Commission to review plan for string lighting at four downtown sites

Published 6:14 pm Friday, November 2, 2018

The Washington Historic Preservation Commission, during its meeting Tuesday, is scheduled to consider a request to install string lighting in four downtown alleys. The Washington Harbor District Alliance is seeking a certificate of appropriateness to place the string lighting in two alleys off North Market Street and two alleys off West Main Street.

“The Washington Harbor District Alliance and the City of Washington would like to collaborate with downtown property owners to install string lighting … within the Harbor District,” reads the application submitted by WHDA. The Market Street alleys include the one on the south side of Shep’s Grill and Ward Lane. Harris Lane and Union Drive off West Main Street are the other alleys included in the proposed project.

“Lighting in the historic district should be planned in such a way that provides adequate safety but does not overly illuminate the district. Fixture design, in particular, should be appropriate to the building and district,” reads the commission’s design guidelines for the historic district.

The commission has three options: approve the request, approved the request with specific conditions or deny the request.

In other business, the commission is scheduled to consider two requests by Beacon Street Moss LLC to build single-family houses at Moss Landing, lot 10 (one and a half stories) and lot 31 (two stories). Beacon Street Moss LLC also wants the commission to implement a policy that states that once a Moss Landing plan has been approved ass a major-works plan by the commission, that plan be considered a minor-works project if that plan comes before the commission again.

Also, the commission is expected to continue its work on a tree policy in the historic district. During its June meeting, the commission decided to form a tree subcommittee to study and make recommendations concerning tree removals — and replacements of removed trees — in the Historic District. The commission wants more accountability regarding the replacement of trees from Historic District property owners who receive permission to remove trees from their properties. The commission’s guidelines require people replant another similar tree somewhere on the property within 60 days. Meeting that requirement can be for several reasons, including weather factors such as temperature, said Emily Rebert, the city’s community-development planner, earlier this year.

 

 

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.

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