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Carbondale working toward historic design guidelines

John Stroud
Glenwood Springs correspondent
Aspen, CO Colorado

CARBONDALE – The town of Carbondale is taking its historic preservation efforts another step, using a state grant to develop historic design guidelines for the downtown commercial core area.

The Colorado State Historical Society recently awarded a $16,106 grant for Carbondale to come up with the new guidelines, intended to help property owners take advantage of voluntary incentives to maintain structures in a way that will preserve their historic character.

The grant money comes from a special historical society fund set aside for municipalities that have been deemed Certified Local Governments, Carbondale planner Janet Buck explained in a memo to town trustees this week.



Carbondale was certified after the town adopted its Historic Preservation Ordinance and formed the Carbondale Historic Preservation Commission (CHPC) in 2007.

Rather than making historic preservation mandatory, Carbondale opted for a voluntary policy which encourages property owners to maintain structures that have historic value.




“It has long been a goal of the CHPC to develop design guidelines for the HCC zone district to accompany the ordinance,” Buck wrote in the memo. “The new guidelines would provide historic property owners with guidance for maintaining and making alterations to their historic buildings.”

The guidelines would also provide a basis for the CHPC to do courtesy reviews of any alterations or new construction within the town’s Historic Commercial Core zone district, which is a requirement of the Historic Preservation Ordinance.

The CHPC initiated the grant after its funding from the town was lowered this year due to budget cuts.

“As the CHPC begins work on the design guidelines, it will update the Board of Trustees of the process it plans to use to develop the design guidelines,” Buck said.

Trustees may also want to meet with the CHPC so it can garner some feedback on the process, she said.

Carbondale has also benefited from state historical society grant money in the past for other projects, including for an inventory of the town’s historic structures.

jstroud@postindependent.com

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