Historical society asks Arts & Culture committee to back plaque program and a subcommittee

Katie Potts, president of the San Clemente Historical Society, asked the San Clemente Arts & Culture Committee on Thursday to back a plaque program for the city’s historic resources and to consider forming a subcommittee to collaborate on preservation efforts.

"So today my request is really to see if there's interest in forming a sub committee that has to do with historic resources," Potts said during a special presentation. She described the city's baseline historic inventory (initially surveyed in 1995, updated in 2006) and said updates are commonly recommended every 10 years. Potts told the committee the society has targeted roughly 204 named historic resources and is pursuing a plaque initiative with about 20 plaques in the pipeline — she said 16 of those have been installed and another seven are in early stages.

Potts asked the committee to offer a letter of support and to consider ways the new Arts & Culture committee could liaise with the historical society on Centennial and other programming tied to San Clemente’s heritage. "I did highlight a couple of different endeavors that the San Clemente Historical Society has been focusing on and that's our plaque initiative," Potts said.

Staff confirmed the topic could be considered under the committee's annual work plan and advised that any subcommittee created to work with the historical society could be ad hoc rather than a standing subcommittee subject to Brown Act subcommittee rules. Samantha Webb, the city's Beaches, Parks and Recreation director, said staff can help wordsmith the committee’s formal request and include it in the work-plan packet the committee will forward to City Council in August.