The Historic Preservation Review Commission will pick one or two of its members Thursday to review a grant application that could help Benicia fund an overhaul of its Downtown Historic Conservation Plan.

The commission also will be asked to endorse putting the Von Pfister General Store building on the National Register of Historic Places.

The panel also will weigh in on the future of the city’s Mills Act program that contracts with property owners, exchanging property tax breaks for proper upkeep of historic properties.

Among design reviews the HPRC will decide Thursday, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church will ask for an after-the-fact approval of alterations to the church rectory’s entrance and replacement of a wood front door with a fiberglass one. It also will consider a request to modify a commercial building at West 130 West E St. and additions to a home at 470 West J St.

The timetable to apply for a 2015-16 California Certified Local Government (CLG) Grant is short. Deadline is April 20, said Suzanne Thorsen, associate planner, in a March 18 report.

Updating the conservation plan has been a commission priority since 2011, she wrote, and last year the panel identified multiple deficiencies and other changes needed in the plan, including improving its format and useability, making it consistent with the Secretary of Interior Standards for Treatment of Historic properties, resolving several discrepancies with the Downtown Mixed Use Master Plan and improving its relationship to the city’s Historic Context.

But such an update isn’t in the city budget and needs City Council authorization. “If the City Council prioritizes the DHCP update, staff will move forward quickly with an application to the California Office of Historic Preservation (OHP) for a Certified Local Government (CLG) Grant,” Thorsen wrote. Benicia would need to match that grant with cash or services.

Should the Council agree, she wrote, staff would take the lead in writing the grant application, but will ask for at least one or two members of the commission to help review the document before it is submitted to the California Office of Historic Preservation.

The commission also will decide whether to endorse the Benicia Historical Society’s push to get the Von Pfister General Store recognized nationally as a historic place.

Among the first buildings erected in Benicia, the first general store in Solano County dates to 1847 and is associated with multiple historic figures prominent not only in Benicia but also state history.

It also has been described as the place where the discovery of gold at John Sutter’s mill was announced. That led to the famous California Gold Rush in 1849.

The State Historic Resources Commission (SHRC) will consider the request April 29 in San Diego and will send its decision to Washington, D.C., Thorsen wrote the HPRC on March 11.

In other matters, Principal Planner Amy Million will ask the commission to weigh in on Benicia’s Mills Act program, which grew nearer the city’s capacity Nov. 18 with the approval of the most recent two contracts.

The city’s current threshold for the program has been that it must not cost Benicia more than $35,000 annually in lost property tax revenues and staff time expenditures.

However, the Council also asked city employees to write a report that would include an assessment of benefits should Benicia continue accepting new contracts.

By the end of last year, Benicia had 37 contracts with owners of historic properties, Million wrote. The estimated cost of those contracts in the 2015-16 fiscal year would be $33,540, though fluctuations in property values make the calculations difficult to determine.

Mills Act contracts can cut a building owner’s property taxes in half, but also require the owner to perform specific rehabilitation tasks and later to continue maintaining the building in a historically appropriate manner.

“The city gains benefits from the preservation of its historic building stock,” Million wrote.

While it’s hard to put a dollar amount on the value, she wrote, “most residents recognize that much of Benicia’s charm and its attractiveness to business, residents and tourists rests in its historic character.”

One option in keeping the program going is to change the threshold from a dollar amount to a maximum number of contracts, with Million recommending 40.

Others are to close the program to new contracts, terminate existing ones and opening the program to new contracts, or increase the dollar threshold to $50,000.

The city also might change criteria or eliminate any “maintenance only” contracts, she wrote.

The commission’s recommendations will be sent to the City Council.

Thorsen, who wrote a report March 12 on the St. Paul’s Episcopal Church application, is recommending the commission deny approval of the changes already made to the building, 122 East J St.

Brought to Benicia in 1868 by Colonel Julian McAllister, the rectory is a Colonial-style parish house built in 1790 and transported from Torrington, Conn.

Thorsen wrote that city employees were told of the door replacement in July 2014, and that church employees acknowledged that not only did the building get a new door, a custom stained-glass insert was being made.

“Based on photographic evidence, the entrance has been significantly modified since 2002,” Thorsen wrote.

The entablature above the front door was removed, a mail slot in the door was added, and new light fixtures have been installed. A church spokesman said some of the changes were made to make the door compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, but the replacement door frame had not been approved by planning staff, Thorsen wrote.

She explained that the changes made to the church building don’t comply with the Downtown Historic Conservation Plan or the Secretary of Interior Standards, and she is recommending denial, though she provided the commission with several modification options should it choose to approve the changes.

The panel also will vote on whether to let Maureen and Tom Carroll install a building foundation and addition and replace a garage at their home at 480 West J St., a contributing structure in the Downtown Historic District; and if Jimi Dunlop can make alterations, including an addition, to a commercial building at 130 West E St.

Both have been recommended for approval.

The Benicia Historic Preservation Review Commission will meet at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the Commission Room of City Hall, 250 East L St.