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Historic District Commission plans public hearing on raising building-height cap; members discuss signs and website updates
Summary
Commission agreed to schedule a public hearing in May to align local historic‑district regulations with the town's Ordinance 102 (raising the general town maximum building height to 40 feet). Members also discussed repairing district signs, reassigning the sign project lead, and updating broken website links to current regulations.
Members of the Kingston Historic District Commission on April 8 reviewed proposed edits to their regulations to match a townwide change in maximum building height.
Susan Prescott, chair, presented two locations in the commission’s regulations that currently list a 35‑foot height limit and proposed changing those references to 40 feet to mirror the language in Ordinance 102. Commissioners discussed retaining a 10% differential provision that appears in the regulations; one member said the 10% figure provides the commission discretion when deciding whether a new structure fits the streetscape and recommended keeping it.
The commission agreed that because the change affects commission regulations a public hearing is required. Prescott said she will add a noticed public hearing to the May agenda for the regulation revision and that she will confirm required noticing procedures.
Separately the commission discussed several administrative housekeeping items. Members said historic‑district signs are in poor condition; Virginia and Susan DeHart are expected to lead the sign replacement project and will coordinate with Highway Department staff and Irving Landry on sourcing. The commission also heard from Scott Willette and others that links on the town website point to outdated historic‑district regulations from 2009; staff and commissioners agreed to work with town web staff to ensure the page links to the current regulations and ordinance.
Commissioners also noted they will address election of officers and reorganization next month when more members are present.
