Getting Approval for a Visible Change in a Historic District

Why this matters

Once you know a job needs a certificate of appropriateness (COA) from a historic commission, the difference between a six-week approval and a three-month ordeal is almost entirely preparation. Commissions deny or continue incomplete applications, applications that offer one take-it-or-leave-it design, and applications whose photos do not show what the neighbors will see. Each continuance costs a month, and the customer's patience runs out before the commission's does. The shop that files a complete, honest application with options gets approved at the first hearing, and earns a reputation with the staff that makes the next one easier.

When review applies at all, and what it does to the schedule, are owned by a sibling card. This one assumes you already know it does.

The procedure

The steps run in order, and the order is set by the hearing date: you work backward from the meeting you are aiming for, because everything that follows depends on that date.

1. Talk to the commission's staff before you draw anything. Call or meet the staff person who handles applications. Ask four questions: does this work need a hearing or can staff approve it; what are the next meeting dates and filing deadlines; what makes an application complete; and is there anything about this property or this kind of change that the commission has views on. Why: staff know what the commission approved and denied last year, and many will review a draft before the deadline. If skipped: you file what you think they want, and learn at the hearing that they wanted something else.

A short call usually sounds like this:

OFFICE: I'm calling about 212 Oak, in the Elm
  Park district. We want a heat pump unit on
  the side wall. Does that go to the board?
STAFF: Can you see it from the street?
OFFICE: Corner lot, so yes, from Pine Street.
STAFF: Then it's a hearing. Deadline for this
  month's meeting is the 16th.
OFFICE: What makes the application complete?
STAFF: Photos of every side visible from the
  street, a site plan with the unit marked,
  the spec sheet, and how you'll screen it.
OFFICE: Could staff sign off if we screen it?
STAFF: Not new equipment on a street side. But
  send me a draft by the 9th and I'll tell
  you what they'll ask about.

Write down the dates and the staff person's name in the job record the same day.

2. Fix the target hearing and plan backward from it. Put the meeting date on the calendar, then the filing deadline, then your own draft date about a week before the deadline, then the photo and measurement visit before that. Why: the filing deadline is not negotiable, and a draft in front of staff a week early is what lets you fix problems before they cost a month. If skipped: you hit the deadline with something half-finished and either file it incomplete or slip a whole month.

3. Photograph existing conditions the way the commission will look at them. Shoot every elevation the street can see, from the sidewalk, at eye height. Then shoot the exact location of the change, close and medium distance, and close-ups of the original materials near it (siding, trim, windows, masonry). Label each photo with the elevation and direction. Why: the commission's question is what the change looks like from the public way, and a photo from the sidewalk answers it before anyone asks. If skipped: commissioners imagine the worst view, or ask for photos you did not bring and continue the item.

4. Draw what you propose, to scale, with dimensions. At minimum: a site plan showing the house, the lot lines, the street or streets, and the new equipment or change with its dimensions and distances to the house and the property line; an elevation sketch, or a marked-up photo, showing the change on the wall as seen from the street; and the manufacturer's specification sheet giving size, material and color. For windows, include a drawing of the existing window's profile next to the proposed one. Why: a commission cannot approve what it cannot see, and dimensions stop arguments about how big "a small unit" is. If skipped: the item gets continued for "insufficient information", which is the most avoidable continuance there is.

5. Present options, with the one that keeps the most character first. Show that you looked for the least visible location, the least invasive method, and the most reversible approach. Typical moves:

• Locate equipment where it is least visible, and screen it with a low fence, lattice or planting that matches the district.
• Paint line-set covers, vents and conduit to match the wall they cross.
• Repair original features rather than replacing them where repair is possible, and say why you can or cannot.
• Prefer changes that can be undone later without damage: mounting into mortar joints rather than brick faces, using existing openings.

Why: commissions approve applicants who have plainly tried to preserve the building, and they often approve the second-best option of three when the first-choice option alone would have been denied. If skipped: a single proposal turns the hearing into a yes or no, and no is the safer vote.

6. File complete and on time, then answer staff comments fast. Submit everything on the staff's list, by the deadline, in the format they asked for. If staff send comments before the hearing, revise and return by their date. Why: staff usually present the application to the commission with a recommendation, and a recommendation to approve carries great weight. If skipped: staff present it as incomplete or recommend conditions you could have built in.

7. Attend the hearing, keep it short, and agree to reasonable conditions. Owner and contractor both attend if possible. Speak for two to three minutes: what the work is, why it is needed, what you did to minimize the visual change, and the options you considered. Answer questions directly. If the commission proposes a condition you can live with, say so on the spot. Why: an application with nobody there to answer a question gets continued. If skipped: a one-sentence question costs a month.

8. Get the COA in writing and carry its conditions into the job. Attach the COA and its conditions to the permit application and to the job ticket. The crew builds exactly what was approved, including the screening, the paint color and the location, and the shop photographs the finished work from the same sidewalk positions as step 3. Why: commissions and some building inspectors check the finished work against the approval, and a change made in the field is a violation even if it looks better. If skipped: an approved job becomes an enforcement case over something as small as a moved unit or a skipped screen.

Worked example: the corner-lot heat pump

The house. A two-story house on a corner lot in a local historic district. The owner wants a ductless heat pump. Because the lot is a corner, both the side wall and the rear wall are visible from one of the two streets; there is no hidden location on the ground.

Step 1, the call. On the 1st of the month, the office calls staff (the exchange above). The filing deadline is the 16th, the meeting is the 30th, and staff offer to read a draft by the 9th.

Step 2, the backward plan. Photo and measurement visit on the 3rd, draft to staff on the 9th, revisions by the 14th, filed by the 16th, hearing on the 30th.

Steps 3 and 4, the packet. Photos: the Oak Street front, the Pine Street side, the rear as seen from Pine, and close-ups of the clapboard siding and the side-wall trim. Site plan: the outdoor unit on a pad 6 ft from the rear corner on the Pine Street side, 3 ft out from the wall, 14 ft from the Pine Street property line. Elevation: a photo of the side wall with the unit, the line-set cover and the screen drawn on it. The unit's spec sheet gives its height at about 2 ft 6 in.

Step 5, the options.

1. Preferred: unit at the rear corner of the Pine Street side, behind a new 3 ft painted wood lattice screen matching the existing porch skirting, with the line-set cover run up the corner trim board and painted the siding color.
2. Alternative: unit on the rear wall, but the rear is also visible from Pine Street at a longer distance, and the line set would cross 12 ft of clapboard to reach the indoor unit.
3. Not proposed, and explained: a roof-mounted bracket, which would be the most visible location of all.

Step 6, staff comments. Staff reply on the 11th: the commission will want the lattice to match the porch skirting's pattern exactly, and will ask whether the line-set cover can sit inside the corner rather than on the clapboard face. The office revises the drawing to show the cover tucked into the inside corner against the trim, attaches a photo of the porch skirting pattern, and returns it on the 13th. Filed complete on the 15th, a day inside the deadline.

Step 7, the hearing. Staff recommend approval of option 1 with the revisions. One commissioner asks whether the screen will be the same height as the porch skirting; the contractor confirms it will be within 2 in, and the commission makes matching height a condition. Approved on the 30th.

Step 8, into the job. The written COA arrives on the 2nd of the following month, the mechanical permit is issued on the 7th, and the crew installs on the 10th, building the screen to the porch skirting height and pattern. Final photos are taken from the same sidewalk positions as the step 3 photos and filed with the COA.

The count. From the first call on the 1st to installation on the 10th of the next month is 39 days in a 30-day month, a little over five and a half weeks, with no continuance. Without the staff draft review on the 9th, the two issues staff caught would almost certainly have come up at the hearing instead, and a continuance to the next monthly meeting would have pushed installation out by about another month.

How to verify the application was done right

• The application went in complete, before the deadline, with staff comments answered.
• The commission approved at the first hearing it was heard at, or the job record names the specific reason it did not.
• The finished work matches the approval point for point, and the after photos from the original sidewalk positions are in the file with the COA.
• The staff person's name and the outcome are in the shop's knowledge base for the next job in that district.

When this procedure does not fit

• A landmark, or demolition of an original feature. Expect more scrutiny than this procedure assumes, and expect the commission to ask for a preservation professional's opinion.
• Work already started without approval. Stop visible work and send the customer to staff to discuss an after-the-fact application. That conversation belongs to the owner, possibly with an attorney.
• An emergency. Restore the essential service in kind under the ordinance's emergency allowance first, then apply for any visible change.

References

• Your city or county historic preservation ordinance and the commission's application requirements and meeting calendar
• Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation (36 CFR Part 67), which many commissions use as their design guide
• See related: Historic Districts and Landmark Rules for Trades; Protecting Finishes in an Old or Historic Interior
• See related: Working in Older Homes: A Cross-Trade Field Guide