Principal Planner Suzanne Thorsen delivered an update on Downtown Historic District design guidelines at Thursday’s Historic Preservation Review Commission (HPRC) meeting.

The city of Benicia was awarded a Certified Local Government grant from the State Office of Historic Preservation. Some of the money will be used to fund an update to the Downtown Historic Conservation Plan’s (DHCP) design guidelines. The DHCP was adopted in 1990 to provide guidelines for construction on commercial and residential buildings in designated areas of town.

At an October HPRC meeting, Thorsen said the goal of the document was good but shared others’ views that the language could be more user-friendly. This is something she hopes will be fixed by the grant.

“The goal of this project first and foremost is something people can use and that’s useful, that responds to current framework in the Secretary of Interior standards, current issues and topics related to people and buildings today and that gives everybody involved— the public, property owners, business owners, staff and commissioners— a very clear understanding of what is allowed and not allowed,” she said at Thursday’s meeting.

Thorsen said the city had been going through the process of soliciting proposals through a consultant. They selected Winter & Company— an urban planning firm based out of Boulder, Colo.— to do the work.

“A couple years ago when we first started talking about this, some of the commissioners pulled examples of guidelines that they liked,” Thorsen said. “There were guidelines from Truckee, guidelines from Sausalito and it turns out that Winter & Company is the company that did those guidelines.”

Thorsen said that owner Nore Winter has worked extensively with the California Preservation Foundation and done a lot of work throughout the state. Since the firm is based out of state, she said city staff would have to do remote conferencing.

Additionally, Thorsen said the project was in the information gathering stage, which includes providing maps, working with the Benicia Historical Museum to pull historic photographs. In January, when Winter & Company will be in Benicia, a community workshop and stakeholder meeting, as well as a presentation to the HPRC will be held. A public review draft for the design guidelines is expected to be written by March, an open house is scheduled for April, a memorandum will be provided in May and the final draft is expected in June. Public hearings at HPRC, Planning Commission and City Council meetings will follow.

“The action that we present at the City Council will be the action for guidelines,” Thorsen said.

The commission also heard an update regarding the Art Selection Committee for the city’s public art initiative, in which commissioners Toni Haughey and Jon Van Landschoot serve as members. The committee is wrapping up its selection of art for 11 traffic control boxes. The next step is for a series of groups to review them before going to the Arts & Culture Commission and City Council. The commission also voted 4-0— Commissioners Jack Maccoun, Steve McKee and Tim Reynolds had to recuse themselves— to approve the design review for the replacement of windows and a rear addition to a single-family home on West I Street.

The commission will next meet Jan. 25.

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