York Preservation Committee Meeting Minutes

March 8, 2006 7:00 p.m

 

Attending: Barbara Libby, Ray and Lynn

 

1.

  1. Barbara reported on Interns from WWU Anthropology class. Two will  be assigned to York, supervised by Toni Nagel, Marcch 29-June 1).  Their job will be to  photograph and  fill out forms on each house in York District to be put into a data base.
  2. Katie Franks is very encouraging of Yorkıs desire to obtain local historic preservation status through city council approval.
  3. Barbara mentioned desire to include  old "historic" trees as part of historic designation.

 

2. Reviewed steps for historic designation

 

3. Tentatively decided to go for Local designation via city council, based on Anne Mackieıs data ( too many absentee property owners to make it feasible to obtain signatures of 51%.)

 

4. Discussed boundaries for designated area. Decided to wait before making decision until we gather more information

 

5. Discussed type of designation or theme of area. Again wait until we have more historical information.  Ideas included: diverse working class, immigrants ( Scandinavian); old fashioned "urban village" with mix of shops, businesses and residences; how neighborhood contributed to early growth of Bellingham ( economic, religious and  socially).

 

6. We all agreed to pursue research on individual houses, beginning with our own and try to collect neighborhood history.

 

7. Discussed need to research houses on Ellis as a priority.

 

8. Discussed tax relief for renovating old houses designated historic.

 

  IDEAS and ACTION

 

9. Libby suggested a post card encouraging occupants to research their house. ( sent or left in mail box) referencing  York web listing  "How To" .Barbara will consult with Anne and design post card and arrange delivery.

 

10. Barbara will ask Tom to put Laura Wittıs instructions for research on York web site.

 

10 Ray will make an appointment with Jeff Jewel at Museum for  all of us to look through archives for pictures of York area.

 

11. Libby will ask her mother about service learning interns from WWU to help us with  in depth research  on individual homes.   Might try to do about 100 (i..e those built before l900 and the "red" i.e. most noteworthy structures". 

 

Goal: Become first district to present our case for Historic Area to city council.

 

Adjourned 8:15.

Submitted by Barbara Davenport

 

Next Meeting Wed. April 12 7-8:30 Nelson's Market.

Preservation meetings will be held the 2nd Wed. of the month unless

otherwise indicated.

 

 

Dates to Mark

 

April 12 7-8:30pm next York Preservation meeting Nelson's Market

 

April 13 Thur.  (time to be announced).

 

Toni Nagel speaking at Whatcom Museum on Victorian era.

 

April 22, Sat.  Day-long workshop and information sharing. Joint effort of city planning and historical museum on guidelines for neighborhood historic district designation.