Committee amends and forwards MOU with state historic preservation for Chinatown reviews

The Committee on Infrastructure, Transportation and Technology amended and reported to the full council a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter a memorandum of understanding with the State Historic Preservation Division to review permitted projects in the Chinatown Historic District and the Merchant Street Commercial and Civic Historic District.

Michael Cat, the historic preservation planner at the Department of Planning and Permitting, told the committee that DPP "are in support of the proposed CD 1" and explained that the CD1 labels the memorandum of understanding as Exhibit A and contains technical, non-substantive amendments.

Members pressed DPP on staffing and on whether projects have sought waivers from district standards. Cat said DPP is in the process of creating and hiring SOI-qualified positions for architectural and archaeological reviews and said, "we hope to have them by the end of this year." On whether waiver or variance requests had been submitted previously, Cat said "none that come to mind." He explained that if DPP lacks qualified staff it can outsource reviews or return them to the state.

Cat described the proposed review procedure: SOI-qualified professionals would first determine whether an action is exempt under Chapter 343 and whether it would impact the historic districts; exempt actions or projects meeting standards would be added to a monthly report to the State Historic Preservation Division, while projects exceeding thresholds would go to SHPD and consulting parties for further review to monitor cumulative effects.

The chair amended the resolution to the hand-carried CD1 and, hearing no objections, the committee reported the measure out for adoption to the full council.