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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHPB Minutes 2012-0717 SUMMARY MINUTES City of Sunny Isles Beach Historic Preservation Board Meeting 18070 Collins Avenue, Fourth Floor Conference Room Tuesday, July 17, 2012, 6:00 p.m. 1. Call to Order by Chairperson: Action: Chairperson Joe Masters called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m., and each Member introduced themselves including new Board Member Jorge Camaraza. The following Board Members and City Officials were present: Committee Members: City Officials: Joe Masters, Chairperson Deputy City Attorney Fernando Amuchastegui Cassey Gabor, Vice Chairperson Consultant Ellen J. Uguccioni Shari Blank City Clerk Jane A. Hines, CMC Jorge Camaraza Trina Duluc Applicant: Warren J. Stamm Commissioner George `Bud" Scholl City Liaison: Audience: Richard C. Schulman, City Historian Commissioner Isaac Aelion City Attorney Hans Ottinot Interested Parties Absent: Janet Cini (excused/ill) 2. Public Hearing: Consideration of an Application for a Certificate of Appropriateness Filed by George H. Scholl and Dione Del Monico for the Property Located at 334 Atlantic Isle. Action: Deputy City Attorney Fernando Amuchastegui said that the purpose of tonight's meeting is to consider an Application for a Certificate of Appropriateness filed by the Petitioner Commissioner George`Bud" Scholl,the property owner for the property located at 334 Atlantic Isle. At tonight's meeting you will be asked to vote on the Application for a Certificate of Appropriateness. He introduced Ellen J. Uguccioni the Consultant to the Historic Preservation Board, and she has prepared a staff report of which each Member has a copy of. The Staff Report is recommending approval of the Application. Consultant Ellen Uguccioni reported that Commissioner Scholl has submitted an Application for three different items that he would like to do to his property. The property, "The Water Court Villa and Pergola" is one of the most outstanding properties that she has seen in Miami-Dade County, and it is the consummate Mediterranean Revival home. A Pergola is a landscape element usually which is simply columns that support a roof. The Applicant has asked to approve three different items: 1) Extension of an existing fence to the western edge of his property; 2) repaint the exterior with a color very similar to the existing color; and 3) install a freestanding mailbox with an intercom system to replace one that already exists in the same location. Chapter 171 is what regulates the Historic Preservation action, and it talks about Certificates of Appropriateness, and the Board's job is to determine whether or not the changes that are proposed are consistent with the Secretary of Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation. Agenda 2012-0717 HPB Mtg Page 1 of 5 That is how she looked at this request, and the guidelines that the City Commission has adopted. At this point the Commission has not adopted any other rules to her knowledge other than the ones we are using and the Secretary of Interior Standards. She welcomed new member Jorge Camaraza and directed him to the National Parks website where he will find a wealth of information that will benefit him. In terms of the first request which was the extension of the fence, in your package you received a drawing of a section of a panel of about five feet, five inches. That panel matches a preexisting fence that is on about 1/3 of the property. What they are doing is adding to that fence, and it goes all the way around. Also in your package you received a letter from Commissioner Scholl which explains that there have been many occasions where sightseers have walked across the lawn which is private property, and so he is asking approval of this. The Secretary's Standards do not speak too much to new construction,it speaks to what do we do with old properties. In this case she cited Standard No. 10 which basically says that when you make some improvements that they theoretically are removable in the future,that they don't affect in a negative way the property that is being so designated. In this case it is around the perimeter of the property and does not touch the historic landmark, i.e. the pergola and the house itself. Therefore, she is recommending approval for that extension. Ms. Uguccioni said the second request is to paint the exterior of the home and that you also received in your package a Color Chart, a terra cotta color. The Standards do not speak to the color at all. Color is a local issue, and in this case it meets the Building Department Code, there is no issue with it. It is a personal choice and does not affect the property in a negative way, and so she is recommending approval on this issue. Ms. Uguccioni said the third issue is to build a new free-standing mailbox, and in your package you received a drawing of what is there now, which is a goose neck kind of apparatus where people speak into it. Commissioner Scholl had asked his architect to design for him a mailbox and an intercom system that was consistent with the architecture of the house. And so the architect has used a stucco covering over the rectangle piece with a band that goes around it on the base. In this case, it does not affect the historic property at all, and it is also much better than what is there right now. It is certainly in the current style of Mediterranean style architecture and the Standards again speak to the idea and it is removable in the future. She is also recommending approval of this issue. Property owner, Commissioner George `Bud" Scholl stated that they painted the house twenty (20) years ago, and has a lime-based paint that wears out over time. They actually used the guy that makes the paint for Viscaya, Emilio Ciansoni, and he is an artistic guy who specializes in making paint for historic homes. From his perspective the request is more about the paint than anything,and it will add character to the house. They have wanted to do the fence and mailbox because they have had a lot of issues with people coming onto their property. Commissioner Scholl gave some history of the property,noting when he was about ten(10)years old, his dad used to work at "Interama" across the street from this property, and he had a little row boat and rowed around the area and he liked this house. About 23 years ago, and he has been married for 26 years, he was driving on Collins Avenue with his wife, and he said he was going to show her the house that they will buy one day. They pulled onto Atlantic Island,and the house next door to it was going up for sale, and he said if we can't have the house we want, we will have the house next door, and so they bought it. Two years later he ended up buying the Agenda 2012-0717 HPB Mtg Page 2 of 5 Water Court home,and so they have lived there for about nineteen(19)years. They closed right after Hurricane Andrew in 1993, and so the house has been near and dear to his heart. Everything that they have done to the house they have tried to do within the context of maintaining the house. The windows are a constant work because they are all wooded, the shutters are up a lot because you have to take the windows down, strip them, and they have all the glazing in them which has to be taken out. A lot of times they have to replace the glass and put them all back up again, and so the house requires a lot of maintenance. But in general,they raised their kids there and they have been very happy there. City Historian Richard Schulman said the reason this property became historic was because the founder of this whole area, Harvey Baker Graves, lived there in the 1920's, and it became historic by the Miami-Dade County Historic Preservation Board on January 19, 1984. Our City re-designated it an historic site in October of 2004. It is one of five historic sites in our City. Chairperson Masters noted that this request has been recommended by our Consultant, and he asked if there were any questions before they voted on this. Trina Duluc said she passes the house and noticed that the fence is very dense and you can't see through it to see the house, and since it is historic, why can't we have more of a view of the beautiful mansion. Commissioner Scholl said because it is private property, having an historic house is an interesting perspective because basically he considers it an uncompensated burden. In other words,he has the burden of living with all these rules and regulations, and he gets no benefit for that but they also protect their privacy. They used to have the front open and they had droves of people walking into the yard and taking pictures in front of the house because it was rumored that it was Al Capone's house, and there is a lot of folk lore associated with it. Over the years what they try to do is to limit that and at the same time protect their privacy and that is why they have the hedge there. Frankly they never had a fence before,unfortunately what they have had to do over the years is to keep getting increasingly better security. Now what is happening is with the point finished, it was under construction for a while with the roadwork there. Now folks are fishing on the point again and they walk along the seawall and they decide to fish in their yard and so it is unfortunate. Mainly for personal privacy,because they don't have a backyard,the house is set all the way back on the water. Any time they spend in the yard, they spend in the front yard, and when they do that people pull up in their cars wanting to come into the yard to take a picture. Warren Stamm said it was unclear from the picture where the fence you are proposing is going, and Commissioner Scholl said on the east side of the house they have a wall that goes half way down the property and a wooden fence in the back that goes to the bay. In front of the house they have stem walls,there are columns and little stem walls,and Ms. Uguccioni showed the site plan (2 pages). Commissioner Scholl also showed a picture from the package of what was already in, and what is being proposed in extending the fence. It is the same fence that they have always had there, it is just extending it. The house is on the water and so the fence won't obstruct the view of the house. The biggest issue that they have had is from a security standpoint. They have a house in Colorado and so they spend a lot of time there as well, but when the road work got done, the folks walking on the property went up expeditiously, which is why they have decided to do this. Cassey Gabor said it may also cause a liability if someone slips and falls on the property. Commissioner Scholl said that is the issue, ultimately somebody slips and falls and they get sued. He also stated his wife is a lawyer and so she is much more cognizant of those things than he is. But that is really the issue, and where the pergola used to be, it blew down Agenda 2012-0717 HPB Mtg Page 3 of 5 during Hurricane Wilma, on the pergola landing, the tide comes up and it is slippery. Jorge Camaraza said it is hard to tell where his property is, and Commissioner Scholl said that is a problem too. Mr. Camaraza said a lot of people are probably walking on it without knowing it is private property. Commissioner Scholl said they own right out to the point and even when the pergola was there, folks used to think it was a City park. The property is already walled and fenced on•about 2/3rds of the property, and they are just extending it. Cassey Gabor asked if Al Capone really lived there,and Commissioner Scholl said that he met a man about 15 years ago who was in his 80's, and said in about 1931 he came up there in a boat and it was a brothel. This was during Prohibition, downstairs they had a little speakeasy set up, and upstairs was where all the women were, and so he believes it was leased at one point by that organization. That is what he has come to understand because he has heard so many times from so many people about that, although he has never found any evidence in the house. He said Al Capone owned a house in Miami Beach on Palm Island and he did visit it years ago. Mr. Schulman said a Delta airline pilot by the name of Hank and Rosie Morrison owned it and he was very friendly and they went to that house. Commissioner Scholl said that somebody had leased his house during that time period and used it for something which created that urban legend, but there is no record of it. It was sold when Harvey Graves conveyed Sunny Isles to a German individual in the late 1920's, and at that time they put a value on the house of$100,000 in that conveyance, and then it went through a series of transfers based on that corporation. However it didn't have that many owners. Mr. Schulman showed an original Stock Certificate for the property for stock holders,there is$300,000, $200,000,and$100,000 in common stocks, and he hung.this in History Hall. Cassey Gabor said since it is historic, it is a good idea to study who lived there,and Commissioner Scholl said he can tell you that by the ownership but they are the first people to live there full time. When the Graves owned it and then the heirs owned it, they never lived there full time. Some folks bought it in the 1950's and they used it as a vacation home, and the individuals that he bought it from bought it for their father. They were real estate individuals from New Jersey named the Rubens but they never lived there because their father died before they moved him into it. They bought it but he died four month later,and they were going to move him down from New Jersey. Commissioner Scholl stated that from what he can see from the property records there has been only four families over the years that have owned it, and that he and his family are the first folks to live there full time since the house was built. Ms. Uguccioni asked Commissioner Scholl if he was the owner when it was first designated by the County, and he said no. It was his understanding after talking to the previous owners, the Rubens, that they thought they were going to get some kind of tax break by designating it but they were wrong. Nevertheless, it did get designated because of the history of it. Back then in the mid 1980's the County wasn't paying much attention to Sunny Isles and the beaches because it was kind of an outpost back then. Ms. Uguccioni said there is a tax incentive now, and Commissioner Scholl said he did not know that. Commissioner Scholl said that it has been quite a year for him because of Citizens Insurance who cancelled their insurance,and so his insurance went from $5,000 a year to $27,000 a year and they cut the coverage in half. Cassey Gabor said she doesn't understand why you don't paint the house the original color,and Commissioner Scholl said it started out that color and then the lime-based paint wore over the years. The house has had eight different colors on it, when they pressure cleaned it they could see there was a bunch of different colors on it, but they think it started out as an oak wood dark Agenda 2012-0717 HPB Mtg Page 4 of 5 color. Ms. Uguccioni said lime-based paint is not used a lot because it is more expensive, and that Mr. Ciansoni was the curator for Viscaya who developed the formula for the paint. She said you will notice in pictures a kind of streaking in the paint, and so it isn't that matte finish that you see on the enclosed picture, it is much more settled. Ms. Gabor asked what the original color was, and Commissioner Scholl said he didn't know but it is that type of color you see in the old pictures. Mr. Schulman said the paint was quite different 92 years ago,just like the fishing pier where it was once wooded piles which will now be concrete piles. He further stated that times have changed, and we are now in the 21' Century. Shari Blank said the color blends with the architecture of the house. Commissioner Scholl said what is interesting about that paint, and they have stayed pretty true to form with the house, is that different sides of the house will end up becoming different colors because like Viscaya, ultimately it wears differently from the way the rain hits it, the way the sun hits it, etc. When the rain hits it, it turns a different color and then the sun dries it, and that is why it takes on a lot of character. Even now it looks like an old house with worn paint on it because the paint wears over time, but ultimately after 20 years they decided it was time to repaint. He said the permits have been approved pending this Certificate. A RESOLUTION OF THE HISTORIC PRESERVATION BOARD OF THE CITY OF SUNNY ISLES BEACH,FLORIDA,APPROVING THE APPLICATION FOR CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS REQUESTED BY PETITIONERS GEORGE "BUD" SCHOLL AND DIONE DEL MONICO TO COMPLETE A DECORATIVE METAL FENCE, REPAINT THE EXTERIOR OF THE HOME, AND INSTALL A NEW FREESTANDING MAILBOX WITH AN INTERCOM SYSTEM ON THE PROPERTY LOCATED AT 334 ATLANTIC AVENUE, SUNNY ISLES BEACH,FLORIDA,ATTACHED HERETO AS ATTACHMENT "A"; PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE. Shari Blank moved and Warren Stamm seconded a motion to approve a resolution to accept the Application for Certificate of Appropriateness. HPB Resolution No. 2012-15 was adopted by a voice vote of 6-0-1 (Janet Cini absent) in favor. It was noted that the next meeting was scheduled on Wednesday, September 5,2012 at 7:00 p.m. 3. Adjournment Action: Warren Stamm moved to adjourn the meeting,and Chairperson Masters adjourned it at 6:.30 p.m. Respectfully submitted, • . elfi‘4 September 5. 2012 r'•� •••Jane\A. Hines, CMC, City Clerk Date . sv h.:1 a t Agenda 2012-0717 HPB Mtg Page 5 of 5