The Ann Arbor Historic District Commission meets tonight as a part of its regular meeting schedule for the second Wednesday of each month.

Four items are on the HDC agenda; Here's a very brief look at each of them, plus some notes on progress toward timely communications from this commission, which appears to have overcome problems of the past year in producing timely minutes of its decision-making process.

New construction on Detroit Street

Among the agenda items is a petition for approval to build a new home at 520 Detroit St.

This vacant lot sits between a pair of two-story, framed buildings. The City Directory indicates that there was a house on the lot in 1912, occupied by Elizabeth Tice, widow of Clarence. The 1933 Sanborn map shows a two-story dwelling on the lot; the building had been removed for the 1971 Sanborn update, though the exact date of the demolition is unknown.

Alice Tice also lived at the house in 1912, working as a pianist at the Bijou Theatre. The Bijou was a vaudeville house which opened at 209 East Washington St. in 1906 and closed in 1915, according to Grace Shackman's 2003 Ann Arbor Observer story Cinema's First Century.

Approvals for new construction generally rest on whether the site plans are consistent with the historical nature of the area, since in this case there is no relevant history to preserve and the current use of the lot as a parking lot is not one that requires preservation.

New basement windows on West Jefferson Street

A petition for approval to install basement egress windows at 207 W. Jefferson St. goes before the commission.

In 2007, an egress window on the east elevation of the house was installed without obtaining a certificate of appropriateness or a building permit. An after-the-fact HDC application (07-94) was denied in September of 2007 because the window was an inappropriate size and style. The determination was appealed to the State Historic Preservation Review Board, which upheld the decision in May 2008. The installation of the same window elsewhere on the house is part of this new application.

The installation of windows in historic properties is a perpetual question for the HDC. I've previously written about issues with window repair in historic homes, where the cost of maintaining old windows is extraordinary expensive compared to replacement with new windows, and where old construction which is not original to the home has been held to current historic standards.

New handicap access ramp on East Liberty Street

Also on the agenda is petition for approval to install a handicapped access ramp at 321 E. Liberty St.

This building, the Enoch James House, was built around 1847-49 in the Federal style. This two-story brick house features a small, classically detailed front porch; a paneled front door with sidelights and rectangular transom; 6/6 double hung windows with prominent lintels; and a second-story sunroom porch on the west side. The house appears on the 1888 Sanborn map (then referred to as 29 E. Liberty St.), with a main footprint similar to present. Currently, the building is a residential duplex.

An account of this building is found in "Historic buildings, Ann Arbor, Michigan" by Marjorie Reade and Susan Wineberg.

Cornelia Corselius, another local historian, described the James family in her 1909 manuscript as "prominent society people here during the 1850s and part of the 60s." After Enoch James' death in 1867, his widow Amarilla and his son Lyman inherited the house. From the latter part of the 19th century on, the house was rented as rooms and as many as seven apartments. In 1980, the Copi family converted the house into two flats but retained the gold lettered sign on the front door advertising the law offices of previous owner, William R. Kelley.

Aluminum siding on West Liberty Street

The commission will consider a petition for approval to replace the aluminum siding at 1121 W. Liberty St. with vinyl siding.

This story and a half home features a prominent front dormer and full-width front porch with stone half walls. The building is listed in the 1926 City Directory as the residence of Otille K. and George Heibein, an attendant at Hunter’s Gas Station. The house was occupied in 1939 by Louis Kambas, who is listed as the occupant through 1970. The house and garage appear on the 1931 Sanborn map, with footprints similar to present. In 1991, the Historic District Commission granted approval for a small bathroom addition at the southwest corner.

It's not clear from the application when the aluminum siding was added to the house, but however long ago it was, the siding is now worn. The petitioner asks to have the approval to replace it with vinyl siding.

Any exterior vinyl in historic districts is generally frowned on by the HDC, and the packet notes:

Staff did not approve this at the staff level because 1) the wood window casing trim is proposed to be wrapped in aluminum, and 2) staff is not comfortable approving vinyl and feels the issue of the appropriateness of vinyl siding would benefit from commission discussion.

Expect this to get an extended discussion.

Progress in transparency in Historic District Commission meetings

As recently as February of this year, I wrote about the Historic District Commission's practice of not preparing timely meeting minutes.

Since then, the HDC has started using the City's Legistar tracking system, and this report was written from the online agenda agenda for tonight's meeting. That agenda includes approval of draft minutes from the October HDC meeting, which means that for the first time in a long time the public record of the HDC's decision making process would be up to date.

Edward Vielmetti lives in an old, but not historic, home in Ann Arbor.