65B - HISTORIC RESOURCES COMMISSION

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Commission has reviewed and acted on projects with the potential for historic significance, without adequate conversations and consideration. The recommendations outlined below would allow the HRC to lend a voice to the Planning Commission regarding historically or potentially historically related items as "non -full voting" members. HRC Recommendation(s): Amend Section 2-350 of the SAMC to require that representative(s) from the Historic Resources Commission be appointed to the Planning Commission as non -full voting members (i.e., only voting on historically related items). Required Tasks, Approvals, and Resources: Amending the powers and duties outlined in Section 2-350 of the SAMC would require City Council review and approval of a municipal code amendment. In addition, staff resources would be required to analyze the full implications of amending the code section to include HRC representatives on the Planning Commission. HISTORIC APPLICATION FEES Issue 4: The FY 19-20 fee for each of the historic applications (i.e., Mills Act application and the Historic Register application) is $3,589.14. Although this is a significant reduction in application costs from the recent years (as high as $5,814.41 for historic registration and $4,422.59 for mills act) the HRC has expressed concern that the high cost has been a financial burden and discourages property owners from applying to place their properties on the historic register, contributing to reduced preservation efforts Citywide. An informal survey conducted both by staff and HRC members of regional cities with historic programs, highlighted that the City of Santa Ana has the highest application costs for both historic register and mills act applications. The cities surveyed include Orange, Tustin, Anaheim, San Clemente, Newport Beach, San Juan Capistrano, Pasadena, and Los Angeles. The implementation of these application costs dates back to 2009, when the City Council adopted an ordinance establishing a fee for nominations of properties to the local historic register. This decision was based on the determination that the most significant properties had received historic status and further listings of nominated properties were primarily for the purpose of receiving the mills act tax reduction. At the time, the fee was developed based on a full cost recovery. In September 2014, the City Council adopted a resolution to temporarily reduce fees for mills act applications by 50%, and waive the $5,015.05 fee for nominations of properties to the historic register. The proposed fee waiver was in effect for one year with an option for the City Council to renew for an additional two years. In August 2015, the City Council adopted a second resolution authorizing the extension of the previously approved waiver and the reduction of fees for two additional years. The waiver and fee reduction expired in August 4, 2017. During the time that the reduced fee waiver was in effect (2014-2017) the City saw a noticeable increase in historic applications received, as can be seen in the Attachment 1. The line graph provided highlights the steep decrease in applications received once the waiver and fee reduced expired. Therefore, the HRC is making the recommendations to facilitate and encourage property owners to place their properties on the local register, thereby spurring historic preservation efforts. 3 65B-9