Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Historic Preservation Standards topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
New Bern preservation commission finalizing draft standards on substitute materials, seeks public input
Summary
The New Bern Historic Preservation Commission reviewed a draft updating preservation standards — including how and when composite or substitute materials may be used — and said it will publish a releasable draft to solicit public comment and send postcards to property owners in historic districts.
The New Bern Historic Preservation Commission spent much of its June work session refining a draft of updated preservation standards that would clarify when substitute materials, including certain composite window products, may be allowed on historic properties.
The commission's facilitator said the work session is intended for COA design reviews, training and informal discussion and that business requiring a vote will not be conducted at the meeting. The draft under review would convert existing guideline language into formal standards and then be shared publicly, including by postcard to property owners in the city's historic districts to solicit feedback.
Why it matters: The proposed language would affect what property owners can use on the exterior of historic buildings and how staff and commissioners evaluate applications. Commissioners said they want wording that can be interpreted consistently over several years so that decisions made now remain coherent in future reviews.
Commissioners debated how to define "composite." One commissioner noted that the term covers a range of products and cautioned that the panel should clarify whether fiberglass, vinyl or other factory-assembled materials would qualify. "If we're talking about visually emulate, you don't know the composite construction," a commissioner said; staff suggested the draft treat "visually emulate" as a permissible performance standard rather than a material specification, a phrase that already appears in the commission's current guidelines.
An outside architectural consultant affiliated with Marvin urged care in using the word "composite," saying it spans widely different products and urging the commission to consider gradations or CSI-style categories to describe allowable material quality. "A vinyl window is a fiberglass window is a composite," the consultant said, and recommended the commission consider which gradations of composite products are appropriate for the town.
The draft would limit consideration of composites largely to additions on contributing structures, rather than primary historic fabric, and would emphasize visual emulation of historic details. Staff told commissioners a final public-facing version will include links and images and that the draft is not the end product.
Next steps: Commissioners expect to finish the draft quickly, release a releasable version for public comment and include the item on a forthcoming regular meeting agenda for possible formal action. Staff will turn the approved text into a visually formatted document for public distribution and post it to the city website.
The commission did not take formal policy votes during the session and left the standards draft in-progress pending public input.
