HDC Minutes 05.08.2014City of Van Buren, Arkansas
Annex
111 North 12th Street • Van Buren, Arkansas 72956
HISTORIC DISTRICT COMMISSION MINUTES
Thursday May 8, 2014
The Van Buren Historic District Commission held its monthly meeting on Thursday, May 8, 2014 at 5:30
P.M. in the City Council Room of the Municipal Complex.
Members present - Vickie Davis Chairperson, Jody Rhoads Vice Chairperson, John Symonds, Derald
Porter and Wes Turner, Ex-Officio, TOTMA President.
Members Absent: Paul Gibson
Others Present- Lisa Franklin, Recording Secretary and Stacy Dilley, representing “Massage For You.”
Items on the Agenda:
1. Approval of the minutes from the last meeting.
2. COA Approval for signs at Massage for You, located at 822 Main Street in the downtown historic
district. COA represented by Ms. Stacy Dilley.
3. Discussions Topics of the following: the possibility of the commission hosting a public outreach
booth at the Old Timer’s Festival, a re-cap of the efforts with TOTMA in developing and pursuing goals
for preservation, rehabilitation and protecting Historic Downtown. HPRG 1 Grants and revisiting the
2009 Preservation Plan in order to identify what preservation opportunities and partnerships present
themselves to the commission that they would actively engage in for the upcoming year.
4. Any other business that comes before the commission.
Vickie Davis called the meeting to order at 5:29 P.M. The first item on the agenda is to approve the
minutes from the last meeting. John Symonds makes the motion to approve and Derald Porter seconds.
The minutes from the last meeting approved unanimously.
The second item on the agenda is the COA for a new sign at Massage for You, represented by owner,
Stacy Dilley. Vickie Davis asked Ms. Dilley to present her sign and the colors to the commission. Ms.
Dilley presented the color drawing and the color legend.
The colors of the sign are Crème, Richardson Brick and Lyman Camellia from Lyndhurst Paint’s historic
color chart. Vickie Davis states that the colors cross over to Estate Crème, Mahogany, and Victorian Rose
in the Valspar historic color chart.
John Symonds asked if the lettering of the sign is vinyl material and clarifies that it is matte finish and not
of a shiny nature. Stacy Dilley states that to her belief the lettering is vinyl and that it is a matte finish.
John Symonds made the nomination that the sign does not significantly affect the adjacent properties.
Derald Porter seconds. Vickie Davis asked for a motion to approve the COA for the sign. John Symonds
makes the motion and Derald Porter seconds the motion to approve. The commission approves the sign
unanimously.
The commission welcomes Ms. Dilley and congratulates her on her business. Jody Rhoads asks Ms.
Dilley how she felt about the process of coming before the Historic District Commission. Ms. Dilley
states that she does not mind the process but is frustrated that some of the businesses in the downtown
historic district that do not meet the historic district sign regulations. She states that she is happy to do
this; however, she would like all the businesses to do the same. Some of the businesses have signs or
banners that do not comply with the Historic District Guidelines.
The commission discusses the long time problem of the complaints on signs and banners and how there is
no enforcement of them. The commission discusses that code enforcement will not go downtown and
enforce the sign codes. The commission states that the Mayor has refused to address the enforcement on
the sign and banner issues downtown. The commission mentions that code enforcement officers have
been told not to enforce the sign and banner regulations downtown. The commission feels that without
any way of enforcement there is no reason for them to be meeting to approve signage. They can make the
recommendations to the city based on the historic district guidelines and city ordinances but if there is no
enforcement, they have no real value as a commission.
John Symonds suggests the continuing of extending our hands instead of shaking our fingers to work
toward a common goal and for the better of the historic district and see if this makes a difference and
corrects most of the problem regarding the banners.
Discussions on the Agenda:
An overview of joint meetings with TOTMA and other organizations in the downtown community
regarding discussions of downtown development and improvements and the actions that are taking place
as of now with joint efforts in the downtown historic district are discussed. Vickie informs that Marcia
Cooksey is working on contacting business owners asking for help to address the empty or cluttered
storefronts and possibly dressing them with a display. Vickie informs the commission with an overview
of the items on the action list and the efforts to meet the objectives that are present at this time.
Vickie Davis brings the next item for discussion before the commission of setting up a booth at the Old
Timers Day Festival for an outreach and information center.
The information would be available for and distributed to the historic downtown business owners, other
historic property owners and to the public that may have interest in the information regarding historic
district grants and tax rehabilitation credits available to historic property owners. The commission
declined the opportunity to hold a booth at this time. The commissioners state that they all have other
obligations or otherwise do not feel prepared at this time and will look at this possibility for the Fall
Festival or some other time.
HPRG Option 1 Grants- Vickie Davis presents the next discussion item which is looking over the HPRG
option 1 grant information and determining eligibility for the historic district property owners’ to be able
to apply for these grants. The commission agrees the grants are something that historic property owners
could be applying for and this is information and assistance the commission could be offering to the
historic property owners including the downtown historic district properties. The grant application dates
for these grants are usually between January and March 2015. The commission finds no reason there
could not be fundraising for matching funds either by property owners themselves or in partnership with
other organizations.
Next, the commission has the 2009 Preservation Plan for discussion to revisit. The commission will look
through the plan in order to identify the key objectives that the commission would decide to take action
with this year in working toward any unresolved or unmet goals the commission may feel are necessary to
pursue and discuss at the next meeting.
Last, there is new business in the form of a suggestion that the Historic District Commission to develop a
historic geocache tour for an inexpensive historic walking tour that would add interest to the downtown
historic district and include something of interest for the tourists and local citizens alike. There have been
some other activities and ideas discussed in the joint meetings with TOTMA. Among things mentioned
were walking tours and cell phone tours and the idea of a historic geocache tour has come before the
commission as well.
This phase of the geocache tour would be only of the historic downtown area. Phase I of the geocache
tour would be approximately one hour and consist of a tour of the historic downtown district buildings
and historic sites. The geocache tour will consist of several cache points. Handout brochures of the sites
could also be made available to participants. There would be a sign-in book at each point and the tour
would contain one main cache box at the end offering a souvenir coin with the Historic Van Buren
emblem on it.
The commission will be in pursuit of determining the cost of the coins and the possibility of getting a
sponsor for them to advertise on one side of the coin. Kris Paxton in the GIS department at the city along
with Lisa Franklin will find the costs involved if any associated with the website and mapping the
coordinates for the geocache sites. The Historic District Commission might possibly partner with the
A&P for funding and promotion.
The commission discussed the geocache tour and agreed that it is a good idea. Derald Porter makes the
nomination to approve the development and implementing of the historic geocache tour. Jody Rhoads
seconds the motion and the geocache tour development approved unanimously.
The commission ends the meeting with discussion and conversation referring back to the sign and banner
enforcements and suggests the possibility of inviting the code enforcement officer to the next HDC
meeting to discuss ideas and procedures on enforcement.
With no further business before the commission, Derald Porter makes the motion to adjourn and Wes
Turner seconds the motion. The meeting adjourned.
___________________________ _____________________________
Vickie Davis, Chairman Lisa Franklin, Recording Secretary
PROGRESS IS OUR PROJECT