HPC Meeting Date: January 6, 2025
To: Members of the Heritage Preservation Commission
From: Mathias Hughey, Associate City Planner
Title
Recommendation to Designate Central Park (421 4th St. E.) as a Local Heritage Preservation Site.
Body
Action Requested:
The Heritage Preservation Commission (HPC) is asked to recommend to City Council that Central Park (421 4th St. E.) be designated a local Heritage Preservation Site.
Summary Report:
The city may, from time to time, determine that certain places, buildings, structures, properties, district areas, or properties within the community are significant in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering, landscaping, and culture and that those locations should be subject to additional review as they relate to the Land Development Code (LDC).
The property owner, Heritage Preservation Commission (HPC), Planning Commission (PC), or City Council, may initiate an application for Heritage Preservation Site Designation. In this case, the HPC initiated the application at their November 2024 meeting. Now the HPC must review the application, and make a series of findings to justify their recommendation to the City Council. Draft findings have been provided, and commissioners are encouraged to review and modify these findings to support their recommendations. For more information about the process of designating Local Heritage Preservation Sites, the link to the November 2024 meeting is in the attachments. Staff gave a presentation on the process at that meeting.
The original plat of the City of Northfield designated the area now known as Central Park as a Public Square, and the original surveyor used Central Park as the basis for laying out the street grid. The park has evolved throughout the city's history and continues to serve the original intent "as grounds for pleasure, amusement, recreation or health." It also features the two diagonal crosswalks laid out in the 1855 plan. More information is containe...
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