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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Historic Preservation Commission - 11/14/2005 MINUTES HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION NOVEMBER 14, 2005 TOWN OF ORO VALLEY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT— HOPI ROOM 11000 NORTH LA CANADA DRIVE CALL TO ORDER: 6:03 PM PRESENT: CHAIR PAMELA SARPALIUS VICE CHAIR ROBERT BAUGHMAN COMMISSIONER PAIGE CHRISTIANSEN COMMISSIONER JIM KRIEGH COMMISSIONER AL KUNISCH COMMISSIONER SYBIL NEEDHAM ALSO PRESENT: PAUL LOOMIS, MAYOR CONNY CULVER, TOWN COUNCIL LIAISON BRENT SINCLAIR, AICP, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR AINSLEY REEDER, PARKS AND RECREATION ADMINISTRATOR MARGOT HURST, PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD LIAISON JENNIFER JONES, RECORDING SECRETARY ABSENT: COMMISSIONER NANCY MAGER STUDENT LIAISON, EMILY GRAVES CALL TO AUDIENCE Chair Sarpalius stated that Margot Hurst wanted to speak to the Commission in regards to the Ordinance. Ms. Sarpalius informed Ms. Hurst that she would be called on when the Commission reached that agenda item. I. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF OCTOBER 10, 2005 MEETING MOTION: Vice Chair Baughman MOVED to approve the minutes as submitted. Commissioner Christiansen SECONDED the motion. Motion carried (6-0). II. HISTORY READING BY JIM KRIEGH Commissioner Kriegh showed the Commission a brief video about the Steam Pump Ranch Building. III. REPORT FROM THE ORO VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Commissioner Kriegh stated that the Oro Valley Historical Society membership is close to 50 members and they have established a new logo. Commissioner Kriegh stated that he will be emailing the newsletter to the Commission. Commissioner Kriegh stated that the next Historical Society meeting will be on December 8, 2005 at 6:00 p.m. at the Sunshine School. IV. REPORT FROM THE HISTORIC PRESERVATION ORDINANCE TASK FORCE; DISCUSSION AND COMMENTS REGARDING THE PROPOSED ORDINANCE Vice Chair Baughman stated that he needs to report the status of the ordinance and felt that may have an effect on what Ms. Hurst wanted to say. Mr. Baughman stated that he feels that the ordinance should not be dealt with during a regular meeting and requested that a work session be scheduled before the next regular meeting. Mr. Baughman also stated that he did a final reading of the draft and has found some errors. Mr. Baughman informed the Commission that he was going to mark up a copy of the ordinance and work with Ms. Jones to make the corrections to the ordinance and mail out copies of the ordinance to the Commission. Chair Sarpalius stated that the work session will take place on Friday, December 2, 2005 at 9 a.m. and Mr. Sinclair will secure a meeting room. Chair Sarpalius opened the call to the audience. Vice Chair Baughman asked if Ms. Hurst would like to get together and go over her comments. Ms. Hurst replied that she would like to meet with Mr. Baughman. V. REPORT FROM STUDENT LIAISON No report for this meeting. VI. REPORT FROM THE PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD Margot Hurst, Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Liaison stated that there was no report for this meeting. VII. REPORT FROM THE SANTA CRUZ NATIONAL HERITAGE AREA ALLIANCE LIAISON No report for this meeting. VIII. PRESENTATION BY STEVE SOLOMON Chair Sarpalius informed the Commission that Mr. Solomon would like to conduct a site tour for the Commission and stated that the site tour would have to be done either before a regular Commission meeting (at 4PM) or on a Saturday. Chair Sarpalius suggested conducting the site tour on Saturday, December 3, 2005 at 10 a.m. Vice Chair Baughman inquired as to where the Commission should plan meet. Chair Sarpalius stated that the Commission should meet at the site. Mr. Sinclair suggested that the Town Council and Parks and Recreation Advisory Board also be invited to the site tour. Chair Sarpalius asked Ms. Jones to email everyone the site tour information. Steve Solomon introduced himself and presented a PowerPoint presentation. NOVEMBER 14, 2005 DRAFT MINUTES, HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION Mr. Solomon stated that the Town Center is located at the Southeast corner of Moore Rd and Rancho Vistoso Blvd and is about 87 acres. Mr. Solomon stated that the site is unique in size and it was originally envisioned as the Center of Town in the 1987 PAD. Mr. Solomon explained that the site is zoned for a wide range of residential and commercial uses. Mr. Solomon stated that there are some unique challenges to this site. Mr. Solomon explained that there are unique and irreplaceable cultural and historical resources on the site. Mr. Solomon also explained to the Commission that there is also land entitled for development with no rezoning requirement and legally all that has to be done is mitigate the site, which was the original plan that was submitted by Vistoso Partners. Mr. Solomon stated that the Town of Oro Valley set up a Honey Bee Village Preserve working group and originally they were going to prepare a conceptual plan for the archeological site. The working group was looking at what should be preserved and how should it be preserved. Mr. Solomon stated that the Mayor was really the driving force behind this because it involved so many parties. Mr. Solomon explained that the Mayor suggested getting all of the parties together from the start to look at the overall plan. Mr. Solomon stated that they had quite the working group that consisted of Town of Oro Valley, Mayor and Town Manager, Parks and Recreation, Planning and Zoning, the Tohono O'odham Nation, the Town of Oro Valley Consultants Community By Design and Desert Archeology, Pima County Administrator, Cultural Resources, Arizona State Museum and himself as the property owner. Mr. Solomon stated that every Indian nation in Arizona claims a cultural affiliation with this site and all have agreed that Tohon O'odham Nation would be the lead nation in this project. Mr. Solomon stated that the first thing they had to do was set some goals which are as follows: • Preserve Hohokam Core Site • Create Historical Focal Point for Oro Valley • Economic Viability • Develop Unique Residential Neighborhoods • Compatible Commercial Development Mr. Solomon stated that the group came up with the Honey Bee Village Archaeological Preserve Conceptual Site Plan and they had an Integrated Development Plan. Mr. Solomon stated that it has four areas: • Archaeological Preserve • Single Family Residential Area • Condominium Section • 10 acre Commercial Section Mr. Solomon informed the Commission that the Tohono O'odham Nation reviewed and approved the resolution supporting the Conceptual Plan on September 14, 2005, through their legislative council. Mr. Solomon stated that on October 12, 2005 the plan was endorsed by the Town Council, Development Review Board and the Historic Preservation Commission. Mr. Solomon informed the Commission that he is going to donate the 13 acres of the core site for preservation and in exchange Pima County will use bond funds to mitigate the remainder of the site, outside of the preserve. Mr. Solomon stated that Pima County has a request for proposal out and they are going to award a two phase contract on December 6, 2005. The first contract is for about $200,000 and that is for the archaeologist to go in a do a surface survey within the perimeter and then NOVEMBER 14, 2005 DRAFT MINUTES, HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION do actual trenching in the area outside of the preserve and then based on the information from the trenching they will develop a mitigation plan including what to excavate and relocation of any remains that may be found. Mr. Solomon stated that a few features of the site include: • Direct Moore Rd Access • Low Wall • Controlled Access Points • Public Trail Access MOTION: Vice Chair Baughman moved to endorse the general concept of the plan. Commissioner Kriegh SECONDED the motion. Motion carried 6-0 Vice Chair Baughman asked about the contract for trenching services being done by Pima County, and asked if Mr. Solomon could clarify why Pima County was letting contracts out on this project. Mr. Solomon stated that normally it would be the developer, but in this situation there weren't sufficient funds to purchase the site, so there was a unique approach that they came up with, where he is willing to donate the preserve but he is not interested in paying several million dollars to mitigate the remainder of the site. The County offered the bond funds to perform the archaeological work on the surrounding area outside of the preserve. Commissioner Needham stated that she has no expertise in methods of preserving historic sites and she is worried that might be the mission of this Commission. Mr. Solomon stated that he had no authority to task this Commission. Mr. Solomon also stated that this was something that the Town would have to address. IX. DISCUSSION OF MAYOR AND COUNCIL DIRECTION TO COMMISSION FOR HONEY BEE VILLAGE SITE Mr. Sinclair stated that the Mayor and Council did tell the Commission that they wanted them to oversee the next phase of this project. Mr. Sinclair stated that to get to the point that the Honey Bee Village project is at right now, they had a working group, which consisted of Steve Solomon, Tohono O'odham Nation, Town Staff, State Museum, Parks and Recreation and Pima County. Mr. Sinclair explained that he could see the same working group again for the second phase, which is the development plan for the site. Mr. Sinclair stated that the Historic Preservation Commission is the umbrella, they will commission a working group of the same people and the working group will work with a consultant all the information would be coming back and forth to the Historic Preservation Commission. The working group will identify the trails, features, uses and identify everything that will be on that 30 acre site. Vice Chair Baughman asked if the process would work like the land marking process in the Ordinance where the Commission will meet with working groups or get reports from working groups and make judgments and recommendations to the Town Council. Mr. Sinclair stated that the Commission will oversee this, but will not approve development plans. Chair Sarpalius stated that she feels that there may be a little bit of a panic because they are going from nothing to all. Ms. Sarpalius also stated that when Mr. Sinclair is talking security, he is not NOVEMBER 14, 2005 DRAFT MINUTES, HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION saying that they have to take turns with a gun and walk the property. Ms. Sarpalius explained that they are charged to provide guidance on what they feel would be the avenue to go, not to do the actual security. Ms. Sarpalius stated that what they are to do is to come up with ideas. Vice Chair Baughman stated that what he is concerned with is a decision that they come up with that is not entirely correct, that later causes damage. Mr. Baughman stated that he does not want the Commission to have to go to court. Chair Sarpalius stated that the decisions of the Commission are forwarded to the Town Council for approval. Commission Needham asked if Desert Archaeology will still be involved. Mr. Sinclair stated that has yet to be decided who the consultant would be. Mr. Sinclair stated that this is a collaborative process with the Tohono O'odham Nation, Parks and Recreation, Development Review Board and Pima County; everybody has come to an agreement. Commissioner Kunisch asked if there are still plans to push Moore Road throught. Mr. Solomon answered that currently Vistoso Partners wants to loop Moore Road and not cut across to the wash and basically loop around to Arrowsmith. Mr. Solomon stated that Vistoso Partners current plan is to go ahead with the golf course. Commissioner Kunish also asked if the condominiums were going to be vacation rentals. Mr. Solomon stated that they would be higher end condominiums for winter visitors or second homes, but not time shares. Chair Sarpalius asked Mayor Loomis if he had anything to address to the Commission. Mayor Loomis stated that he thinks that we will have to depend on the Commission to provide oversite and staff will provide assistance. Mayor Loomis stated that there will be additional things that the Town will need to do. Councilmember Culver stated that she looks forward to what the Commission recommends. Commission Kriegh asked if the Tohono O'odham Nation will have a lot of input as to how the site is developed. Mayor Loomis stated that they are partners and they are going to be involved and watching carefully and their representative is the equivalent of Steve Solomon, Brent Sinclair, Linda Mayro and Peter Steer, the four technical managers/experts on this job. Mayor Loomis stated that they have representation, Peter Steere, who will pull whatever resources he needs to support the task. X. PRESENTATION BY TOM SOMMMERS —ARIZONA MEMORY PROJECT Tom Sommers stated that he learned of the Arizona Memory Project while attending the Arizona Library Association Conference in October. The Arizona Memory Project is an online repository for digital items. Mr. Sommers stated that photographs/documents can be scanned and be put into the highlight of the repository so that the public can have access to it through the website and view historical information. NOVEMBER 14, 2005 DRAFT MINUTES, HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION Mr. Sommers stated that the Arizona State Library is going to be working with Museums, Libraries, Historical Societies and other cultural institutions to put this project together. Mr. Sommers introduced Richard Prouty from the Arizona State Library. Mr. Prouty stated that the State has invested in software and developed a website called the Arizona Memory Project. Mr. Prouty stated that its intent is being a collection of digital collections from around the State, representing any collection that tells part of the Arizona story. Mr. Prouty explained that the Arizona story is very broadly defined; it could be archeology, documents or photographs. Mr. Prouty presented a brief PowerPoint presentation. Mr. Prouty stated that they have just started the site and they only have two collections so far, the site will be officially announced in March 2006. Mr. Prouty informed the Commission that this is a software package, which requires no coding knowledge and the Arizona State Library is offering training and providing support. Commissioner Kunisch asked about the cost. Mr. Prouty stated that this is a free service. Commissioner Kriegh stated that the Historical Society is getting ready to purchase Past Project Software and wanted to know how if they would be able to transfer data. Mr. Prouty stated that it could do that but Past Perfect does not have images it is strictly cataloging. Mr. Sinclair suggested that they do not need to get both packages. Chair Sarpalius reminded the Commission that this is not the body to discuss the Historical Society. Mr. Prouty asked the Commission to bear in mind that if you submit a collection for the Arizona Memory Project, they do not own your images/documents. It is an opportunity to get your information onto the internet. Xl. ADJOURN MOTION: Vice Chair Baughman MOVED to adjourn the Historic Preservation Commission at 7:28 p.m. Commissioner Christiansen SECONDED the motion. Motion carried 6 yes, 0 no. Respectfully submitted, Jennifer Jones, Recording Secretary NOVEMBER 14, 2005 DRAFT MINUTES, HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION