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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAnalysis and HEPB ResoStaff: MN Application received: 2/9/2015 CITY OF MIAMI PLANNING DEPARTMENT Staff Report & Recommendation Chairperson and Members Historic Environmental Preservation Board Megan Schmitt Preservation Officer Applicant: Erika Franco Subject: Item No. 11 — 713 NW 7th Street Road The applicant, Erika Franco owner of the subject property located within Spring Garden Historic District, is requesting approval of a Special Certificate of Appropriateness for the demolition of a contributing resource and construction of a new single-family home. BACKGROUND: THE PROPERTY: HISTORIC PICTURE: HEPB- JULY 7, 2015 This application was continued from March 31d HEPB hearing. The subject property is a two-story Frame Vernacular home built in 1920; the vacant single-family home is a contributing resource within Spring Garden Historic District. Page 1 of 4 ANALYSIS: Staff: MN Application received: 2/9/2015 The applicant is proposing the total demolition of a contributing resource within Spring Garden Historic District and construction of a new single-family home. The proposed new home will look similar to the existing two-story Frame Vernacular home, however approximately 1,594 SF larger. The existing structure has approximately 1,576 SF and the new proposed building, 3,170 SF. The proposed home will have painted stucco simulating horizontal wooden cladding over CMU blocks, single hung windows, and asphalt shingle roof to resemble the original building. The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for rehabilitation recommends that: • The historic character of a property shall be retained and preserved. The removal of distinctive materials or alteration of features, spaces, and spatial relationships that characterize a property shall be avoided. • Each property shall be recognized as a physical record of its time, place, and use. Changes that create a false sense of historical development, such as adding conjectural features or elements from other historic properties, shall not be undertaken. • Changes to a property that have acquired historic significance in their own right shall be retained and preserved. • Distinctive materials, features, finishes, and construction techniques or examples of craftsmanship that characterize a property shall be preserved. • Deteriorated historic features shall be repaired rather than replaced. Where the severity of deterioration requires replacement of a distinctive feature, the new feature shall match the old in design, color, texture, and, where possible, materials. Replacement of missing features shall be substantiated by documentary and physical evidence. The applicant submitted an engineering report evaluating the existing building conditions. The report lists the structural elements below to be in poor condition: 1. Some vertical structural roof elements are missing and no bracing is provided for roof joists. 2. The exterior walls have missing strapping in some vertical members and have severe water and insect damage visible on multiple sections of exterior wood siding. 3. Part of the ground level floor was repaired inadequately. 4. The foundations need repairs. 5. The electrical system needs to be upgraded 6. The plumbing system needs to be upgraded. All structural problems listed above are common to older structures, the existing building is 95 years old and apparently it was never proper maintained, there are no records of any permit or COA issued for the property and it's fact that some illegal repairs were made, other than that the structure is sound and found to be NOT CONDEMNED by Rene Diaz, the city's Unsafe Structures chief as seen in the email dated from 4/14/2015 included in the applicant's packet. In the same email, Mr. Diaz listed the violations that deemed the structure "unsafe", they are as follow: 1. Illegal enclosure and remodeling done to the carport that includes unsafe electrical work 2. Structural work for the exterior walls 3. The A/C unit needs to be above the flood elevation 4. The plumbing system needs to be upgraded. HEPB- JULY 7, 2015 Page 2 of 4 Staff: MN Application received: 2/9/2015 The applicant also included in the application part of the FEMA's Floodplain Management Requirements Unit 8 - Substantial Improvement and Substantial Damage (the entire Unit 8 was included in the HEPB members' packet by the Preservation Office). The requirement states that: To participate in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), communities must adopt and enforce regulations and codes that apply to new development in Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHAs). Local floodplain management regulations and codes contain minimum NFIP requirements that apply not only to new structures, but also to existing structures which are "substantially improved (SI)" or "substantially damaged (SD)." Since the estimated cost of the repair work to be undertaken exceeds 50% of the building's market value, the applicant predicted that the property would have to be elevated above the Base Flood Elevation (BFE) line to comply with the "substantial improvement" rule of the FEMA regulation (3'-0" of the ground level in this case), but for being a contributing resource within a locally designated historic district, the subject property is actually exempt from the FEMA's substantial improvement rule as per the Substantial Improvement/Substantial Damage for Floodplain Administrators Mitigation Fact Sheet (included in the HEPB members' packet): Any reconstruction, rehabilitation, addition, or other improvement of a structure, the cost of which equals or exceeds 50 percent of the market value of the structure before the "start of construction" of the improvement. This term includes structures which have incurred "substantial damage," regardless of the actual repair work performed. The term does not, however, include either: 1. Any project for improvement of a structure to correct existing violations of state or local health, sanitary, or safety code specifications which have been identified by the local code enforcement official and which are the minimum necessary to assure safe living conditions or 2. Any alterations of a "historic structure, "provided that the alteration will not preclude the structure's continued designation as a "historic structure." All work listed by the applicant are required by the city code to correct existing violations of health, sanitary, and safety specifications which exempt the property from complying, in addition the work to be performed to bring the building to code does not compromise the integrity of the historic resource. Furthermore, the applicant included in the application packet part of the Federal Code 44-CFR-60 — Criteria for Land Management and Use', Sec.60.6 — Variances and Exceptions — which basically states that the issuance of a variance for a property in a SFHA - being the property considered historic or not - does not exempt such property from insurance premium rates which are determined by statute according to the real flood risk of that property. Indeed, the applicant will see a significant raise in the property's flood insurance premium if the structure is not elevated 3'-0" above ground level. 1 The whole regulation can be found at http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?rgn=div5&node=44:1.0.1.2.27 HEPB- JULY 7, 2015 Page 3 of 4 Staff: MN Application received: 2/9/2015 Even if a variance was granted, the structure would not be allowed to be reconstructed or repaired if substantial damage occurred in consequence of a flood or disaster. By recognizing the hazards threating historic properties within the city and the hardship that the insurance premium increasing rates will cause to historic property owners, the City's Preservation Office, Dade Heritage Trust (DHT), and UM's Center for Urban & Community Design (CUCD) are working together to develop an elevation guidelines for historic properties within SFHAs. Similarly, acknowledging the risks that older properties located in SFHAs face and the importance to preserve the character of stablished communities (historic or not) all over the nation, the Federal Government - through FEMA - is offering a series of grants to mitigate flood and disaster hazards (brochure included in the HEPB members' packets), one of these programs is the "Pre -Disaster Mitigation Program" which pays up to 75% of the cost of elevating an existing pre -FIRM building in SFHAs to prevent loss of life and property. The Preservation Office cannot agree with the demolition of a structurally sound contributing resource within Spring Garden and would like to invite the applicant to work with staff and take advantage of these available programs to save this significant historic structure. STAFF RECOMMENDATION: The Preservation Office recommends that the application for a Special Certificate of Appropriateness for the demolition of a contributing resource within Spring Garden Historic District and construction of a new single-family home be Denied. HEPB- JULY 7, 2015 Page 4 of 4 R,O Miami Historic and Environmental Preservation Board Resolution: HEPB-R-15-056 File ID 15-00218 July 7, 2015 Item HEPB.11 Mr. David Freedman offered the following resolution and moved its adoption: A MOTION OF THE MIAMI HISTORIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL PRESERVATION BOARD APPROVING WITH CONDITIONS WHICH FAILED (3-3), CONSTITUTING A DENIAL OF AN APPLICATION FOR A SPECIAL CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS FOR DEMOLITION OF A CONTRIBUTING RESOURCE, AND NEW CONSTRUCTION OF A SINGLE-FAMILY HOME AT 713 NORTHWEST 7TH STREET ROAD, WITHIN THE SPRING GARDEN HISTORIC DISTRICT. Upon being seconded by Mr. Gary Hecht, the motion fails by a vote of 3-3: Mr. Timothy Barber No Mr. David Freedman Yes Mr. Gary Hecht Yes Mr. William E. Hopper, Jr. No Ms. Lynn B. Lewis No Mr. Hugh Ryan Absent Mr. Jordan Trachtenberg Absent Mr. Todd Tragash Yes (0 7,1 JIMA Zo I ( Megan Schmitt Execution Date Preservation Officer STATE OF FLORIDA ) COUNTY OF MIAMI-DADE ) Personally appeared before me, the undersigned authority, Megan Schmitt Preservation Officer of the City of Miami, Florida, and acknowledges that she executed the foregoing Resolution. SWORN AND SUBSCRIBED BEFORE ME THISY'Z"DAY OF )U 1,) 2015. r if ..) ;L; Ir c (L -' i7..t. ) Print Notary Name Personally know 'K or Produced I.D. Type and number of I.D. produced Did take an oath or Did not take an oath >' Notary Public State of Florida My Commission Expires: VANESSATRWILLO MY COMMISSION # FF 229944 EXPIRES: July 11, 2019 kliTur' Bonded Nu Notary Pubic Unde ifen