Commission approves half refund of COA fee after historic barn deemed hazardous and demolished

The Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission approved a 50% refund of a $635 Certificate of Appropriateness application fee for a property at 11809 Colmar Street after staff determined the historic barn on the site posed a hazard and the structure was removed.

Meg Busch, the commission's administrator, told commissioners the owner had initially applied for a COA to demolish the barn. After a site inspection found the barn leaning into the public right-of-way, staff asked the director to authorize a certificate of hazardous conditions so the owner could obtain a wrecking permit. "The barn is down," Busch said. She told the commission staff had already spent about four months reviewing the application and therefore recommended a partial refund rather than a full refund.

Applicant Brent Whalen, who said he owns the property, told the commission the structure was deteriorating and that City of Indianapolis officials told him it needed to come down. "We took it down," Whalen said. He asked for the application fee to be refunded because his demolition ultimately proceeded under the hazardous-conditions certificate rather than the COA.

Busch recommended a 50% refund of the $635 fee because staff had done substantive work on the COA application before the hazardous-conditions determination. Commissioners discussed past practice and the commission's limited operating budget — "the IHPC's operating budget is solely funded by filing fees," Busch reminded the panel — and then moved to accept staff's recommendation.

A motion to refund one-half of the $635 was made and seconded; the voice vote carried with no recorded opposition.

The commission did not award a full refund because staff had already begun substantive work on the COA application prior to issuance of the hazardous-conditions certificate.