Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-4-19 HHDC Draft Minutes (1) Town of Barnstable Hyannis Main Street Waterfront Historic District Commission www.townofbarnstable.ma.us/hyannismainstreet MINUTES April 19, 2023 6:30 p.m. Members Present: Cheryl Powell, Mark Despotopulos, Laura Cronin, Jennifer Hinckley Needham, Matt Clark and Tom Doherty Members Absent: Jack Kay Staff Present: Kate Maldonado, Assistant Director, and Karen Herrand, Principal Assistant, Planning & Development Dept. in attendance. To all persons deemed interested or affected by the Town of Barnstable’s Hyannis Main Street Waterfront Historic District Commission Ordinance under Chapter 112, Article III of the Code of the Town of Barnstable, you are hereby notified that a hearing is being held at Town Hall, 367 Main Street, Hyannis, MA Selectmen’s Conference Room, 2nd Floor 6:30 P.M. on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. Please note that this meeting will be recorded and broadcast on Channel 18 and, in accordance with MGL Chapter 30A §20, anyone taping this meeting please make their presence known. Please silence your cell phones Meeting held in the Hearing Room – Technical difficulties in the Selectmen’s Conference Room Call to Order Attendance Roll Call Jennifer Hinckley Needham Matt Clark Laura Cronin Tom Doherty Mark Despotopulos Cheryl Powell Welcome to New Members, Special Guests, Advisors and Comments Kate Maldonado, Assistant Director, Planning and Development in attendance. Updates  Trainings  Awards  Correspondence Reminder of Commission’s Purpose and Proper Procedure New Business The Cordial Eye and Hyannis Public Library – 401 Main Street, Hyannis – Map 326 Parcel 013 Community Art Wall Mary George, Co- Executive Director, The Cordial Eye in attendance. Anastaci Pacella in attendance. Amanda Converse, Hyannis Public Library, Board of Trustees in attendance. Presentation Overview. Pilot Program for the Community, 1 year approval. 12 ft. wide at the Hyannis Public Library. Reads from presentation and handout, Exhibit A. What is a Community Art Wall. Only 3 in Massachusetts. Sturgis student helped to create. 367 Main Street, Hyannis, MA 02601 2 Goals of project. Any community member can participate. Direct interface with library staff as well. This will decrease instances of vandalism. Designated place. East facing side of Hyannis public library. Four segments of the wall, 8 x 12 ft, covered with plywood sheets to ensure quick removability. Implementation of wall. Crew for maintenance. Sign in and sign out process at the library desk, several languages. Will receive a lanyard when working on the wall. Good for monitoring. Request process. Surveillance cameras and facility library staff. Anastaci Pacella, visual artist of the project. A lot of desire to teach. Working with the (BID) Business Improvement District, First Fridays are event BID will be doing. Mary George, we have a new collaborator at JFK Museum. To work with established events. Operations and Maintenance. Cordial Eye will be doing/commissioning process. Will govern all procedures. Installation is temporary and can be replaced easily. Community Support. Mass Development is supporting, BID, JFK – and significant community support. Amanda Converse, President of Hyannis Library Board of Trustees. Reads into record a statement. Community Art Wall, Library is a cultural and inspirational hub. Mission is to stimulate intellectually. High quality resources. Believes a good fit for many reasons. Community groups, sharing in an alternative way. Library, represents and stimulate. Complimentary programs. This is street scape art. JFK Hyannis museum are excited. Safety and security from their input as well. This is ideal to breathe new life into a tired space. Library open 6 days a week. Can facilitate. Have security cameras upon the wall. Can view security tapes. Have a maintenance person. Want to be for all - art and public ideas. Will Caolo in attendance. Student at Sturgis West. Artist and will pursue in college. Believes that art is an essential piece. Wants a wall here and what this community can create and expression through this wall. Will foster ideas. Visited a wall in Cambridge. Dozens of people – variety of different styles and different messages. Working for over 2 years now on this project. Thanks all to get the project to where it is now. To share art without boundaries. Tom Doherty – confirms who will manage on what’s on the art wall. Vision? Mary George, to become a place of collective community activity. They are overseeing to make sure no obscenity or hate speech or offensive or profanity. Usual this does not happen very often. Tom Doherty, thinks of history of Hyannis, celebrating the Town’s people/community. Tourists may not know it’s an art wall. How to stop from being political? Mary George, this would be a violation of free speech. Should be a reflection of Hyannis to reflect the creativity of the members that live here. This type of art has been around for many years. Tom Doherty we are a society of rules and regulations. Country very divided right now. Would like to see something to unite us. Would like restrictions as to what is going on the wall. Don’t need any more animosity. Anastaci Pacella, this is not this Commission’s purview. We can create something with an artist. Mary George, they have done a lot of community research and are offering far more control than is here now. The true mission is to build a more integrated community. Tom Doherty, what happens in the winter? Can they paint then? Mary George, yes, if they want to. Jennifer Hinckley Needham, refers to pg. 44 of the guidelines, mentions that murals in HHDC are discouraged, so how are we at this point? Mary George, we are voicing this to make sure that expression is able to become part of our narrative. Laura Cronin, the project is wonderful, passion – historic standpoint it encourages, Hyannis is unique. Not on an outside wall or parking lot, maybe inside the library, can still have expression. Don’t see how this can be controlled. Kate Maldonado – community art wall will support more pedestrians, bringing more people to Downtown. Applicant will monitor and maintain the art wall. This will be a pilot project, for one year. Draft conditions, Exhibit B. Safety and security and ongoing management and collaboration. 367 Main Street, Hyannis, MA 02601 3 Matt Clark, who is the gate keeper of what is appropriate and what is inappropriate? May be different interpretations. How can we keep ourselves our of a liability? Kate Maldonado, condition that relates that upon continued complaints the Chair can have the Applicant come back and have further dialogue. Mary George, the nature is that the work is completely no liability. It could be covered up by anybody at any time. Contributors, something we won’t need to devote a lot of work to – as is the nature of it. Tom Doherty, guidelines, what covered up and not? Mary George, we do have some guidelines or create some more explicit guidelines for what would be deemed offensive. Chair Cheryl Powell confirms that we did ask for guidelines. Application was withdrawn before. Confirms the location has changed. Likes the idea of adding info for draft conditions. Confirms will change every quarter. Mary George , one in Beverly and Gloucester. Chair Cheryl Powell clarifies for community and the need to not have inappropriate material. Contact material? Anastaci Pacella, would be looking at peel off material. Chair Cheryl Powell should have some boundaries in this area. Political could be inappropriate. It is our purview to protect the historical character of the Town. Laura Cronin – painting outside of library hours is not encouraged? Mary George, we would be on particular schedules to get permission, process for this in place. Camera surveillance and a lot of oversight, which would be indicated on the signage. We have other guidelines in place, having immediate removable materials. Chair Cheryl Powell had approved the children’s play area here previously. Chair Cheryl Powell opens up for public comment. Wendy Northcross, JFK Museum in attendance. She helped to create this Commission. Resident of West Barnstable and current Executive Director of JFK museum. Direct neighbor, her office can see the wall from there. Have space on second floor. Public community room, working with library about cross programming. This will increase civic engagement for our community. This wall could trigger examples that need to be discussed. Expression that could be a symbol for what it’s like to live in a democracy. Saw one of these type walls in Old San Juan, instances of community art, highly photographed and protected and liked. Saw many different styles. This is proposed for a smart location. Direct neighbors are good. Thinks it would be an example of the vibrancy of Main Street. Art and culture is very important and we’d like to be champions to. David Caolo, Will Caolo’s Dad in attendance. Understands the hesitation, but has faith in what will be created there. Visited other areas with public art, other cities, found it to be exciting. Street art is temporary. Fundamental feature. Meant to be temporary and viewed in public. This may reach people that are not exposed to art in person. Renee B. in attendance, student at Sturgis East. I would contribute to this art wall as much as possible. Excited to have as a part of the community. Hyannis has so much diversity. This is unique and could bring our community together. Community involvement. Exciting opportunity for young artists. Craig Florenn in attendance – local artist from here. Sees this as an opportunity, special. Doesn’t think out of character. Has seen art walls with his children and has not seen anything that he can recall, out of place. Supports the project. Chair Cheryl Powell asks if children can contribute? May George, yes, any age can contribute. Chair Cheryl Powell reads letters into record: Katy Beaty’s email and Ann Alano’s email. Mark Despotopuls reads letters into record: Abigail Brady’s email and Karen Cahill’s email. 367 Main Street, Hyannis, MA 02601 4 Tom Doherty, has seen a lot of bad artwork. Not a lot of faith in this. Mary George, many different types of safeguards being placed with this. Maybe have some faith. Local organizations are in support for particularly young artists who are trying to make a life here. Have faith in good people. Tom Doherty, this will be a reflection of the Cordial Eye. Need more guidelines. Mary George – anyone in the community can participate. Discussion regarding what is obscenity. Mary George – there are some definitions. We are self imposing. What more reasonable restrictions could be implemented? Is the goal of this Commission to represent what is healthy and best for this community? Mark Despotopulos, how will this fit in with the historic district?. This wall could go anywhere. Tom Doherty, doesn’t belong in historic district. Laura Cronin, maybe other opportunities without restricting your purpose, without doing in the historic district. Maybe put indoors, bring inside, in another location, maybe the community center in Hyannis. Murals are not encouraged/accepted and there are policing issues. Jennifer Hinckley Needham– murals in HHDC are discouraged, pg. 44 of the guidelines of the Commission. Amanda Converse – there are murals in Hyannis historic district. Art wall – Hyannis Public Library, would never participate in anything that would harm this community. The building is not vibrant. Having art accessible on outside leads it to being more pedestrian friendly. Makes more accessible to everyone. This is a pilot, asking to take a chance and just try it out. Thinks a lot of concerns are unfounded. They can come back in a quarter and see how it goes. The library cares so much would never leave anything inappropriate. Chair Cheryl Powell – color issue, historic color chart – for buildings, signs, not restrictive to this? Kate Maldonado, yes that is correct , could not have with painting, could not be applicable to this. Laura Cronin, murals did come before HHDC before, Bradford’s Hardware was approved for content colors and what was appropriate for the area. Amanda Converse, those are permanent pieces of work. Jennifer Hinckley Needham, how will you keep track of the complaints? Mary George, the Cordial Eye will be managing complaints. Chair Cheryl Powell – draft conditions. Likes that it is at the library, more community. Fosters culture and art and sharing information. Art is another way of telling a story. Would like a record/book of the contributions to the wall. Will be looking at it and will let you know if anything is inappropriate. These usually express the positive. Chair Cheryl Powell closes public comment. Chair Cheryl Powell reviews the Draft Conditions for Consideration – Community Art Wall - Hyannis Public Library, 401 Main Street, Exhibit B? Mary George, willing to create more specific definitions to the Draft Conditions. Tom Doherty – Cordial Eye Mission Statement. – Mary George want to create a space to amplify. 367 Main Street, Hyannis, MA 02601 5 Discussion regarding wording that may be on the wall. David Caolo – expression is everywhere. Tom Doherty, maybe consider going from Memorial Day to Labor Day and see how it goes. Would like a review process ongoing. Mary George, open to an amended timeline. Chair Cheryl Powell asks when proposing to start? Mary George, asap. Ready to get going, tentative agreement to participate in first Friday event in June, every Friday throughout the summer. Sturgis East School would like to participate with kick off of the wall, before the end of the school year. Chair Cheryl Powell reviews for amendments to Community Art Wall Draft Conditions – Discussion amongst the Commissioner’s Chair closes public comment. Kate Maldonado; Asks to read into record Draft Conditions as amended. Chair Cheryl Powell reads from Draft conditions with amendments into record – this is draft and will be finalized by Staff. Draft Conditions for Consideration – Community Art Wall – Hyannis Public Library, 401 Main Street 1. The grant of a Certificate of Appropriateness is from May 1, 2023, until September 11, 2023 This is a one year Pilot Program with a timeline for review. 2. The Community Art Wall shall be conducted substantially in conformance with the application and materials provided along the eastern exterior wall of 401 Main Street, Hyannis. 3. The Community Art Wall shall be installed using wood panels. Said wood panels shall be removable and replaced when necessary. 4. The excess materials shall be stored within the structure at 430 – 438 Main Street, Hyannis. 5. The Applicant, The Cordial Eye, shall monitor and maintain the Community Art Wall on a daily basis. 6. The Main Street Business Improvement District (BID) has agreed to assist in the monitoring and maintenance of this Community Art Wall. 7. The Community Art Wall shall have security lighting and cameras on site. 8. The Applicant, The Cordial Eye and the Co Applicant, the Hyannis Public Library, shall monitor the wall for obscenity, hate speech, and explicit content. There shall be no adverting of any type; i.e., political or otherwise, any such material will be removed immediately. 9. The Applicant shall have stencils on site to cover up any unwanted content, said stencils shall be in the form of a sailboat, anchor, lighthouse, or the nautical like. 10. The site shall be maintained for trash and debris and cleaned up on a daily basis, by noon time at minimum. 11. That upon continued complaints received from the residents of the Town of Barnstable, the Chair of the Hyannis Main Street Waterfront Historic District Commission (HHDC) may require the Applicant to attend a regularly scheduled meeting of the Commission, to provide evidence of responsiveness to said complaints. Unresponsiveness to ongoing complaints may result in revocation of this Certificate of Appropriateness. 12. That the wall utilized for the project shall be restored to its original form upon expiration of this Pilot Program Decision, or unless another Certificate of Appropriateness and/or extension of approval for is issued. 367 Main Street, Hyannis, MA 02601 6 13. Any changes to the Community Art Wall program project shall come back before the Commission to determine whether a modification of the Certificate of Appropriateness is required. Anastaci Pacella children asked for this. The Library is excited for this. Some things can go up and just as quickly come down. We share the same concerns and safeguards. Laura Cronin, would consider just for children and limiting? Mary George, not this type of project, this is streetscape and for the full community. Can amend initial proposal if we are wrong about that. Can put additional guidelines. Looking for a chance. Pilot program. Chair Cheryl Powell entertains a motion for the Findings, moved by Mark Despotopulos to find this application to be compatible with the preservation and protection of the District, with the amendments for consideration, in regards to 401 Main Street, Hyannis, seconded by Jennifer Hinckley Needham, Roll Call Vote: Matt Clark – aye Mark Despotopulos - aye Tom Doherty - aye Jennifer Hinckley Needham - aye Laura Cronin – abstain Cheryl Powell – aye Chair Cheryl Powell entertains a motion for a Certificate of Appropriateness, moved by Mark Despotopulos to issue for application located at 401 Main Street, Hyannis, Map 326 Parcel 013 as described in the submitted materials with the amendments for consideration, seconded by Jennifer Hinckley Needham, Roll Call Vote: Tom Doherty - aye Jennifer Hinckley Needham - aye Laura Cronin - abstain Matt Clark - aye Mark Despotopulos - aye Cheryl Powell - aye Matters not Reasonably Anticipated by the Chair Other Business Approval of March 1, 2023, draft minutes – tabled at April 5, 2023, meeting Chair Cheryl Powell entertains a motion to approve the draft minutes of March 1, moved by Mark Despotopulos, seconded by Tom Doherty, Roll Call Vote: Matt - aye Mark Despotopulos - aye Tom Doherty - aye Jennifer Hinckley Needham - aye Laura Cronin – aye Cheryl Powell - aye Approval of April 5, 2023, draft minutes Chair Cheryl Powell entertains a motion to approve the draft minutes for April 5th, moved by Tom Doherty, seconded by Mark Despotopulos, Roll Call Vote: Matt Clark - aye Mark Despotopulos - aye Tom Doherty - aye Jennifer Hinckley Needham - aye 367 Main Street, Hyannis, MA 02601 7 Laura Cronin – aye Cheryl Powell - aye Next HHDC meetings scheduled for May 3, and May 17, 2023 Adjournment Chair Cheryl Powell entertains a motion to adjourn, moved by Tom Doherty, seconded by Laura Cronin, Roll Call Vote: Matt Clark - aye Mark Despotopulos - aye Laura Cronin - aye Jennifer Hinckley Needham - aye Cheryl Powell – aye The meeting ended at 8:58 p.m. Respectfully submitted Karen Herrand Further detail may be obtained by viewing the video via Channel 18 on demand at http://www.town.barnstable.ma.us List of Exhibit Documents Exhibit A – Presentation - The Cordial Eye and Hyannis Public Library – 401 Main Street, Hyannis – Map 326 Parcel 013 Exhibit B – Draft Conditions - The Cordial Eye and Hyannis Public Library – 401 Main Street, Hyannis – Map 326 Parcel 013