Hi folks. As the uh meeting room fills up a little bit, you'll see that there is a poll on your screen. Um we're just this is essentially a a digital form of a community signin sheet. Um so as we're waiting for the meeting to start at 7, if you wouldn't mind answering some of
those questions just so we could have a record of who is here. Thank you. All right, we're going to give it just a couple more minutes. Um, seeing that it's seven. And again, the um intake form in front of you is just as a record
of who is here. Um, however, if you want to be added to the mailing list, if you're not already on there, you can check that box. All right. So, I think I can leave the poll up as I begin talking a little bit. Um, because
I do want to keep us on track. I do want to make sure we end this evening at 8. Um, and I don't want to take advantage of anyone's time, of course. Um, Councilman, are your any members of your staff in the attendees that need to be
moved over? >> Oh, yep. Gotcha. >> Yeah. Okay, great. You guys approved. Thank you, Maggie. >> Got them. All right. So before we jump into the meeting, um just a couple things to go over, I know we are meeting virtually um
instead of in person. So while we hope to be able to communicate the same level of information and be able to answer everyone's questions, things are going to look a little bit different. Um the first item is that this meeting is being recorded. Um our goal is to have this up
on the city's YouTube account for viewing by the beginning of next week. So, anyone who was not able to attend this meeting um or anyone who wants to go back and review any information from this meeting will be able to do so. Um the first is we have this community
intake form where we're um essentially just having attendees sign in. Um once we start the presentation, this form is going to go away. Um, but if you uh I'm sorry, but if anyone joins later or was not able to navigate this form, at the end of the meeting, there's going to be
a um another form that pops up in your browser asking for the same information. If you already submitted your information here, um you do not have to fill out that browser form. That one is just for anyone who joins halfway through the meeting or um was not able to navigate this form here. Um and of
course, if you'd prefer to not sign in, no one is stopping you from not completing it. Uh the third is um you will see at the bottom of your screen there is a Q&A button. It has two little um conversation bubbles. Um we will have
an extensive Q&A session at the end of this meeting. Um so throughout the meeting as I'm doing the the short presentation if you have any questions you can use that Q&A function at the bottom of your screen to ask questions. Um, there are, as always, no questions that
are too small, no questions that are too big, no questions that are too silly. Um, my goal here is for everyone to leave having the most information physically possible. Um, so feel free as any questions come in to your head to use that Q&A function.
All right. So with that said, I am going to go ahead and end that intake poll and we can begin our intro. So um my name is
Maggie O'Neal. I am the principal historic preservation specialist for Jersey City. Michael, if you don't mind moving to the next slide. Um and I'm very happy that you all could um join us this evening for the discussion on the proposed Sherman Place
historic district. Um joining me from city planning is Michael Akimoff. He is the senior historic preservation specialist and we also have your WD Councilman uh Jake Ef on the call with us as well. Jake, >> hey everybody. Uh thank you at first
here. Um thank you so much Maggie and Michael for uh arranging this um to the folks in the community. So we have uh looks like a couple dozen um here which is really great. Um yeah really appreciate you coming out and um making
time to you know hear the presentation on the historic district proposal and also to make uh yeah your questions heard and and your voice heard. So I'm excited to be talking about this. Uh, I know it's been a long time coming. Um, so we're really excited to to move the ball forward and appreciate historic and
and planning in general for making it happen. >> Great. Thank you. Okay. So, Michael, if we can go to the next slide. So, um, we had our last community meeting in November of 2025, so a couple
of months ago. Um, and what we're going to start this meeting with is talking about the things that have changed since November of 2025. Um, and we've had one real major change to the proposal. Um, and then I have some information that was requested by the community at the
last community meeting to present with you all. Um, we'll go through each of these individually. Um, but broadly, the first is that we, um, the proposed district boundaries have changed a little bit. Um, I will go through the maps to show you guys where those changes are, but overall the historic
district has actually gotten a little bit smaller. Um, the second change is as a result of those boundary changes, we have had to make some revisions to our nomination report um to remove some of those uh buildings that have been uh
removed from the district. Um, but we've also added in some language that talks about, you know, lot size and how important that is to the community. Um and the last item that has changed since the last community meeting and new information we have to share is um we have some examples of applications and
timelines and what that looks like so everyone can understand um what the major impact of being in a historic district is which tends to be the permitting process. So we'll begin by looking over those uh new proposed district boundaries. So the in as of November 2025 um what is
shown in orange it were the proposed district boundaries. Um so you can see it is generally bounded by Kennedy on the west and central on the east with Manhattan on the south. Um it does go all the way up to Hutton in the north but it more or there's that really only
runs along the spine of Summit. Um is terms of historic districts in Jersey City. It's a pretty small one. Um, but these boundaries have changed. So, Michael, if we could go to the next slide. Now, I I promise I have another map to show you all the difference, but what is
blue is now the proposed boundaries. It doesn't look all of that different until you overlay them, which is the next slide. Yeah. So you can see um after reviewing the application with the state historic preservation office and um
reviewing it internally based on their comments and also going through the district report. Um we have chosen to remove some buildings from the historic district. Some of these were uh recommended by the state because of continuity. So there would be um for
example on the southeastern side of the district right that corner of Manhattan and central um some of those buildings certainly have historic integrity but the state office recommendation was that there weren't enough of them in a row. Um so we chose to remove that section to keep the overall strength of the
historic district sound. Um it was a similar story over on the buildings that are proposed to be removed from the district on Kennedy. Um so you can see there was quite a large chunk removed south of Sherman Place. um and a little bit north of Sherman Place on Kennedy as
well. Um and we again these are recommendations that were given to us by the state historic preservation office after they looked at the proposed historic district. Um some of those buildings they felt did not have enough integrity to be in the histo architectural integrity to be in the
historic district. Um so we followed their recommendation and removed them from the boundaries. Um overall this um has really only a positive impact on the proposed district. Um in past community meetings I've talked about how important
it is to have a strong historic district in terms of contributing versus non-contributing buildings. Um and what this does is this removes a lot of those non-contributing buildings out of the boundaries. Anything that was close to the edge we did choose to take out. Um,
this also means that any um, property owners or attendees present who own one of those buildings, your building is no longer in the proposed historic district. Um, so we think this is overall a good change. We think it's a lot more manageable. Um, and hopefully will um,
appease some people who were not necessarily supportive of the district. Um like I said earlier too, this also resulted in um some changes to that designation report to remove the properties from that report that are shown here. Okay, Michael, if we want to go to the
next slide. So the next couple of things I'm going to talk about were um requested at the last community meeting which is to talk about the more in depth about the application process and what and uh some examples of applications what those look
like and you know timelines for review and things like that. Before we do that um I do want to just quickly talk about the types of approvals that I'm talking about. Um there are two types of approvals in a historic district. There is a certificate of appropriateness and a certificate of no effect. Um,
certificate of no effect is a staff level review. That is 90% of our applications. That is almost everything that comes through the door is reviewed at the staff level. Um, and then there's a certificate of appropriateness which is 10% of the applications and those are for larger projects. Um, so additions,
new construction, things that need variances, that's going to be the certificate of appropriateness. Again, most of the applications we see are certificates of no effect and therefore most of the examples that I have for you all this evening are also certificates of no effect. So, let's start with a couple of
relatively straightforward examples. Um, so these are two examples of interior work. Now, I have pictures of the certificates here because um these have to be posted during construction. That's how everyone who's around, all of your neighbors know that in addition to having construction permits, you also have historic approval because you're
supposed to post this um with your approval. But the application on the left was for interior work with HVAC. We they submitted their application on May 13th of this year. They paid a $20 application fee. We reviewed the work
and we approved everything as was submitted um 7 days later on the 20th. So that total application review time was 7 days and there were no changes to the application as a result of being in a historic district. The application on the right was also for interior work. Um
there was no HVAC associated with this. This was just strict interior work. Um this was actually work that was a result of a pipe burst. Um so they submitted their application on April 13th. We requested more information from the applicant. In this case, um, they
submitted a scope of work, but they did not submit the architectural plans that were referenced in scope of work. They submitted those architectural plans on May 11th, and they paid a $20 fee for interior work, and their application was approved eight days later. Um, so these
are two examples of just a basic interior work review. Um, these are in and out of our office relatively quickly. Um, very rarely does interior work require any changes from what was submitted. Um, we are mostly reviewing this just to make sure that there's not
an effect on the historic resources or the outside of the building and things like that. We want to move to the next slide. Okay. Um, so this is a slide show talking about window replacement, which is always a hot button topic in historic
districts. Um, the application example on the left was for a we uh rear window replacement. So, this is on the back of the building. no one can see it. Um the standards for historic districts for non- primary facads, right? So the
facades that don't face the street um are just that it has to match the plane and the finish of a historic window. So that that's pretty open for interpretation. Um in this case, the work was approved as was submitted. Um
this applicant would prefer to go with a fiberglass window. We have no problem with that. It's on the back of the building. it conforms with our guidelines. Um, they paid their $50 application fee for exterior work. Um, they submitted their application on May 12th and received their approval on June
4th. So, a slightly longer review than interior work, but still well much faster than the uh 45 days that is required by law. On the right, we have a front facade window replacement. Um, so this is on the front of the building
where the historic district guidelines um require you to match what was there historically. In this case, the applicant was proposing to install wood windows. Um, they paid their $50 application fee for exterior work and they submitted their application February 2nd and received their approval
on February 26th. Um, I want to go to the next slide for that wood window replacement. Um one of the when we talk about window replacement sometimes people say oh well what what do you need to see for a window replacement right it's very clear when something has you know
architectural plans right that we need to see them but for a window replacement um this is an example of a complete application right so this is all the materials submitted for um the application that I just spoke about in this case um on the far left they
submitted a scope of work from their contractor that just wrote out how they were going to approach the project. Um, this was a very extensive scope of work for window replacement. Usually we get two to three bullet points from the contractor and usually it's already in the contract that you have signed with
whoever is performing the work. On the right hand side are some specifications for the proposed window. Um, if you look closely at all of these, you will see all of them are branded with Marvin. Um, there's no requirement to use a specific kind of window in a historic district.
Um, I point out the branding to say that all of this comes from the manufacturer. Um, all of the items that we ask to be submitted are not things that you have to hire someone to produce for you for windows or um, similar. They typically come via the representative who you are
purchasing the windows from. Um so in this case we have a description of the windows that is proposed on the in the center and then on the right side we have some um specification drawings or shop drawings. Okay Michael if you go to the next
slide. Okay so here are some examples where we're getting into some more substantial work. Um these are both examples for um things happening on facades of buildings. The example on the left is for a siding replacement. Um they in this case um they had a $250
application fee. Um this was a five no con unit condo building. Um so that $50 fee is per unit affected. So in this case it was $250. Um they submitted their application on July 14th, 2025.
Um and then the HPC staff had to work with this applicant to uh change the material to be a more appropriate material. Um originally they had submitted an application to just stucco the wall that they um were replacing the material on. Um there was never stuckco
on this building historically. Um so we recommended that they move back to um visually what was there historically. In this case it was a lap siding but because it was on a non- primary facade we recommended that they um use a hardy plank instead of a wood lap siding. um a
little bit more reasonable, especially in terms of maintenance on a non- primary facade. Um there's obviously a gap between their completed application and when they submitted, but that was because they had to go through the approval process of getting all the
condo owners to um approve the change in material. Um so, but anyway, they got their application completed on February 2nd and then they had their approval to do their work on February 11th. So even though there's a longer span of time between when they submitted the application, when they completed the
application, once staff had all of the information that they needed to be able to approve it, their approval was issued relatively quickly. Um the application on the right um was for a front facade restoration. Um and their application
fee was $150. Again, $50 per unit, three units in the building. Um they submitted their application on April 4th. They submitted a complete application. We had all the information we needed and they received their approval 3 days later. Um, so if anything, I think these
applications might be a better example of what happens when you submit a completed application for review. Um, but they're two examples of different types of facade work. And then, um, here are two examples of certificates of appropriateness. So all
of those previous examples were work that were was approved at the staff level. Um these are examples of projects that required full board approval. So they were much more extensive, much larger projects. Um the project on the left hand side was a certificate of
appropriateness for a rear edition that was visible from the street. Um it was visible through a empty lot behind the building as well as obliquely as you walk down the street you could see the addition on the side of the building. um they had a $500 application fee, which
is the base fee for a certificate of appropriateness. Again, this is a fee that's only on larger projects. Um they submitted their application on February 18th of 2025. Um and the reviewing staff member on this um worked with the applicant to make sure that they had all
of the information that the board would need to review. Right? You're not trying to convince the staff person in this case. You're trying to convince the board. Our role in these is making sure that the board has enough information to be able to review it quickly. Um, in this case, we were able to schedule them
for a board hearing in May. Um, and the board was able to approve the application at the same meeting. The project on the right um was a certificate of appropriateness for the reconstruction of a building and the construction of a rear edition that was
visible from the public right ofway. um the building had suffered some pretty extensive damage, so they needed to um rebuild large portions of the facade and of the sides in addition to putting that rear edition on. Um they also had a $500 application fee for a certificate of
appropriateness. Um they submitted their application on uh March 19th of 2025. I wrote the wrong date there. Um, and in this case, um, we worked with them to actually change some elements of their project so that we, uh, it would be more
in conformance with the historic district guidelines, um, and therefore more likely to be approved by our board. Um, their board hearing date was scheduled for June 17th of 2025, so about 3 months between when they submitted the application and when they
were heard. Um, and the board issued their their approval the same date on June 17th of 2025. Again, I apologize for that typo there. Um, so that's just a quick recap of the proposed historic district boundaries
and the boundary change, I'm sorry, and then some application examples within historic districts. Um, I see that there are already some questions. Um, I'm sure as folks sit with us a little bit more, there will be more. Um, as we give you
all a chance to write in any questions, I am just going to very quickly go over um some of the items that we have discussed in previous community meetings for folks who have not been able to attend these in the past. Um, at this point, if you have been to a community meeting regarding this, this will be old
news and I apologize for being repetitive. Um, but I do just want to make sure that every person who is able to attend understands um, some basics with historic districts. So, for those of you who have attended in the past, you can use this time to put any questions you have in the Q&A section.
Um, and for those who have not attended this, um, this is just basic information on historic districts. Okay. So, and when I say basic, I mean basic, right? So, what is a historic district? Um the best way to think about historic districts is that um it is a
zoning ordinance change with heavily enforced design standards that are based on the existing buildings that are there. Um obviously this design ch this zoning ordinance change is based on the fact that these are all historic buildings that have been identified in this case in Sherman Place's case to
have um architectural integrity and um a and planning integrity. Right? We've mentioned that a lot of the buildings on Sherman Place have these really long elongated lots. Um that's also very important to the historic district as well. Um what a historic district in
this case does is um we would add a layer of zoning over top the existing zoning. Um so two layers of zoning. One of them will govern um the size of buildings and um the uses of buildings and things like
that. Um, and that's your existing zoning. That's not changing. We would add then another layer of zoning on top which would begin to regulate um some of what the exterior of buildings looks like. Um, and that would all be in my in
with the intention of keeping things um appropriate and keeping these historic buildings in shape and that way they can contribute to the beauty of the neighborhood. Um there are state historic districts, national historic districts, but in this case we're
talking about a local historic district. Um the local historic district is the one that will enforce all of these design changes and things like that. State and national register districts um serve different purposes. In this case, we're talking about a local historic district.
Okay, here is a map of some of the historic districts and landmarks that are within Jersey City. Um you can see that most of them are concentrated downtown. We do have West Bergen out on the west side. Um so this would be the first historic district in the Heights. Um in addition to the five historic
districts that we have, we also have 13 landmarks. Um those are a little bit better scattered throughout the city, but we only also have one of those in the Heights, um Holland Street. So, this would be a uh big win for preservation within the Heights. Um, and a large
recognition for a lot of the architectural integrity that exists throughout the Heights, not just in this neighborhood. Okay. So, when we establish a historic district, there's a whole bunch of work that goes into that. Um, you I've talked a little bit about a nomination report.
Um, but that has been prepared. So, um, the nomination report has a survey of all of the buildings that are proposed in the historic district. It also has a statement of significance which talks about why these buildings are important, why they're architecturally important, why they're important historically, and
how it fits into the context of Jersey City and New Jersey, um, and even nationally. There's also a narrative description within this report um which I will be very honest with you is a dry
boring read that basically is like this street intersects this street and it talks about where it is located if you didn't have a map. Um there's also photos of each property and the maps of the district. Um and within this report it talks about which buildings are
contributing to the historic district. So, which ones have architectural quality and fit into that scope of being historically significant? And then, of course, which buildings don't fit into that scope. Um, when establishing a historic district, you want to have, of
course, almost all of the buildings being contributing to the historic district. Um, you don't want to have too many buildings that are not contributing because that's uh brings down the level of historic resources. You generally aim to have at least 85%
of the buildings within a historic district be contributing to the district and we are past that number within Sherman Place. Um once we have that report, the next item is to hold a series of community meetings to um inform the public of the proposal and
gauge support for it. This is where we are right now. Um, we've had a number of these community meetings. Um, and we at this point are committed to making sure that everyone who lives in the neighborhood, everyone who lives in the Heights, frankly, anyone who's interested has as most as much
information as possible to be able to gauge if they would support this proposal. Um, if we get to the point where there is enough support for this proposal, we will um move we staff will submit an application to the historic commission to be reviewed by them. If
the historic commission agrees that there is enough integrity here, we will um recommend to the planning board that the planning board review the application for historic district. If the planning board makes the same recommendation, they will recommend to the city council that the city council
um adopt an ordinance to amend the zoning to include a new historic district for this area. Um city council holds a first and second reading of that ordinance. Um, and of course hopefully it would be approved at the city council level. From there it goes the historic
district goes into effect. And then we had this slide earlier, but I do think it's worth um noting again because the the biggest change daytoday with a historic district is just when you do when you do work on your house um that review process changes, right? you
have a you have a new level of review process um with some standards and design guidelines that weren't necessarily there before. Um it is also of important to note that this only comes into effect when you propose work
on your house. Um being in a historic district does not mean that Michael and I are walking down the street and putting a letter in your mailbox and saying, "Welcome to your new historic district. You now need to change all of this stuff." We we do not have the power to do that. we are only reviewing um work that is proposed on buildings. We
cannot compel you to do any work. Um so again there's two levels of the review that we do. There's the staff level review which is 90% of the applications that we see dayto-day and then there's the board review which again 10% those more substantial applications. Um you can see the numbers down at the bottom.
In 2024 we had a little over 450 total applications. 395 of them were staff level approvals. Um and 43 were certificates of appropriateness. So those are those larger projects. And then about 20 were withdrawn. Application withdrawals happen all the
time. Mostly it's just that someone decides they want to do work and then something happens that prevents them from doing that work. So they choose to withdraw the application. Okay. And then here's a quick flowchart. Just again the the application and permitting review process is the largest change that property owners see
dayto-day here. Um, so we we spend a lot of time talking about what that looks like because we don't want there to be any confusion about what um happens once you're a historic district. So starting at the top in the blue box, um let's say you want to update your kitchen um and
you need to change your faucet location. So you need a permit for that. Um you would file an application with Historic. And if we have everything that we need to review the application and it conforms with the historic district guidelines, we will give you a certificate of no effect and you'll be
on your way to go get your permits. If you file that application and you fail to submit um a scope of work with your contractor, right? you submit the description of work and you submit photos of the
property, but we don't have a um copy of the proposal or the estimate or anything like that from your contractor. We are going to say that the application's incomplete and ask you to submit that. Um but let's say that you do submit a complete application and this time you're doing a different project like an
addition um and it requires a COA. Um we would make sure your application's ready for the board. Again, I gave those a couple examples. Usually, it's about a three-month process once the application is complete to get you to the board. Um, and when you're at the board, if you have five affirmative votes, you get
your approval and you move on to permitting. Um, if your project is deficient in some way, um, and does not get five votes, um, that would be a denial of a certificate, you can appeal it to the board of adjustment or, um, change your project and come back. Um,
generally, we know when applications are going to be denied. um we don't like when applications are denied. We work very very hard as staff to make sure that everyone's time is spent appropriately and um we don't typically put uh applications
that we think are going to be denied to our board unless it's the uh choice of the applicant. Okay, so that's my quick historic district overview. We have a bunch of questions here. Um, I am going to
read the question out loud. Um, and then I'll answer it live. Um, I won't type out answers at this point. Um, Charlene asked if the shipo recommendations are in writing and will they be available to the public. They are in writing and
Charlene I can um if they're not on the designation data portal link I can email them to you or I can put them on both. I will do both. Okay. Cynthia asked, "What about a condo
building with multiple units which currently have vinyl windows and someone wants to replace windows?" So if those vinyl windows are on a non- primary facade, right? So, those final windows are on the side or they're on the back. Um, the property owner has a lot of
choices in a replacement window. Um, we do of course discourage a vinyl window. They're just not well-made windows, but if that's what the property owner wants to put in, we have certainly approved vinyl windows on rear and non- primary facads before. um if they are on the front of the
building, they will need to follow the design guidelines which say that they have to match um his the original historic windows that were there, right? Um there's no within our guidelines at the staff level, we can't approve a like forlike change, right? So just because there's vinyl there now does not mean
that you can put vinyl there in the future. You would have to go back to um a window that is would have been there historically. Um, again, this is the the window thing in historic districts tends to be a little bit of a rub, but that's only on the front facade. Um, those side
facads and rear facads, there's a lot more window choices. For uh an anonymous question, for existing non-historic non-conforming windows, are property owners allowed to replace to match existing in cases of damage or maintenance needs? Um
the in cases of damage. So um let's say there's a very bad storm where um a tree branch comes through your window and breaks it. Um you you can do what you need to do to secure your building. We are not going to give you a violation
for having your building unsecured. Be I'm sorry, for putting in a temporary window to secure your building. Um maintenance needs. That's that's a window replacement, right? um you're going to have to follow the guidelines for a primary facade window. Um so you
would have to match the historic window in that case. Um on a non- primary facade, so again, sides and rear, you have a lot more window options, right? Uh the example I showed earlier in the presentation was a fiberglass window. Sometimes people do aluminum windows, sometimes people do cloud windows,
sometimes people put vinyl windows in on a non- primary facade. So again, those sides and back, that is going to be okay. Okay, that is going to be something that is approvable at the staff level. Um, on a front facade, it does need to match what was there historically.
Okay. Is 110 Manhattan A within the bounds of the proposed historic district? So, a negative of the map that I showed was that I did not have building numbers. Um, but Michael, as I go through the rest of the questions, can you confirm
if 110 Manhattan is in within the boundaries? >> Yes, I will do that. All right. So, Martin, we'll get back to your question. Okay, Carol, what exactly are the next steps to completion? Are there any tax advantages
to being in a historic district? So, the next steps um we are still in the community outreach process. Um depending on you'll at the end of this meeting, I will have a poll, an anonymous poll where we can gauge some level of support. Um if we feel that we are at
the level of support that um the majority of people are in favor of this um we would then move this the next step is the HPC hearing um and then of course we'll go to planning board and city council but um we are not uh in a
position where the where if the historic district is not supported by the vast majority of residents that were going to put it through to historic and planning and city council just to be denied. Um, so we want to make sure that residents
are informed and residents are supportive before we add this level of zoning to their neighborhood. Um, are there any tax advantages to being in a historic district? Um, I cannot think of any tax deductions um for, you know, property taxes or
anything like that to being in a historic district. There's also no additional tax burden, right? there's no special tax allocation or uh put on your property for being within a historic district. Um for certain income producing properties within historic
districts, um certain projects might be eligible for federal historic preservation tax credits. Um we don't typically see a lot of that within Jersey City. Um, but for income producing properties within a national register district, which this has the
possibility of becoming, um, there are tax credits available for that. Okay, Scott, is this historic district more or less inevitable at this point? What is the process for going through with this or not? Um, so I've discussed a couple process questions. If they're
not clear, please put a couple more questions at the bottom and we can continue to go through that. Um, but as I previously said, um, I wouldn't necessarily say a historic district is inevitable. Um, we our goal here is to make sure that residents understand what
is being proposed and we hope that most people are supportive. Right. As staff, we've spent a bunch of time on this because this is a really strong collection of buildings that have a lot of architectural integrity. However, um, Councilman, I do see your hand raised.
If you want to unmute yourself, you can you feel free to jump in. >> No, please feel free to continue answering the question. I have a a later question. >> Okay, cool. Um, it's something that we are a staff is supportive. Um, we know that the local neighborhood association is supportive.
Um, but our goal here this evening is to gauge the level of support for this and to provide as much information as possible for residents. Um, we don't need to necessarily jump to something being inevitable or not. Our goal right now is information gathering.
>> Okay, Councilman, >> thank you. Um, can folks hear me? Okay. >> Yes. >> Great. Um, yeah, thank you for the presentation. I don't want to skip the queue too much with the other questions we have. Um, I'm just wondering if there's a a publicly available list of
the addresses uh in the updated district. I think that that could be helpful in, you know, both tonight or if it's not available tonight in the coming days to just communicate with folks in the area and make sure everyone knows who is and who is not um covered.
>> Yeah, we can um at the in a follow-up email tomorrow um we will send the revised maps with the revised addresses um to folks. Cool. Thank you. >> And just to jump back to that question
real quick, uh 110 Manhattan is within the district. >> Thank you. >> No problem. >> Okay, we will list that as answered. Cynthia asked, will new construction of ADUs be permitted and also partial demolition of
contributing buildings to construct the ADU be permitted? Um so earlier when I spoke about how there is um the historic district like this would be structured as you have your base zoning and then there would be an over zoning of
historic. Um ADUs are something that are covered in base zoning. Right? So in this case the buildings in this historic district are for the most part zoned as RH1 and RH2. Um these are zones that encourage larger lots. They encourage
restoring buildings. um they they have a lot of this historic related features without it being designated as a historic district already. These two zones permit ADUs. Adding a historic overlay on top of the base zoning will
not mean will still mean that ADUs are permitted, right? It will not mean that no more ADUs can be permitted. In fact, in this historic district, there are a ton of historically occurring ADUs, right? that in this historic district
there are a ton of historic carriage houses that have apartments within them that have been there for centuries at this point or at least a century. Um so that will not go away as a result of this historic district. What will happen
though is those ADUs will have a um level of design review that does not currently exist. So in um with the base zoning right now that the ADUs that are permitted are going off of what they can
put there based on the bulk standards, right? So how big can you build it? How tall can you build it? There are not standards for what does that ADU look like? How does that ADU impact, you know, the setting and the historic nature of the historic district. That's what the historic zoning will do in this
case. It will add a level of design review to these and also um add a level of demolition review that did not previously exist for other applications. Councilman, feel free to jump in. >> No, thank you for that um clarification
and just because I know uh for folks um on Sherman Place especially, but throughout the heights right now um the ADU conversation is is a really hot topic. Um, in addition uh to making sure that we got this this meeting for the historic district overlay, I also just
wanted to note that in working with planning on potentially getting language around an amendment um to our ADU ordinance. So um been having those meetings around the ADUs and I know this is a issue close to home for everybody here um for many here. So just we're
we're moving forward on on some language um discussion around an amendment. Just want to get that out there and I'm happy to continue to have a conversation with folks on this call and beyond about that. And apologize I keep going on and off camera um eating a little dinner
while while we do this meeting uh but before my next meeting. >> All good. Okay, continuing on with the questions. Um Richard asked, "Does Jersey City compensate homeowners for the increased time and costs associated with renovation in the historic district?" Um the city does not have a
compensation structure set up for this. So, the answer to that would be no. Um, Charlene asked, "Can the historic districts restrict or limit ADUs to existing accessory buildings?" Um, again, the underlying zoning here does permit ADUs. So, adding a historic
district on top of here will not mean that no ADUs are permitted. Um, there will just be a stronger design review process for them. Cynthia asked, "Why are there so many ifs about districtricting? This is a community- based initiative as opposed
to a top- down decree. Um, I agree with you, Cynthia, it is a community- based initiative. Um, however, we need to the purpose here is to make sure we reach all members of the community as best as possible and get feedback from everyone. I don't want anyone to think that their
opinions or their perspective on something that's happening to a property they own is any less important than anyone else. Which is why again my goal here this evening is information gathering on staff's end to gauge levels of support and also
providing as much information on this proposal to the public so that you guys can make an informed decision on what you as residents want for your neighborhood. Okay. There is an anonymous uh comment to keep this to Sherman Place and to
please leave Sanford and Manhattan out of this. that is noted for the record. Charlene asked, "Are all historic districts in Jersey City overlays? If not, why?" So, no, not all historic districts in Jersey City are overlays.
Um the four downtown historic districts, so Paul Hook, Van Boris Park, Carsonus Cove, and Hamilton Park are um zoned, they have a specific zone that is zone H for historic. Um the West Bergen East Lincoln Park historic district on the
west side has an overlay zone on top of their existing zoning. This is primarily done because the downtown historic districts all have very very similar building typology. Right? So in almost all the downtown historic districts, they may look a little bit different on
the outside, but the vast majority of buildings are connected row houses that are all for the most part of similar heights. Um, in West Bergen and in Sherman Place, you have a lot of different building variety types, right? You have some connected wood row houses,
you have standalone large Victorian houses, you have these large um, preWorld War II apartment buildings with many condo units inside and having one set of zoning to govern all of those different building types would create a
lot of unnecessary variances. So that's why we choose chose to do in this case um a overlay zone or an overlay zone is proposed I should say. Um and that mimics what's done in West Bergen. Um it's a it's honestly a little bit more effective in terms of zoning and
building types than having one district that guides many many many different kinds of buildings. Okay. Carol said, "I thought historic district designation only applies to the exterior and what can be seen from the street. Your presentation goes into
internal changes. Please explain. So the heart of this is correct. We are primarily reviewing from the street and what you can see from the street. When we review interior work, um we are reviewing that work to confirm that it does not affect what you can see from
the street. Um, so when we look at window, I'm sorry, not window replacements, those you can see from the street. Those are on the outside. Um, when we look at things like kitchens and bathrooms, we're not looking to see what fixtures you chose, the location of your work triangle in your kitchen, we are
looking to see where your ventilation goes to make sure that we're not putting a vent on, you know, the front facade of the building. Um, that is also why those reviews are uh much shorter because that's the type of thing that we're looking for, not necessarily um reviewing what happens on the inside of
a building. Okay, the apologize, I'm having a little bit of a scrolling issue. Okay, with regards to HBAC options, do split AC units require approval? They do require approval, but we approve them
all the time. Um, those are a very standard approval for us as long as we have the information that we need at the time of review. Um, those are issued relatively quickly. Um, when I say all the information we need at the time of review, for many splits, we do need to know where that condenser is going and
how it will be attached to the building if it is attached. Once we have that, it is a very straightforward approval. Okay, Scott. Are there different standards for approval for non-contributing buildings? So, there's
no specific different standards for non-contributing buildings in a historic district. Um, what we do though is the the purpose of us reviewing a non-contributing building in a historic district is to make sure the changes that are proposed are not going to have
an adverse effect on the actual historic buildings in the historic district. Um there are a couple examples of this throughout the histo uh his historic districts in Jersey City. Um but the a primary example of this would be front facade changes. Um so on a
non-contributing building in a historic district, we're not necessarily going to say, "Oh, you need to put a historic material on your building." That would be silly. Your building isn't historic. It's not contributing to the district. What we might say though is the black
brick that you have chosen really detracts from the surrounding historic buildings. Can you pick a different color brick? And then we generally are find some kind of middle ground there. Um if you have a non-contributing building with non-historic, right, this
is again a building that is not contributed to the historic district. It's not historic. Um there are quite a few new construction buildings on Sherman Place, right? So this would apply to them. Those people, those buildings and those property owners do not need to put wood windows on the front of their building. There were never wood windows there. They're not
historic buildings. You don't need to follow the historic window penetration that might have been there. Um, so that's how there those standards are applied to non-contributing. Okay. Charlene at said, "Please speak to the benefits of a historic district in a
hot real estate market." Well, I am certainly not a real estate expert um in any way, shape, or form. Um however, I'm happy to talk about some of the benefits of a historic district just broadly um in perhaps terms that are important to Jersey a lot of Jersey City
residents right now. Um my my pitch for historic districts generally is that you all moved to this area for a reason. I would hope that one of the reasons is that you liked the way that it looked. You liked the buildings. You liked the trees. You liked the wider streets. You
liked being able to walk down the street, see your neighbors because everyone's in their front yard because there everyone has a little front area away. Things like that. Being in a historic district protects those things. Um it gives you an additional say in development when someone is proposing something, right? It's not necessarily
just you missed one planning board meeting and suddenly something is going up. There's an additional say for larger projects. And you can take solace in the fact that any major changes to anything in the historic district for the most part is going to reflect what is already
there. It's going to reflect why you chose to live where you live. Right? There's of course, as I've explained, there's a couple of extra hoops that you have to jump through for this to happen, but for the most part, those are minimal changes that happen pretty rarely for property owners. Um, most people are not
making radical changes to their house every single year. This is something that most people encounter once every couple of years. For the most part, you can probably forget that you live in a historic district except for the fact that it looks a specific way. Carol said, "I thought this historic
district was on the master plan already. It sounds like this is not the case. Please advise." This historic district is listed within the historic preservation element of the master plan. Um, so that is and it has been since at least 2023. So um you that is certainly
done that is certainly in effect. It is listed in the historic resource inventory and recognized as having architectural significance in the master plan. Okay for orange just said what is the timeline for designating? Um so again,
provided that we feel like we have a um good level of support for this based on the community meetings that we've been having, um we would then move it to the historic commission for review um where they would then recommend to city council, I'm sorry, planning board and then city council. That process would
take probably just from the HPC hearing to city council would probably take about four months. um one month for HBC, one month for planning board, and then um six, eight weeks for city council depending on when it makes it on and the first and second readings of those
ordinances. Um so it's about like I said, it's about four months and four more public hearings, right? So four more cho opportunities to voice your support or your um apprehension to this proposal in a public forum.
Um, would an ADU be permitted on a flat roof? So, an ADU is an accessory dwelling structure? Um, so it's actually a separate building um on the lot um with specific standards for how big it
could be. Um, so ADUs are permitted to have flat have flat roofs themselves. Um, but if you have a flat roof, um, you would be what you would put onto it would be called an addition, not an accessory dwelling unit. Um, the accessory dwelling unit is separate from
the primary building on the lot. Um, if you have a building that has a flat roof and you would like to put an addition on there, um, there as long as you're meeting the standards in the guidelines for additions, then that would absolutely be permitted.
Can the underlying zoning be ch I'm sorry this is a question from Charlene. Can the underlying zoning be changed to reflect the existing built historic resource and add AD restrictions? So the underlying zoning for the vast majority of this historic district is RH1 and
RH2. Those zones were put into effect as part of um city planning's movement to do some corrective zoning um in parts of the city. So in this case, those are relatively new zones that we wrote with places like this in mind. So that zone
was built uh was written and implemented to reflect the existing historic resources. Um it's actually been pretty successful to the extent that we have put it in other places in the city as well. Um and in terms of adding ADU
restrictions, that's a conversation again because it's about the base zoning. That's a larger city planning conversation, but it sounds like Councilman Efos is on it and is working with city planning to um address some of the concerns about ADUs. Okay. Matt said, "Does the historic
district have any impact on properties which have paved every square inch of their property for parking?" Um the short answer is yes. The long answer is that has more to do again with that underlying zoning. Um, as I said
earlier, Michael and I and also Dan who works in our office, we can't um force applicants to change things on their property until they are proposing it. But if someone who has a significant portion of their property paved, were to come in and say, "I need to redo the
paving or make any changes to that part of their property." They would then have to follow the um existing zoning guidelines. Right? So, at that moment in time when they come in and say, "Hey, we want to make changes." they have to follow the current zoning um which would
require them to um likely remove some of that paving for parking. Okay. Colin asked, "At the HPC meeting on Monday, there seemed to be a question of conflict between the underlying zoning regulations and the historic overlay, specifically over open space
and height. How might a similar conflict come up in the Sherman Place Historic District?" Um so this is again in reference to an application that was heard on Monday at the HPC um where there was a question regarding a subdivision. Um this is a
little bit different because the RH1 zone which is those um larger lots right so the lots on Sharma place you know that are 50 ft wide 75 ft wide those that zone discourages subdivision so um
we don't anticipate um those height and open space issues being as much of an issue here because the vast majority of the underlying zoning here recommends that those larger lots stay intact. Right. We have those larger lots that are so specific to Sherman Place and are so important and the underlying
zoning helps keep that intact. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm having a scrolling issue with the questions that I can't quite seem to fix. Every time I scroll down, it scrolls back up. Okay.
All right. Cheney said, "Not all property owners live at the property. Some are real estate investors. Thanks for speaking of the positive points. Can briefly touch on any negative. Sure. Um there are certainly a lot of perceived negatives about living in a historic
district. Um I would say though the one that impacts I've spent a lot of time this evening talking about the one that impacts the most people the most often the one that we see as the biggest pain point for people who come into our office which is just that there's an extra step in permitting. Um
the other pain point that um it's not specific to historic districts per se. Um but the other pain point we see a lot of is if something is owned by someone who does not occupy the same space. Um they might not be aware of some of the requirements of living in a historic
district and that level of level of review. um and they might make some inappropriate changes that um are of course not only frustrating to look at but also can be frustrating as property owners when you quote unquote do everything right and follow the regulations and you see someone down the
street putting something up. Um that is something that we are working on as a city um zoning enforcement making sure that those uh everyone understands the requirements of the zone that they're in. Um, but it can be particularly painful in historic districts when you put so much time and effort into
maintaining your property and you see someone down the street who might not take that same level of care. Okay. And we have a question from an anonymous attendee. If you are in the historic district, would you be allowed to replace windows with eco with eco-friendly option that may not be wood
like fiberglass or metal? For sure, you can do fiberglass or metal on those side facads and rear facads. Um, again, that non- primary facade. There are so many options for window replacement. Um, it's that front facade that can be a little
bit more uh difficult for people to kind of grasp, but it does need to go back to the historic um, window material. However, um in the past couple of years, we've seen a lot of strides in terms of window manufacturing and there are significant more uh window options that
are meeting um some of those lead standards and some more eco-friendly. So, they're called standards um that are also made out of wood. Okay, I believe that I've gone through all of
the questions that were asked. I really appreciate everyone taking time to attend the meeting and also ask these questions. Again, my goal Oh, hold on. One more came in and we're not at 8 o'clock yet. So, um
but I we'll finish what I said. Oh, thank you, Matt. I appreciate it. Um, so again, our goal this evening was to make sure that all of you had the opportunity to ask questions and to um
help make as informed of a decision and your level of support as is possible. Um, I am going to put up a poll if you feel comfortable at this time. Um, just letting it is an anonymous poll. We cannot see who answers what. Um, if you would feel comfortable responding to let us know your level of support for this
so that we can um, look at what our timeline looks like going forward, we would really appreciate that. Councilman, I know you're uh, still on. I don't know if you have any closing remarks. >> Thank you. Uh, yeah, just again, I
really appreciate everybody's questions. Um, and I am committed to um, helping this move forward and answering more questions from folks as we go through the next stages with um, those four more opportunities for for public hearing.
Um, so I I'm hopeful that we can see some some positive response and um, that kind of majority support for this. Um, I think this is basically a a a good thing and we should be able to move forward. Um, but you know, of course that is
going to be dependent on having community support. So, um, yeah, I'm here to answer questions, to talk through this, and, um, to keep an open mind as we move through these next stages. But, um, excited to see where it goes. And, you know, Michael and Maggie, thank you for making this happen
tonight. And thanks to everybody, uh, for coming on. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> So, on the screen as I've been talking is Maya Michael's contact information. If you have additional questions that we were not able to answer, um, please feel
free to email either one of us, both of us. We are more than happy to answer them via email, set up a time to talk. If there's specific questions you have, um, if there's something you want us to look at, we're happy to come out on Sherman Place as well, walk you through some of the things that we say. Um, I am
going to leave the poll up until 8:02. We'll give it another 2 minutes, make sure everyone has had the opportunity to respond to it. Um but again I really want to thank you all for joining us this evening and again we are here um if you have any questions anything that
pops into your head. Um I will as I said earlier send out the updated uh historic district proposal map and I will also um send out the list of properties that are within the historic district and the couple that have been removed from the proposed historic district um so that
everyone can see that as well. Um, and I suppose my last Oh, yes. Sorry. >> Sorry. I I'm about to jump off, but I wanted to see if there's a way that I can post my email address. Um, whether it's in the Q&A or whether it's um
because we don't have an actual like a >> Yeah. No, we don't we don't have a chat box. Um, >> would you like me what when I send the email tomorrow, is it okay if I CC see you? >> Please, please do. Y Thank you. Yeah, I'll put your I'll put the councilman's email and his staff's email in the email
body himself, but they'll also be CCD if you have questions for them specifically. >> Thank you so much. Good night, everybody. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> And my last closing note um is that again, if you did not get a chance at the beginning of the meeting to fill out the intake form, um just so we have a
record of who is here this evening, it will populate in your browser as we close the meeting window. Um, if you have filled out that form, you can go ahead and close right out of that. Um, and if you joined us late and did not fill out that form in the beginning and um, feel comfortable filling out that form now, we would really appreciate it.
Thank you all so much for your time this evening and have a great rest of your night. >> Have a good night, everyone.