three criteria that were identified by staff you can have any criteria that you feel is important for designation or none so I I this is a denovo hearing we have a responsibility to the building the staff and the applicant to make sure that we get this right so does anybody have any discussion on this item and this is not a time for questions this is a time for discussion Mr Maxwell if you look at all the buildings particularly of this particular category none of them have original windows they're 100 years old they're wood they're rotted but yet we just we we look at historic buildings all the time the national register of historic places and the guidelines for restoring property that the architect knows and that the attorney knows also shows that states that if it can be returned to its original condition that's a criteria the architect is an architect of note yeah he came from California but we all came from someplace else as a matter of fact the 20s is when this place boomed nobody lived here before so as a developer and a historic preservationist I buy property in advance and a lot of times I've not I've noted that I bought something or had something in to be purchased you know well in advance of my closing on it the architectural style to me it's there yeah it's been changed but a lot of everything that you've seen that's come before this board has been changed everything there's almost nothing that is original nothing that is pristine not even this building which is very good condition so what's the alternative why isn't it historic you say it doesn't meet the criteria I I disagree um I think it meets the criteria it feels that way I mean it's an interesting approach that you've taken but uh it meets the criteria in my opinion any further discussion Mr Silva I think Mr Maxwell stated it very very well right if we were only to designate buildings that were untouched and Pristine from 100 years ago there there would be no buildings designated right we all recognize that maintenance has to happen that components have to be replaced that roofs have to be replaced what's important is is that they can be replaced as necessary in a historically appropriate way now were all of these windows replaced in a historically appropriate way probably not but this is an and it's defined as an easily reversible it right same with the roofs it has s tile we want to see a two-piece Barrel the next time that building comes forward to to a board if we we CH to designate it we request that it's a two-piece burial tile so these are things that happen just in in the course of of a building's lifespan right they get altered and and we we regularly approve alterations to historically designated buildings we we did it three times I think today right we approve additions we approve renovation we approve alterations um and and funnily enough the way I understand it the the most kind of destructive alterations to this property was done without a permit but it was that front addition for whatever that's worth um so I look at this and I see I mean we went through that checklist right textured stco the SS the altering Ro lines um the the the chimney just we talked about the chimney you said there was no uh diamond on the chimney I I'm looking at a picture that has it I don't from 2023 uh I don't know if it's been covered since then but but I'm looking at it um so to me these are all character defining things you quoted uh Warren Adams before the the previous Chief and you said that uh that sometimes these alterations can have a negative impact right on on the Integrity of a structure yes they can have a negative impact but it doesn't mean that it loses its Integrity completely like something can have a negative impact we can try to correct it or something has a negative impact and it still maintains its General Integrity um so I'm looking at all these issues and all these this whole checklist of Staff put together and and I see that this house still maintains it its integrity and the issue with the dates um you know we're looking at two different sources the new newspaper articles the tax card you know I don't know which one is correct um but even putting that aside even if we were to rule today that this does not Merit um designation under that historical and cultural and social significance factor which is really the only one that that time period plays into there are still two others that I completely agree with and I have no doubts about and we only need one to designate um so that's opinion thank you Mr silan that was exactly my point you only need one and absolutely architectural significant significance Criterion two it qualifies and I also believe it qualifies for Criterion one in architectural significance and the date thing you're right that that only impacts that one criteria so I mean for me I I I do believe that it still has Integrity in the on the property I added that to the code because I thought it was important that properties have integrity and that the Board needs to look at that initially before they even start looking at all the other stuff because if it doesn't have integrity of site uh then there's no point but this one does it absolutely retains it it's been altered but it retains the Integrity any further discussion oh I mean I agree with my colleagues um it's you know just based on the architect Lewis Brum he was commission I think I read in in the report a commission for hundred something houses in cores by George Merck himself I mean it's it's obviously you know he was definitely a key figure and and like I said any of the alterations I mean I'm in construction and most of the alterations I mean can be easily fixed I mean they're probably less intrusive than knocking down the whole house and building a new house I mean it's probably easier to just Rectify those than than to you know build a new house um so I don't see why you know why we wouldn't designate this house um that's just me any additional discussion okay I'm happy to entertain a very specific motion please with very specific Criterion and very specific Criterion within the Criterion that's if any are selected um for designation or otherwise I'm going to try this but I'm open to any kind of amendment that you all think I should do Miss B all right um I'd like to make a motion to approve the local historic designation of the property at 1221 Milan Avenue legally described as like plot 9 block 39 Coral Gables berata section revised um based on the following Criterion I'm going to start with architectural significance Criterion number two I believe that it embodies those distinguishing characteristics of an architectural style or period and method of construction although it's been altered it possesses numerous character defining features uh of a Spanish style home uh these include but are not limited to textured stucco finish combination of roof types and hides series of arched openings a distinctive knob arched opening facing the street um the Spanish inspired chimney with diamond shaped cutouts which I also saw in the staff report detached uh garage um apparently it was a originally detached but it still functions as a garage who whose parit were designed to mirror the main house Wing walls Barrel tile roof although they're s tile they could easily be made Barrel tile decoratively arrange groups of rounded vets in uh Diamond configuration projecting bays and that refers to a portion of the house not a bay window um and recessed uh casement windows with protruding Sills and swoop masonry hoods absolutely it fits that Criterion um I also believe it fits uh Criterion number one under architectural significance I believe it does portray an environment in the era of History characterized by one and more distinctive architectural Styles I also um all right uh uh Mir envisioned a Mediterranean inspired City uh and this is an example of a uh Mediterranean Design so I believe it fits that also the other criteria mentioned in the staff report is historical cultural significance I think it's important to designate these small homes uh this is not a huge home but it uh absolutely um exemplifies uh a trend of the community particularly in Merck's Vision he thought it was important to have the same architectural style in the larger homes and in the smaller homes and this exemplifies um that historical Trend um and so I believe it fits all three thank you Miss Bane there's a motion is there a second second okay we have a motion by Miss Spain a signed by Mr Maxwell any discussion on the motion it's coloroll Mr arft yes Mr dananana yes Mr Silva yes Miss Spain yes Mr Maxwell yes and Mr Garcia Pon yes motion passes 6 to Zer thank you everybody for your time um I'm going to adjourn the meeting at this time so we can handle any business at the next meeting Miss City attorney can I just make one note for the record that Miss dunaj left at 8:00 and did not participate in this vote just for the record her absence was um was noted thank you very much you meeting adjourned good job recording stop e