LAWRENCE HISTORIC RESOURCES COMMISSION

ITEM NO. 6B: DR-11-108-2004

ADMINISTRATIVE APPROVAL

STAFF REPORT

A.         SUMMARY

DR-11-108-04: W. 6th Street Re-striping with Center Turn Lane; W. 6th Street between Tennessee and Alabama Streets; Certified Local Government Review.  Submitted by the City of Lawrence.  The property is located in the environs of the Old West Lawrence Historic District and the Pinckney I Historic District, National Register of Historic Places; and the Witter S. McCurdy House, National and Lawrence Registers of Historic Places.

B.         PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The applicant is requesting to re-stripe W. 6th Street from Tennessee Street to Alabama Street.  This project will introduce a turning lane for this portion of W. 6th Street. 

C.         STANDARD OF REVIEW

For projects that require a Certified Local Government Review, the Historic Resources Commission has typically used the Standards and Guidelines for Evaluating the Effect of Projects on Environs to evaluate the proposed project.

Standards and Guidelines for Evaluating the Effect of Projects on Environs.

The following are the Standards and Guidelines for Evaluating the Effect of Projects on Environs that apply to the proposed project:

1. The character of a historic property's environs should be retained and preserved.  The removal or alteration of distinctive buildings, structures, landscape features, spatial relationships, etc. that characterize the environs should be avoided.

2. The environs of a property should be used as it has been historically or allow for the inclusion of new uses that require minimal change to the environs’ distinctive materials, features, and spatial relationships.

6. New additions, exterior alterations, infill construction, or related new construction should not destroy character-defining features or spatial relationships that characterize the environs of a property.  The new work shall be compatible with the historic materials, character-defining features, size, scale and proportion, and massing of the environs.

Identify, Retain, and Preserve

Like the treatments for historic properties, guidance for environs review begins with the identification of the character-defining features of the environs, its historic and current character, and what must be retained in order to preserve that character.  The character of a listed property's environs may be defined by form, exterior materials, such as masonry, wood, or metal; exterior features and elements, such as roofs, porches, windows, or construction details; as well as size, scale and proportion, massing, spatial relationships, etc. 

PARKING

Recommended

When possible maintain the parking patterns that characterize the environs of a listed property.

When new parking areas are required, design them to be consistent with the character of the environs and to intrude as little as possible.

Not Recommended

Wholesale modification of traditional character-defining parking patters.

Creation of new parking areas that are incompatible and/or inconsistent with the parking patterns that characterize the environs.

In conducting Certified Local Government Reviews, the Commission has used a standard of review based on the designation of the property or its proximity to a designated property.

D.         STAFF ANALYSIS

The applicant is requesting to re-stripe W. 6th  Street from Tennessee Street to Alabama Street.  The project will not require reduction in the existing green space right-of-way.  The project will, however, bring traffic closer to the existing historic homes that are adjacent to W. 6th  Street.  This will increase the amount of vibration that the structures receive from the extensive traffic that exists on W. 6th  Street.  Staff is of the opinion that if the street is to include a turning lane that will bring traffic closer to the existing historic structures, traffic calming measures such as a landscaped median should be installed to reduce the effect of the traffic. 

As the proposed project will not change the size of W. 6th  Street or require any physical expansion into the historic districts, staff has viewed the proposed re-striping as having a minimal effect on the Old West Lawrence and Pinckney I Historic Districts. 

E.         STAFF RECOMMENDATION

In accordance with the Standards and Guidelines for Evaluating the Effect of Projects on Environs  (1998), the standard of evaluation, staff recommends the Commission approve the proposed project and make the determination that the proposed project does not encroach upon, damage or destroy any listed historic property or its environs.

Staff also recommends that the Historic Resources Commission formally request that the City investigate the use of a landscaped median as a traffic calming device to reduce the continued effects of the existing traffic between the two listed districts.