Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Historic Policy And Records topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
HPC discusses conservation‑overlay districts, a liaison appointment and digitizing historic nomination packets
Summary
Members reviewed language in the draft comprehensive plan about conservation overlay districts, confirmed an ex officio liaison appointment to the Webster Groves Historical Society, and agreed to begin digitizing historic nomination packets for online access.
The Webster Groves Historic Preservation Commission reviewed references in the city's draft comprehensive plan calling for the creation and use of conservation overlay districts to encourage rehabilitation over demolition, and discussed next steps on outreach and documentation.
A staff member reported that the draft comprehensive plan and its implementation section explicitly mention conservation overlay districts as a tool to incentivize rehab rather than tear‑downs. Commissioners said the commission will wait until the city council finalizes the comprehensive plan before taking further formal steps tied to that policy.
Commissioners also discussed the mayoral appointment of a liaison to the Webster Groves Historical Society. Staff confirmed that Joan Esserman is listed in that mayoral role and that the commission and the historical society explored creating an additional ex officio appointment to represent the HPC. The commission agreed to accept an ex officio liaison role to improve coordination between the HPC and the historical society.
On records management, commissioners and staff agreed to begin assembling nomination packets and nomination PDFs for upload to an online repository (Missouri Digital Heritage was discussed as a likely partner). Staff said many nomination PDFs and public‑hearing packets are already on the city's document center and that the commission staff and a volunteer (John) will begin compiling readily available files for upload, with the aim of progressively digitizing archives that require deeper manual research.
Other administrative items discussed included timing of future meetings, plaque budget questions and clarifying the process for appointing liaisons to outside organizations.
Next steps: staff will monitor city council action on the comprehensive plan before advancing any overlay‑district work; staff and commissioners will coordinate to assemble nomination materials for digitization and will schedule a working session to prepare files for upload to an archival repository.
