CHC Minutes-2009-02-24MEMORANDUM March 17, 2009
TO: Dave Adams, City Manager
Steven Apple, AICP, Community Development Director
FROM: Teri Delcamp, Historic Preservation Manager.
Cultural Heritage Commission Secretary
SUBJECT: Cultural Heritage Commission Actions of February 24, 2009
This memorandum summarizes the actions taken by the Cultural Heritage Commission at
their Tuesday, February 24 meeting. No action is required unless the City Council wishes
to hold special review of an item.
CALL TO ORDER
Acting Chair Banda called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m.
ROLL CALL
Present: Nathan Banda, Vice -Chair
Lorie Porter
Don Tryon
Absent: Ed Nunez, Chair (excused)
Janet Siegel (excused)
Staff: Teri Delcamp, Cultural Heritage Commission Secretary
ORAL COMMUNICATIONS
None.
OLD BUSINESS
None.
NEW BUSINESS
Consideration of Nomination to the Wall of Recognition, a request for the Cultural
Heritage Commission to consider the submittal of a nomination to the annual Wall
of Recognition program which recognizes individuals whose contributions and
selfless efforts have made the community a more productive and enjoyable place to
live, work and play. Teri Delcamp made the staff presentation and recommendation
that the Commission discuss and select the name(s) of an individual to nominate for
the honor.
Dave Adams, City Manager 2 March 17 2009
The Commission discussed several individuals as potential nominees, some of
whom are not residents and do not meet the criteria. The Commission voted 3-0 to
nominate one individual who is a resident of San Juan Capistrano and associated
with the Historical Society and other local organizations. Vice -Chair Banda offered
to complete and submit the application to the City before the March 25, 2009
deadline.
INFORMATION ITEM
1. Consideration of Status Report on Capital Improvement Program No. 484,
Williams/Swanner Water Tower. Teri Delcamp made the staff presentation on a
pending request that the City Council authorize funds for foundation repair work at
the Roger Y. Williams/Swanner property's house and water tower.
Staff and the City's maintenance contractor have been monitoring the condition of
both structures for three months. The tower is tilting to the west and the northwest
comer of the house's foundation is settling and cracks have appeared and/or
expanded. Although a budget request for the construction phase of this CIP project
is due to be submitted for next fiscal year's budget, the situation is deteriorating at a
rate such that the work needs to be done now, before the new fiscal year begins in
July. Staff will be presenting a budget appropriation request for $97,000 in
Agricultural Preservation Fee funds at the March 3 City Council meeting.
If approved, staff will have the repair work commence before the end of March
2009. Because there will be ground -disturbing activity and this is a historic site in
close proximity to recorded pre -historic archaeological sites, archaeological and
Native American monitoring will be conducted during the project.
COMMISSIONISTAFF COMMENTS
In response to Commissioner Porter's query if the Koll San Juan Historic Depiction
Program had been approved, staff replied that it had although the final verbiage for the
plaque portion of the program will come back to the Commission in the future for final
approval.
Acting Chair Banda mentioned that the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen
Nation, is closing in on the March 9, 2009, deadline to respond to the Federal Office of
Acknowledgment in the pursuit of federal recognition for the tribe. .
Staff reported that a large limb had fallen off the large Sycamore tree on Junipero Serra
Road ("Trysting Tree") along the JSerra north campus frontage over the weekend. The
City's arborists will be removing the limb debris and providing recommendations on the
continuing maintenance of the tree. There are also four pines and one oak tree that have
Dave Adams, City Manager 3 March 17, 2009
died at the Old Fire Station complex that the City's arborist will be removing. The budget far
tree replacement was eliminated for the current fiscal year, so these trees will not be
replaced. However, staff will try to obtain one of the 15 -gallon oak trees donated by Joan
Irvine Smith to replace the oak tree.
Staff reported thatthe exploratory wall and foundation work atthe Bias AuilarAdobe (CIP
Project 455) had been conducted by the contractor and the archaeologist under the
supervision of the City's historic preservation consultants. No obvious structural or
foundation problems were identified in either the adobe wall or the foundation. The
consultants will continue to prepare the plans for the project which will be presented to the
Commission at a future date.
The work on the Congdon House ADA Improvement project (CIP 452) in support of the
Ecology Center is also scheduled to begin before the end of March 2009.
ADJOURNMENT
Acting Chair Banda adjourned the meeting at 5:34 p.m.
cc: Cindy Russell, Assistant City Manager
Grant Taylor, Assistant Community Development Director
Teri Delcamp, Historic Preservation Manager
Christina Gomez, Administrative Specialist
CHC Members
CHC Minutes File
Douglas Dumhart, Economic Development Manager