An hour before its July 19 meeting, the Historic District Commission convened for a workshop in which commissioner Wendi Super gave a slide presentation explaining the concept she and her husband, Christian, developed for a digital property file database. Once completed, there would be a link on the HDC page of the city website so anyone can view data about each property.
The Super system is based on a map of the city in which every property is a link to a file containing all the information about that property. Properties would be color coordinated to identify contributing and non-contributing structures. Addresses outside the Historic District would be included.
All archived files would have to be scanned onto a computer probably in the office of the City Preservation Officer Glenna Booth. HDC would set up a Dropbox or similar cloud-based storage account, and all the scanned HDC files would be transferred to that.
Super added the Google street view feature so a viewer could look at each property straight on or travel down the street to see nearby properties.
The process would require first of all purchasing a commercial quality scanner because there are 2000 files which might contain 30-40 pages each, or approximately 80,000 pages in all. Super estimated the task might take at least 166 hours.
Commissioners noticed the obvious missing element in the process was who would scan all those documents. Different commissioners volunteered to put in time at the scanner, but they did not know how far their volunteer efforts would get them. Chair Virgil Fowler suggested they assess progress after three months to see if they might need to hire someone to complete the task.
Super estimated once the paper documents are scanned, they might be able to phase out paper files after 12 months. Booth said adding new files would not be a challenge, and it might suffice for their purposes to scan files only as far back as the year 2000.
The first goal would be to identify and purchase the scanner and set up the data storage system. At the end of the regular meeting, the commission voted unanimously to move forward with the project.
Regular meeting
Commissioners approved these two new applications:
- 2 Oakridge – utility pad and cover
- 12 Fuller – windows on east side
These items on the Consent Agenda were also approved:
- 24 Kingshighway – new paint colors
- 17 Spring – new sign
- 44 Kingshighway – change existing sign
- 102 S. Main – rear stone patio
- 30 Benton – new paint colors
The Consent Agenda items are Level I applications that the City Preservation Officer believes to be in accordance with the Design Guidelines.
Fowler presented these Administrative Approvals, which are applications for repair and work involving no changes in materials or color but do include changes in roofing color:
- 156 Spring – repair, maintenance, repaint as needed
- 158 Spring – repair, maintenance, repaint as needed
- 165 Spring – repair, maintenance, repaint as needed
- 217 N. Main – repair, maintenance, repaint as needed.
Next meeting will be Wednesday, August 2, at 6 p.m. It will be preceded at 5 p.m. by a workshop on the property file database and Code enforcement.