Borough trying to balance history and ‘adaptive re-use'

Milford — Just as the nation faces the issue of oil and gas exploration versus preservation of Alaskan wilderness, some of the toughest questions borough officials face involve balancing preservation and the needs of commerce. Milford’s architecural review board reviews almost any planned visual change impacting the borough’s historic downtown business district. Projects which invoke the term “adaptive re-use” invariably spend months before the board. The problem is that the term means different things to different people. There are many variations and most are ambiguous. • The Web site architecturecleveland.com says it is: “changing the function of a building while keeping some of the historic value.” • In downtown Los Angeles, an ordinance says it is “facilitating the conversion of older,economically distressed, or historically significant buildings to apartments, live/work units or visitor-serving facilities.” The question is how much facilitation and how much keeping of historic value. The borough has no defiinition for adaptive re-use. “At this point it’s whatever any applicant says it is,” John Klemeyer, the board’s attorney said Monday evening. “We have to define it specifically,” said board member, Architect Vlad Potiyevsky. Additional pressure is brought to bear in a slow economy. Klemeyer noted that project approval delays have become an issue in the community. “It’s become a word of contention. Some say the board is not dealing with it.” The issue rose again Monday in the plan of Paul Brooks of Progressive Health for rehabilitating an 1830’s barn at 4th and East Harford streets. Brooks has been negotiating terms with the review board at meetings since last October. Currently, the issue is windows. The barn was changed over the years and reflects several different architectural styles. Brooks wants to use windows from one period, while a majority of the board want a different style, accurate to the 1830’s, that would cost an additional $7,000. The board has sought specific definitions from consultant Architect Peter Benton, who thus far has not provided them. Potiyevsky said he would contact the National Historic Trust, which oversees historic districts, for help with definitions. “Until we have a rule, we have to use common sense,” said Chair Kevin Stroyan. Library update Board member Don Quick said members of the ad-hoc committee privately negotiating issues of contention involving construction of a new central library in Milford have made some progress and that the library delegation has asked for another meeting. Quick said borough delegates have submitted suggestions, which he would not detail, to project architect Frederic Schwartz. Quick said they have asked that Schwartz come back to Milford to speak to those suggestions. “His input has been asked for and will continue to be asked for,” Quick said. The committee’s next closed meeting is scheduled for May 19.