Council considers downtown historic district

Bids awarded to

Zahn, Hoisington

for preliminary

planning

By KEVIN SWEENEY

Journal Editor

NEW ULM -- The New Ulm City Council awarded bids at Tuesday night's New Ulm City Council meeting connected to setting up a downtown historic district.

The council awarded a bid to historical consultant Dan Hoisington to prepare an application to the National Register of Historic Places for a portion of the downtown commercial district. Hoisington would be identifying historic buildings in the downtown area.

The council awarded another bid to Tom Zahn, another historical consultant, to help develop guidelines for the restoration of historic buildings in the downtown district, and prepare artist's drawings of what they could look like.

Hoisington would be paid $10,000 for his part of the project, and Zahn $13,000. The two were bidders for both projects and submitted equal bids. The New Ulm Heritage Preservation Commission interviewed the two and recommended the bid awards, giving each consultant the portion that best matched their strengths.

Mayor Joel Albrecht said the purpose of the downtown historic district is to rejuvenate the downtown and encourage building owners to consider historic renovations for their buildings in need of renovation, rather than modern materials and designs that would take away the historic flavor of the downtown.

With the designation of the historic district and the development of guidelines, building owners would be able to qualify for low-cost loans funded by federal and state monies, to refurbish their buildings in ways that restore as much as possible their original looks, said Albrecht.

Councilor Clark Tuttle asked if the other council members were committed to the idea of passing a downtown historic district ordinance, before the city spent $23,000 on an idea that might be opposed by those who think it would take away property owners' rights to do what they want with their buildings.

Other council members acknowledged their general agreement with the idea, as much as they could without actually seeing an ordinance, and the bids were awarded.

Permits, rezoning

In other business at Tuesday's meeting, the council dealt with a number of residential rezonings and conditional use permits.

The first was a proposed townhouse-style project on Cottonwood Street near the Poor Farm. A public hearing was held on a petition to vacate Woodhaven Circle, a cul-de-sac off Cottonwood Street. Robert Dittrich is proposing to build a number of single-family homes on the four adjoining lots. The property would be a common-interest community, in which homeowners owned their homes, but the community owned the yards and utilities in common for maintenance. The city would turn over the utilities from Cottonwood Street into Woodhaven Circle to the community.

The council approved vacating the circle, and also approved a zoning variance allowing the project to build garages with floors a few feet lower than the city's required elevations for a flood plain area. The council later approved the preliminary and final plat for the project, and will hold a public hearing at its Oct. 5 meeting.

The council held another conditional use permit hearing for John Robert Petroff, owner of the Marktplatz Mall, who is seeking to build condominiums on the south part of the mall.

Petroff's request was approved, with the conditions that the existing development documents that cover the mall be changed to reflect the condominium project, and that the project's exterior design be reviewed and approved by the Heritage Preservation Commission.

The council also approved the preliminary and final plat for the development, and will hold a public hearing at its Oct. 5 meeting.

The council also held a public hearing to rezone some property on the north end of town, near the extension of North Highland Avenue, from R-A Agricultural District to B-2, Service Business District. The rezoning will allow part of the land, platted as the Skyline Terrace Addition, to be developed by the Winkelman Building Corporation with 49 units of rental property. The council also received a report from the Planning Commission that the commission had determined the housing development to be compatible with the city's Tax Increment Financing District.

The council denied the request for a simple lot division of two lots at the corner of South Franklin and Center Streets. The simple lot division turns out not to be so simple. The lots are owned by Margaret Nonnemacher, who wants to redivide the two lots, which have three houses and a garage on them. The owners had proposed one redivision of the land, but city staff recommended a different division.

When the family presented a third plan to divide the two lots, the council decided the issue should go back to the Planning Commission, and denied the original division request.

Home business

The council approved a request by Ramakrishna Chilakamarri to run a computer repair business out of his home, at 421 S. State St. The business would include computer repairs, where he would travel to the customer's home, and an Internet sales business where he would sell imported items through the internet.

The council approved the business on a 3-1 vote. Councilor Tuttle, who has voiced his opinion in the past that residential areas should be residential and that people should run businesses in a business zone, moved to issue the conditional use permit with a five-year limit, at which point the council would review how the business was doing.

Other councilors questioned the five-year limit, which has never been included on any other business request, and amended Tuttle's to remove the limit. The amended motion was approved over Tuttle's objection.

Historic sites

In other non-development related business, the council expressed its support for local efforts to keep the Lower Sioux Agency Historic Site and the Fort Ridgely Historic Site open and under the ownership of the Minnesota Historical Society.

Both historic sites were marked for closure when the state trimmed the MHS's budget last year. The Lower Sioux site was closed after the Redwood County commissioners rejected the idea of turning the site over to the Lower Sioux Community, and Fort Ridgely remains open under a management agreement with the Friends of Fort Ridgely.

John LaBatte, a New Ulm historian with several sets of white and Indian ancestors who lived near the agency in the 1850s, is working to have the state commit money to keep the sites open and under state control. He asked the council for a resolution supporting that idea.

The council moved to have city staff prepare a resolution for the next council meeting. aid the Minnesota Historical

Schell's street

The Council also instructed staff to come up with a plan to rename 18th South Street from Broadway to the August Schell Brewery as Schell's Road/18th South, or 18th South/Schell's Road. The August Schell Brewery had requested the street name change last year, but city engineer Steve Koehler recommended against it, citing traffic concerns and preserving the historic plat of the city.

The council was in favor of putting both names along the street as it leads to the brewery, but came up with some confusion, since the road also moves along South Washington Street and South Park. The council asked city staff to come up with a plan for including the Schell's name along the route.