Task Force Update by Renee Manes
April Certificate of Appropriateness (CA) applications:
Zero, zip, nada—no CAs—there’s a first time for everything!!!
So this month, I shall use my allotted space to review the “Secretary of Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation”, the nation-wide set of standards upon which our PSAHD guidelines are based. I do this periodically, but this time, I am taking liberties...
- Don’t turn an old victorian into a drive-through chicken shack.
- Don’t replace wooden double-hungs with aluminum windows.
- Don’t try to update a four-square into a three-bedroom ranch.
- If a nursery room was added above a porch three years after the 1911 home was built, leave it.
- If it has original mosaic detailing around the windows, don’t stucco over it.
- Rotten window sills can be repaired, that’s why we have modern technology.
- Remove paint with the most gentle stripper you can find (I am speaking about enclosed liquids, not people).
- If someone was buried in your backyard, consider them fine compost.
- New stuff has to look like the old stuff but John Q. Public should be able to determine the difference.
- New construction should be like glasses on Mr. Potato Head. If you remove them in the future, the potato is still intact.
...my take on the national standards. If you would like to read the real thing, go to:
www.shpo.state.or.us/images/pdf/rehab_standards.pdf
Mark Doty, our city representative, will be accepting May CA applications through Thursday, May 7th.