Historic panel's fate on agenda today
Web Posted: 05/30/2007 12:31 AM CDT
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/met...C.32fd527.html
Scott Huddleston
Express-News
A bitter dispute centered on the power of a city-appointed board to review major projects may come to a head today with the City Council voting to reduce the Historic and Design Review Commission from 15 members to nine.
Some council members say the commission has become obstructionist in reviewing city leaders' ambitious building plans, delaying projects such as the renovation of Main Plaza and impeding future endeavors for no good reason.
Today's discussion caps several months of grumbling between council members and the commission, which reviews plans for demolitions, new construction and exterior renovations in 24 historic districts and six river improvement districts in the city.
Much of the panel's work focuses on conceptual and final design of private projects.
It's in the panel's other function, providing a review of city projects, that the commission has drawn the ire of city leaders.
Council members were miffed last year after the design of the Convention Center hotel, a $285 million project, went to the commission for review numerous times.
Councilmen Chip Haass and Richard Perez have led a move to change the HDRC, and even threatened to try to dissolve it, then reassign state historic preservation requirements to another city committee.
They've accused the panel of overstepping its advisory role, and becoming an "obstructionist" entity.
"It has been a roadblock to projects such as Main Plaza," Councilwoman Elena Guajardo said when the council discussed the commission at a work session May 2.
Though the council discussed reducing the panel to a more manageable size of seven members, council members Roland Gutierrez and Patti Radle proposed eliminating only the four at-large seats and retaining the 11 members appointed by the mayor and council members.
"I like the idea of having my own appointee on HDRC," Gutierrez said at the work session.
Members of the commission have said there will be too few commissioners to make site visits and serve on committees that focus on issues such as architecture and signage if the panel is drastically downsized.
Virginia Nicholas, president of the San Antonio Conservation Society, said her organization supports a nine-member commission of architects, historians, planners and other qualified members.
However, because the ordinance changing the panel's makeup would take effect Nov. 1, after the terms of several commissioners expire, the new City Council could reverse any action taken today, she said.
Nicholas said she was more concerned about a proposal to create two categories: small projects such as fences, rear additions and swimming pools that would be approved or denied by staff; and large, complex or historically significant cases, as well as public art, subject to review by the commission.
The goal is to diminish the flow of cases going to the panel to 5 percent so it can focus on big projects. Last year, of the 1,136 applications received for historic and design review, 54 percent went to the commission.
The city staff's recommendation is to hold public meetings to receive input on the historic and design review process, including notification and appeals procedures. The new council could adopt changes by amending the city's Unified Development Code.
Nicholas said the commission's careful study of the Convention Center hotel and Main Plaza projects was justified and led to design enhancements. She said she's afraid neighborhoods will have a smaller voice if more cases are decided by staff.
"You do not take the public out of the process," she said.
Xavier Gonzalez, commission chairman, said he isn't sure the review process can be radically streamlined without diminishing the panel's role as "the eyes and ears of the community."
"I really feel HDRC members are being shortchanged, mostly by people knocking us, but also by people not standing up for us," said Gonzalez, who became chairman early this year.