HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 5 - ARCH-0022-2020 (1140 Iris)CULTURAL HERITAGE COMMITTEE REPORT
FROM: Brian Leveille, Senior Planner BY: Walter Oetzell, Assistant Planner
PROJECT ADDRESS: 1140 Iris St. FILE NUMBER: ARCH-0022-2020
APPLICANT: Dave & Karen Rucker; represented by Greg Wynn
For more information contact Walter Oetzell, Assistant Planner: 781-7593 (woetzell@slocity.org)
1.0 BACKGROUND
The applicant proposes to construct a new
two-story accessory building and three-story
tower feature on residential property at 1140 Iris
Street, a property designated in the City’s
Inventory of Historic Resources as a Contributing
List Historic Resource. The accessory building
will accommodate a 2-car garage, workshop, craft
room, media room, and two-bedroom apartment.
The tower element has a garden shed at the ground
floor, and an office and bedroom on the upper
floors (see Project Plans, Attachment 1).
2.0 SITE AND SETTING
The site is a 1-acre parcel on the north side of Iris
Street, about 50 feet west of Ruth Street, in the
East Railroad neighborhood, a residential area
south of the railroad depot, characterized by
single-family dwellings in a variety of architectural styles. The East Railroad area has not been
designated as an Historic District within the City, but is one of the earlier developed neighborhoods
in the City, with a concentration of historically significant architectural styles associated with the
late 19th- and early 20th-Century residential development, such as Neo-Classical Cottage and
Residential Vernacular. The property was added to the Contributing Properties List of Historic
Resources in February 2007, as part of a group of 25 properties in the East Railroad area.
The primary structure on the site is a two-story 2,500 square-foot single-family dwelling,
constructed around 1860. It is described in City records as “Vernacular Farmhouse” in style,
“irregular in plan”1 (see Attachment 2) The City’s Historic Context Statement notes that the
Residential Vernacular style describes simple houses with little or no distinguishing decorative
features, characterized by their simplicity and lack of any characteristics of recognizable styles
(see Attachment 3). Character-defining features of the style include:
▪Simple square or rectangular form
1 Historical Property Listing (February 2007), in CDD historic property record (“yellow file”) for 1140 Iris
Meeting Date: April 27, 2020
Item Number: 5
Item No. 1
Figure 1: Subject Property
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▪ Gabled or hipped roof with boxed or open eaves
▪ Wood exterior cladding
▪ Simple windows and door surrounds
Two one-bedroom cottages built around 1925 also exist on the site and are proposed for demolition
as part of this project. The background of the property and its owners and occupants was evaluated
in a Historic Resources Evaluation2 prepared in 2018 to support review of recent rehabilitation
work done to the primary structure on the site (reviewed under application ARCH-1428-2018).
The evaluation is attached to this report as Attachment 4 for reference. The Cultural Heritage
Committee reviewed the rehabilitation plans for the main residence in July 2018 and found the
proposed work to be consistent with the City’s historic preservation policies. Rehabilitation of the
building is nearing completion (see Figure 2).
3.0 COMMITTEE PURVIEW
New construction, additions or alterations on historically listed properties are subject to review by
the Cultural Heritage Committee (Historic Preservation Ordinance § 14.01.030 (C)). The
Committee will make a recommendation to the Community Development Director as to the
consistency of the proposed work with applicable historical preservation policies and standards.
2 Betsy Bertrando, Bertrando & Bertrando Research Consultants, Historic Resource Evaluation: The George Chastain
Cocke Homestead (P-40-041330) (April 2018)
Figure 2: Rehabilitation of 1140 Iris (primary dwelling)
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4.0 EVALUATION
4.1 Historic Preservation Program Guidelines
Although the property is not within one of the City’s Historic Districts, listed historic resources
located outside of historic districts are subject to the same protection and regulations applicable to
those within historic districts (Historic Preservation Program Guidelines § 3.3.1).
New accessory structures should complement the primary structure’s historic
character through compatibility with its form, massing, color, and materials.
(§ 3.4.1 (c)).
The proposed new building is composed of a collection of rectangular forms with pitched roofs,
two stories in height at the front, accommodating a one-bedroom apartment over a Media Room,
stepping down to single-story Garage, Workshop, and Craft Room spaces behind (see Figure 3
below). This form and massing is consistent with that of the primary dwelling on the site, which
itself exhibits an arrangement of rectangular forms one- and two-stories in height. The tower
feature has three levels, with a Garden Shed, Office, and Bedroom spaces, rising to a maximum
height of about 32 feet above ground, similar to the maximum height of the primary dwelling.
Like the primary dwelling, the new construction is
sheathed in wood siding in a horizontal orientation.
Asphalt shingle roofing and rectangular wood-clad
casement windows, trimmed in wood, provide a
“compatible contrast” to the primary dwelling’s metal roof and more traditional double-hung
window operation, to avoid an imitative appearance. The new construction will be integrated with
the existing dwelling by the same white color.
Figure 3: Project renderings - front view (south elevation, top) and side view (west elevation)
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4.2 Secretary of Interior’s Standards
The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties3 (SOI Standards)
are used to provide guidance for rehabilitation of historic buildings, including related new
construction to meet continuing or new uses. Rehabilitation is a treatment defined in the SOI
Standards as: “the act or process of making possible a compatible use for a property through repair,
alterations, and additions while preserving those portions or features which convey its historical,
cultural, or architectural values” (SOI Standards, pg. 75). Standards for Rehabilitation are provided
as Attachment 5 to this report. Of particular relevance to this project are the following Standards
for Rehabilitation, and accompanying guidelines:
Standard 2: The historic character of a property will be retained and preserved. The removal of
distinctive materials or alteration of features, spaces and spatial relationships that characterize a
property will be avoided.
Standard 9: New additions, exterior alterations, or related new construction will not destroy historic
materials, features, and spatial relationships that characterize the property. The new work will be
differentiated from the old and will be compatible with the historic materials, features, size, scale and
proportion, and massing to protect the integrity of the property and its environment.
Recommended Not Recommended
Building Site
Designing adjacent new construction that is
compatible with the historic character of the site
and preserves the historic relationship between
the building or buildings and the landscape.
Introducing new construction on the building site
which is visually incompatible in terms of size,
scale, design, material, or color, which destroys
historic relationships on the site, or which dam-
ages or destroys important landscape features…
Removing non-significant buildings, additions, or
site features which detract from the historic
character of the site.
Removing a historic building in a complex of
buildings or removing a building feature or a
landscape feature which is important in defining
the historic character of the site.
The historic character of this Contributing List Property is attributable to the Vernacular style of
the 19th-Century primary dwelling. As discussed in § 4.1 of this report, proposed new construction
has been designed for compatibility, in form, massing, color, and materials, with the primary
dwelling. The dwelling remains as the primary structure on the site, and no landscape feature
important to the property’s historic character is damaged or destroyed.
The existing accessory buildings proposed to be demolished as part of this project were constructed
in the early 20th Century, several decades after the primary dwelling, and are not part of the
3 Kay D. Weeks and Anne E. Grimmer. The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic
Properties with Guidelines for Preserving, Rehabilitating, Restoring & Reconstructing Historic Buildings.
Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service; Technical Preservation Services, 2017
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property’s pre-railroad late 19th-Century Period of Significance.4 They are constructed of various
materials, primarily clapboard construction, and do not exhibit any particular architectural style or
quality of workmanship that would make them important in defining the historical character of the
property.
4.3 Conclusion
Information in project plans, along with information about the historical character of the property
available from prior evaluation, provides a basis for the Committee to find that, consistent with
the City’s Historic Preservation Ordinance (SLOMC Ch. 14.01), the proposed new construction is
compatible with the form, massing, color, and materials of the primary dwelling on the site, and is
designed in a manner that preserves the and retains the historic character of the property.
5.0 ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
This project is exempt from the provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
It consists of the construction of a new building and tower feature accommodating a single-family
dwelling and accessory spaces: small structures as described in CEQA Guidelines § 15303 (New
Construction of Small Structures). The project will not cause a substantial adverse change in the
significance of a historical resource since the historic building on the site is not modified as part
of this project and the new construction work will be carried out in a manner consistent with
Secretary of Interior Standards and the Historic Preservation Program Guidelines.
6.0 ACTION ALTERNATIVES
1. Continue review to another date with direction to staff and applicant.
2. Recommend that the Community Development Director find the project inconsistent with
historical preservation policies, citing specific areas of inconsistency.
7.0 ATTACHMENTS
1. Project Plans
2. Historic Resource Information (“Yellow File”)
3. Residential Vernacular Style (excerpt from Historic Context Statement)
4. Historic Resource Evaluation (Bertrando & Bertrando)
5. SOI Standards for the Rehabilitation of Historic Buildings (Excerpt)
4 Bertrando, pg. 16
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City of San Luis Obispo Architectural Character
Citywide Historic Context Statement
HISTORIC RESOURCES GROUP
139
RESIDENTIAL VERNACULAR
The term “Residential Vernacular” is used to describe simple houses or cottages with little or no
distinguishing decorative features. These buildings are characterized by their simplicity and lack of any
characteristics of recognizable styles.
Character-defining features include:
Simple square or rectangular form
Gabled or hipped roof with boxed or open eaves
Wood exterior cladding
Simple window and door surrounds
Fitzpatrick House, 670 Islay Street, 1880. Source: Historic
Resources Group.
Foreman House, 1500 Eto Street, 1878. Source: City of
San Luis Obispo.
Anderson House, 532 Dana Street, 1898.
Source: City of San Luis Obispo.
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REHABILITATION
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Standards for Rehabilitation
1.A property will be used as it was historically or be given a new use that requires minimal
change to its distinctive materials, features, spaces and spatial relationships.
2.The historic character of a property will be retained and preserved. The removal of dis
tinctive materials or alteration of features, spaces and spatial relationships that character
ize a property will be avoided.
3.Each property will 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, will not be undertaken.
4.Changes to a property that have acquired historic significance in their own right will be
retained and preserved.
5.Distinctive materials, features, finishes, and construction techniques or examples of
craftsmanship that characterize a property will be preserved.
6.Deteriorated historic features will be repaired rather than replaced. Where the severity
of deterioration requires replacement of a distinctive feature, the new feature will match
the old in design, color, texture and, where possible, materials. Replacement of missing
features will be substantiated by documentary and physical evidence.
7.Chemical or physical treatments, if appropriate, will be undertaken using the gentlest
means possible. Treatments that cause damage to historic materials will not be used.
8.Archeological resources will be protected and preserved in place. If such resources must
be disturbed, mitigation measures will be undertaken.
9.New additions, exterior alterations, or related new construction will not destroy historic
materials, features, and spatial relationships that characterize the property. The new work
will be differentiated from the old and will be compatible with the historic materials, fea
tures, size, scale and proportion, and massing to protect the integrity of the property and
its environment.
10.New additions and adjacent or related new construction will be undertaken in such a
manner that, if removed in the future, the essential form and integrity of the historic
property and its environment would be unimpaired.ATTACHMENT 5Item 5
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1
ARCH-0022-2020 (1140 Iris)
New apartment w/ tower feature, garage,
workshop, craft room space (Contributing List
Historic Property
2
3
New accessory structures should
complement the primary structure’s
historic character through compatibility
with its form, massing, color, and
materials.
(SLO Historic Preservation Guidelines §3.4.1 (c)).
4
Secretary of the Interior’s Standards (Rehabilitation)
Standard 2:The historic character of a property will be retained and preserved.The removal of
distinctive materials or alteration of features,spaces and spatial relationships that characterize a
property will be avoided.
Standard 9:New additions,exterior alterations,or related new construction will not destroy
historic materials,features,and spatial relationships that characterize the property.The new work
will be differentiated from the old and will be compatible with the historic materials,features,size,
scale and proportion,and massing to protect the integrity of the property and its environment.
Recommended Not Recommended
Building Site
Designing adjacent new construction that is
compatible with the historic character of the site
and preserves the historic relationship between
the building or buildings and the landscape.
Introducing new construction on the building site
which is visually incompatible in terms of size,
scale,design,material,or color,which destroys
historic relationships on the site,or which dam-
ages or destroys important landscape features…
Removing non-significant buildings,additions,
or site features which detract from the historic
character of the site.
Removing a historic building in a complex of
buildings or removing a building feature or a
landscape feature which is important in defining
the historic character of the site.
HIST-0701-2019 (858 Toro)
Action
Forward a recommendation to the Community Development Director regarding consistency
of the project with historical preservation policies and standards