Livingston preservation officer proposes $6,000 plan with MSU students to create downtown design guidelines

The Historic Preservation Commission heard a proposal on Feb. 10 to use this year’s Certified Local Government pass-through funds to create locally specific design guidelines for Livingston’s downtown commercial historic district.

The city’s historic preservation officer told commissioners the state now requires design-review decisions to be made administratively, and that the commission can only review projects voluntarily submitted by applicants. She said Livingston will again receive about $6,000 in CLG pass-through funds and proposed contracting the MSU Community Design Center (CDC) to develop downtown-focused design guidelines as a capstone project for fourth-year architecture students. "This year, it is going to be $6,000 again," the officer said, describing the funding and the proposed scope.

Under the draft scope presented, CDC students would research the town’s architectural history, produce photo documentation, meet with the commission by Zoom during the fall capstone semester and make a single in-person site visit tentatively scheduled for September. The officer said the deliverable would be a set of implementable guidelines tailored to Livingston’s period details — signage, window treatment, lighting and compatible materials — that staff would use when administering design review.

Commissioners welcomed the idea but raised concerns about whether a student capstone would yield sufficiently detailed, implementable guidance. "I fear that interest levels will be low from the student participants," Commissioner Eisley said, urging a stronger incentive or a practical design task to make the capstone more useful. Commissioners also asked for a line-item breakdown of the proposed $7,000 package (the $6,000 pass-through plus up to $1,000 in local incidental costs) and for the MSU project lead to provide an MOU describing exactly how funds would be spent.

The preservation officer said she would invite Jordan Zignago/Zignato from MSU to present at a future meeting and would obtain an MOU and cost detail for the commission’s review. If commissioners decide not to contract MSU, she said the commission could instead develop guidelines internally over multiple meetings, relying on member expertise and examples from other towns.

Next steps: the officer will request a detailed scope-of-work and expense breakdown from MSU and aims to have Jordan available to present in March so commissioners can decide whether to commit the CLG funds.