In an attempt to fill a long-time vacant position on the Springfield Landmarks Board, the City Council could expand membership eligibility in historic districts.
At its Aug. 10 meeting, the Springfield Planning and Zoning Commission voted 7-0 in favor of recommending an amendment to the Landmarks Board membership text in the city code.
The proposed change, which the city staff’s report says is “necessitated by the need to fill vacancies on the Landmarks Board,” will go before the City Council Sept. 5.
City code requires Landmarks Board members who represent historic districts to be residents, merchants or property owners of the district. If passed, the new language would also allow members to be “employed full-time as an architect, real estate agent or historian/architectural historian, within said historic district.”
The Springfield Landmarks Board provides guidance to the Planning and Zoning Commission, the City Council, the Springfield-Greene County Park Board and the city manager regarding Springfield's historic structures. It is typically composed of nine members.
City code currently requires members to represent the following professions and historic districts:
- At least on architect with a professional degree in architecture plus at least two years of full-time experience in architecture, or a state license to practice architecture;
- One licensed real estate agent;
- One historian or architectural historian;
- One representative from the Midtown Historic District;
- One representative from the Walnut Street Historic District;
- One representative from the Commercial Street Historic District.
All board members must “have an interest, competence, or knowledge in historic preservation.” Board members are appointed by the City Council to serve a three-year term.
The Landmarks Board has three at-large representatives, a representative from each of the required professions, one representative from Midtown, and one representative from Walnut Street.
Changes could help fill C-Street vacancy
The Commercial Street position has been vacant for more than a year. The amendment is believed to grow the pool of eligible applicants in order to fill that vacancy, according to the staff report found in planning and zoning documents.
Springfield Planning Manager Bob Hosmer told commissioners that they’ve always had a problem with getting enough applicants for the Landmarks Board, and the proposed changes could alleviate the problem.
While the other eight positions are filled as representation from Commercial Street remains vacant, the city has had trouble getting representation from the required professions, according to Hosmer.
“It’s allowing a little bit more flexibility in getting people. They can double up — we’ve had problems getting the architectural historian, and getting some architects to participate, so this will help double up that, they can fill both hats,” Hosmer told Planning and Zoning Commissioners at the Aug. 10 meeting.
Mary Collette, the president of the Springfield Commercial Club, said they had a potential candidate to represent the Commercial Street Historic District for several months, but it ended up falling through after it was determined he was ineligible.
Collette is generally supportive of the amendment to the eligibility criteria, though she wishes there had been a bigger notice of when the proposed changes were coming before the Landmarks Board and the Planning and Zoning Commission, to give more time for people to weigh in on it.
There were no speakers during the public hearing on the amendment at the Aug. 10 Planning and Zoning Commission meeting.
“At this point in time, I mean, it's hard enough to get somebody to serve and getting harder all the time in any capacity, frankly,” Collette told the Hauxeda.
Collette said the Commercial Club does not have a candidate to serve on the Landmarks Board as it works to fill positions on the Commercial Street Community Improvement District Board and the Commercial Club Board.
“We don't have that many people really willing to volunteer and spend their time, especially someone that is knowledgeable about historic resources,” she said.
However, Collette is hopeful the amendment to the eligibility requirements for the Landmarks Board could “be a good thing.”
Interested and eligible applicants can apply to serve on the Landmarks Board on a subsection of the City of Springfield’s website.
