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 contained in the appendices of the attached application.
City staff received an application for Heritage Preservation Site Designation for Central Park from a group of residents. City Code limits the entities that may apply for Heritage Preservation Site Designation to the City Council, the Heritage Preservation Commission, or a property owner. Therefore, the group of residents in question does not have the authority to apply for a designation for Central Park. The HPC initiated the process by voting to apply for a local heritage site designation. The first step of that process was to send the application to the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) for comment at their November 2024 meeting. A link to the recording of that meeting has been provided.
SHPO has reviewed the application and provided a letter with their comments regarding the potential designation. In summary, SHPO was supportive of the nomination. The letter is attached.
The application form and appendices provided by the residents are attached. Staff have reviewed the application packet and determined it is complete.
At the November 2024 meeting the HPC raised a question regarding the origin of the claim that Central Park had been used as the basis for the original town grid. The application cited a roughly twenty-year-old video as the source of the information. This information has since been verified as the original testament of the surveyor Caleb W. Iddings on the original plat document.
Designation as a local heritage preservation site would require all changes and improvements to Central Park to receive a Certificate of Appropriateness from the HPC. This is not the same as a National Historic Register nomination, which is a separate process.
Staff Recommendation:
Staff recommends a motion from the HPC to begin the local Heritage Preservation Site designation application process for Central Park (421 4th St. E.).
Alternative Options:
The HPC may decline to pursue a Heritage Preservation Site designation or may table the matter.
Financial Impacts:
NA
Tentative Timelines:
November - Initiate application
January - Review application including SHPO’s comments
February/March - Planning Commission review and recommendation
March/April - City Council review and decision
May - If designated, the ordinance goes into effect