##VIDEO ID:DCFTssZsGSY## welcome to cloudcast where you get an inside look at St Cloud Florida's local government whether you live work or play here we're bringing you the information you need to better understand your city cloudcast is hosted by our Communications team including maramma bachelder Andrew Sullivan Deborah Carson and J B Miller thanks for listening in to cloudcast well welcome back St Cloud to this edition of cloudcast I'm Mar Emma and I have two special guests with us in studio today we have Tisha and Stephanie who both work in our community development office and ladies you're here to talk about a program that's near and dear to the hearts of many of us here in St Cloud um our historic preservation Awards program um history is a big deal in St Cloud and I'm just going to kind of let you guys talk about that program and nominations I know are being accepted so tell us a little bit about that program how it works and how they can nominate the historic preservation plaqu and awards program is very special to us because it gives us the opportunity to highlight the historic homes um and businesses that are within St Cloud and just kind of shine a light on them so they're able to um receive a plaque um just for the actual Circa when their home was built or the business was established um or they can also do an awards for any type of renovations to restore for the property back to its historical standing or something that may be historical in character so um it's very exciting um this year is going to be a little bit different because we're not just going to have the one- day award celebration we're actually going to make it into um an event where people can come out and they're going to have different speakers this is in partnership with Main Street we're going to have multiple speakers at different locations so we're still working on those type of um arrangements and what the topics are going to be but those details are to come wonderful and when's that going to be our historic preservation plaqu and awards celebration is going to be May 17th um we are making it an event that is going to be throughout the day it's going to start probably about 2 p.m. and it's going to have various speakers at different locations within the city of St Cloud we're still working on those actual locations so those details are to come but the historic preservation plaques and awards celebration starts at 5 :30 it is open to the public so we encourage the public to come out celebrate with us and to see the people that may receive a plaque or an award at that celebration event Great And as far as nominations for this um how do they do that and do you nominate your own property can someone else nominate a property that they don't own they just like it because it's historic how does that process work um so you can nominate your own home or business for the plaques uh if there is a gift I would highly recommend them talking with the property owner of course they can nominate any property for an award we evaluate that property of course we'll double check if it is a nomination perhaps the property owner may not know we would want to make contact with the property owner to make sure that they know that they've been given um a heads up because just don't want to show up and say you've received an award congratulations yes U but we are receiving nominations both for plaques and for those Awards until February 14th so great Valentine's Day gift for all those historian Buffs we love them show your love for some historic properties yes we love St Cloud that's the best way to do it absolutely and how do they apply where are the applications and information on the program so we have our applications available on the city of St Cloud website under Community Development we also have paper copies available in our office if anyone wants to stop in and say hello and see us and we can talk about the program the criteria uh buildings if they are being nominated for plaques or Awards do have standard that we have to follow they have to be in compliance with our historic preservation ordinance and there can't be any code violations against them as well okay great that makes sense um talk to me about some of the properties that have won these Awards in the past I know this program is fairly new here in the city talk to me a little bit maybe about some of your favorites that have perhaps won in the past so last year's celebration um we did have some participant so um the Odd Fellows received an award last year um for their building and their structure um we also had but I got to ask where's this Odd Fellows structure so Odd Fellows is on New York Avenue it's near the black squirrel bookstore gotcha okay right am I right about that right a snowball so you can go see the oddfellow door cuz I think it's a society you can't always get into but then go get some snowballs mhm so was last year the first year of this program last year was actually the second year second year okay so this will be our third year so we're seeking nominations from now through Valentine's Day that makes the deadline pretty easy to remember um do you need to submit photographs with the applications yes so you do need to submit at least one photo of your home either for the plaque or the award of course we always um encourage if you're especially doing an award showcasing any Rehabilitation that you've done or just good General repairs to it several photos showing progress if you happen to take any I know not some good before and afters yes definitely those but um yes we do require one photo and then just a complete application okay great I have a question I come to you guys' meeting every month or whenever you have it have not missed a meeting but something comes up all the time that I'm never sure about and I'm sure there's other people out there but a lot of times the uh case is about getting a certificate of a appropriateness and what I've seen is that um if people are wanting to renovate their house in the historic preservation area they need a certificate of appropriateness to before they can start doing the work is that right that's correct and can you just give me a little bit of info about that cuz I'm just totally in the dark about I've been going to every one of your meetings but I have no idea yes so we have two different kinds of certificates of appr ress we have major and minor major are the reviews that you see go to the historic preservation board so all of these reviews are exterior modifications we do not look what's inside your home we we do not dictate any of that it's all exterior because our goal is to keep the character of these historic buildings the character of the downtown district for St Cloud because we have so much history so many different architectural Styles so we review them against the state standards at this time so of course we are eventually going to be developing historic guidelines that is something that Tisha and I are working on starting this year which we're super excited for um but for now we are reviewing them against the state standards so to be clear if you want to do outside renovation in the historic preservation District you must get a certificate of appropriateness correct okay that's what I wanted to know and that's regardless like the property doesn't have to be on the national register or anything like that just in the historic district correct the his district gets it even for something as small as a fence or a sign it has to be okay well as we know St Cloud takes history very seriously here talk to me a little bit about the significance of some of the historical properties in the city within any City we definitely want to make sure that we maintain the history and the culture that's within that location so right now um St Cloud's historic preservation um is from east to west it's from Ohio to Wisconsin and north to south it's from 9 Street to 13th Street so anything within that historic boundaries we definitely want to take a great look at it to make sure that you know we maintain the character of the building so um especially when you look down New York Avenue you look at some of the buildings that may have the two stories with the cornices or they have the retail downstairs and then they have the residential upstairs so we want to make sure we maintain that Vibe um as we're always stating we want to continue with our small town fi with the Kat of any new development that comes in that area is still maintaining that same field great Tisha thank you one question just to clarify for these awards that we're talking about that the deadline for application is February 14th does the structure have to be in that historic district that you just outlined no it does not okay okay so it can be any structure in the city of St Cloud correct all right so one more question I have is there a cost for these applications yes so actually we decided originally last last year it was about $300 for a plaque and I believe $50 for an award um we decided we're not going to charge people for awards anymore because this is something that we're meant to celebrate for them um so it's completely free the plaques are now only $100 and that's just because of the processing fee we have to review your application and then also get that bronze beautiful bronze plaque beautiful bronze plaque that so we've lowered those prices to hopefully get more applications in uh because we didn't get too many last year which was a little you know I mean it was great to have those but we definitely want more we want the city to recognize these buildings absolutely cuz they're very historically significant in many cases so um is there a limit to how many of these that we do per year or do we just kind of wait and see what we get so we don't have a limit now of course we didn't really receive much so anyone who applied ended up getting a plaque um and we didn't have any award nominations last year we just had those plaques but this year we're going to see how many we can intake if there's not too many every will get their plaque or award as long as they're all meeting the criteria okay I have one more question I don't know what's the difference between an award and the plaque so the award is specifically if they've done any great work on the building if they've rehabilitated it if they've restored it back to its original character of whatever era it was built in if perhaps they salvaged something or of historical significance and the plaque is simply just to say this is when the building was built it recognizes the year that it was established okay okay and is there there a certain age limit that these buildings have to be to get yes so they have to be at least 50 years old that is the historic standard all right well I think that we have learned a lot today about this program hopefully we will get lots of applications coming in this year from some of these amazing beautiful historic businesses and homes that we have here in our historic district as well as throughout the city so thanks so much for coming by today to chat with us about this we look forward to seeing what kind of applications we get thank you that's it for this edition of cloudcast don't forget to like follow rate and review and we'll see you next time on cloudcast