The Historic Preservation Review Commission (HPRC) provided feedback on the first draft of the new guidelines within the Downtown Historic Conservation District at Thursday’s meeting.

Benicia is in the process of updating design guidelines in the Downtown Historic Conservation Plan (DHCP), which was adopted in 1990 to provide guidelines for construction on commercial and residential buildings in designated areas of town. Through a grant from the State Office of Historic Preservation, the city is receiving funds for updates to make the guidelines more user-friendly.

In December, the city hired Boulder, Colo. urban planning firm Winter & Company to serve as consultants. At Thursday’s meeting, Winter & Company consultants Julie Husband and Marcia Klopf provided an overview of the first public review draft for the new guidelines.

“We’ve had a good visit so far and really spent a lot of time out on the street looking at the buildings and seeing all the good work that you have been doing and seeing where there might be some issues too with some of the projects along the way,” Husband said.

Husband said the design guidelines were built from the DHCP, Secretary of Interior standards and Downtown Form-based Code, which Principal Planner Suzanne Thorsen said was a code intended to be a simplified approach to building that focuses on form rather than just the use.

“It’s supposed to provide flexibility,” she said.

The document contains six chapters. The first chapter is a general overview that answers questions such as why Benicia has design guidelines, who uses them, how to use the document and sensitive areas of a property to reserve, including the primary facade and visible secondary and rear walls.

Chapter 2 focuses on general design guidelines for all projects, including recommendations for views and view corridors, outdoor areas, structured parking and colors.

“The traditions of using limited numbers of colors, typically muted, should be continued,” according to the document. “”The design guidelines below do not specify which colors should be selected, but rather how they should be used.”

Chapter 3 is centered around design guidelines for historic structures. Items include character-defining features, materials and finishes, alternative materials, windows and porches.

Chapter 4 discusses guidelines for new construction and non-contributing structures. The chapter focuses on designing in context, characteristics of context, appropriate materials, double-fronted buildings, commercial mass and scale, commercial articulation, commercial facade character, residential mass and scale, residential articulation and location of secondary structures.

Chapter 5 is a section on guidelines for environmental sustainability. Features of the chapter include landscape improvements for sustainability, low impact development principles, environmental impact to neighbors, paving materials for sustainability, integrating energy generating technologies on historic buildings, and new construction and sustainability.

The final chapter centers around sign design guidelines for all projects, including the character and location of signs.

When the discussion was opened to the HPRC, commissioners were quick to provide feedback. They praised the draft but felt some attributes could be fixed. Commissioner Jack Maccoun found some of the guidelines to be ambiguous and the terms unspecific.

“There’s a lot of information there,” he said. “Some of it applies to places like the Midwest or the East Coast like storm windows. We don’t have those here. We have screens here.”

Maccoun suggested the next draft have more case studies regarding buildings in Benicia and specific terms like “rustic siding” instead of “appropriate materials.”

“People don’t know what appropriate material is or what’s an alternative material,” he said.

Vice Chair Toni Haughey felt some of the photos in the document were too dark, particularly the before and after restoration pictures.

“Some in there were not the best examples of ways to restore a property,” she said.

Commissioner Steve McKee disagreed with the points raised regarding outdoor dining.

“One thing I’ve got some passion for is to see better sidewalk dining in Benicia because we kind of do it as an afterthought while other cities throughout the world have wonderful, thought-out solutions,” he said.

Particularly, McKee disagreed with the notion that dining areas should be located to the side or rear of a building.

“I thought the whole point was to get it out front,” he said. “We need vitality on the streets, not tucking this stuff away.”

The public review draft is available online at ci.benicia.ca.us/downtowndesign. Physical copies are also available at the Benicia Public Library, 150 East L St.; and the Community Development Department, located on the lower level of City Hall at 250 East L St. A Town Hall survey for people to provide feedback on the design guidelines is also available at this URL. The survey closes on May 6. Comments may also be submitted to Thorsen at sthorsen@ci.benicia.ca.us. The final draft will be brought back to the HPRC for a public hearing and June. It will go before the Planning Commission in July and the City Council for adoption in August or September.

In other business, the HPRC voted 6-0— Maccoun recused himself— to approve the design review for the new Farm & Flour Coffee shop at 700 First St. after the recommendation that the front door be made of wood, not aluminum as suggested by the applicant. Similar design reviews were granted to One House Bakery on First Street and G&C Auto Body on Adams Street.

The HPRC will next meet Thursday, May 24.