EHDC looks to advance preservation
As the El Dorado Historic District Commission awaits responses from city officials about the final draft of a comprehensive, citywide historic preservation plan, commissioners are moving forward with steps to begin implementing the plan and focusing on other routine matters.
Requests for Qualifications were sent out last week for consulting firms/professional services to conduct a historic survey for the Mellor Park residential area and the Eastridge subdivision to be potentially nominated for the National Register of Historic Places.
Elizabeth Eggleston, executive director of the
EHDC, said RFQs were sent July 28 to a qualified list of National Register surveyors and contractors to conduct the survey, which would include 310 - 325 properties.
Last month, the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program awarded the city of El Dorado a $49,049 Certified Local Government grant to start the project. The award is the largest CLG grant to be awarded in the state.
El Dorado is one of 21 CLG cities in Arkansas who partner with the National Park Service, the AHPP and other cities and counties around the state to preserve historic resources at the local level.
The NPS makes the final approval for properties that are added to the National Register.
The CLG grant was part of an amended agreement, in which the city initially received a $42,000 CLG grant, the largest to be awarded at the time, to develop the citywide historic preservation plan for El Dorado.
City officials provided a $10,000 match from the El Dorado Works tax for the first grant. The match was not required in the terms of the grant agreement but demonstrated the city's support of the effort, historic district commissioners said.
In April of 2019, the EHDC approved a $46,574 contract with the Lakota Group, an Illinois-based urban design firm, to draft the preservation plan.
Lakota submitted a final draft of the plan July 14, a day before the July 15 deadline.
Now, the EHDC and the Lakota team are awaiting final notes from and formal adoption of the plan by the El Dorado City Council.
Eggleston and City Clerk Heather McVay issued reminders about the matter last week.
Eggleston pointed to the city's responsibilities in the process to develop the plan, as outlined in the professional services agreement with Lakota.
Per the agreement, “the city shall render decisions and provide information and direction to the consultant in a timely manner …”
After the council submits its final comments, Lakota will provide hard copies for city officials and the EHDC, who along with the AHPP, has already signed off on the final draft.
The EHDC is also awaiting word from city council members about whether they would prefer a final presentation from Lakota or if the draft document will suffice as a final presentation.
In the meantime, historic district commissioners have prioritized and identified the Mellor Park and Eastridge neighborhoods as the next areas to be surveyed for National Register consideration.
The areas are north of the existing commercial historic district, which covers most of downtown El Dorado, and two residential historic districts, Murphy-Hill and Mahony.
The Eastridge subdivision includes approximately 20 residential structures that feature the mid-century architectural style.
The area is located on the north side of 19th Street between Calion Road and the Union
County Fairgrounds.
Eastridge abuts the fairgrounds and is congruent to a small residential historic district that is made up of two houses that were designed by the late architect E. Fay Jones, who spent part of his childhood in El Dorado.
The Mellor Park neighborhood is immediately north of downtown El Dorado.
Its most intense period of development spanned 1920s - 1960s, per the final draft of the citywide historic preservation plan.
The area features many of the city's most prominent historic residential structures, including as the Trimble, Yocum, Deming, Clyde, Mahony and McKinney homes.
Eggleston previously said the Mellor Park encompasses five distinct subdivisions that will be a part of the survey, as well as a small section of the McKinney subdivision and some “un-platted” areas.
Aug. 28 is the deadline to submit RFQs.
Other projects that are included in the $49,000 CLG grant award are $2,248 for travel and training for the historic district commissioners; $4,000 for the executive director's salary; and $300 for membership fees in historic preservation organizations.
Certificate of Appropriateness
The EHDC took a month off in July and will resume its regular monthly meeting schedule Aug. 13.
The agenda will include a Certificate of Appropriateness request from downtown property/business owners Greg and Kellie Harrison for 114 - 116 E. Elm, adjoining properties which are historically known as the Garrett Building/Hall's Drugstore.
Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc., now occupies the commercial space at 116 E. Elm.
Certificates of Appropriateness are required for most exterior projects within the city's commercial historic district.
Work that is proposed in the COA includes restoration of existing building masonry, replacement of broken window lintels and second-story windows, installation of new second-story window awnings, replacement/ repair of trim around windows and doors and repainting existing trim.