READING., Pa. – During its committee-of-the-whole meeting Monday night, Reading City Council learned of a mass exodus of members from the Historical Architectural Review Board (HARB).
As part of its voting agenda later in the evening, council was asked to approve the resignations of HARB members Erin Weller, Nigel Walker and Aaron Booth.
Council also learned a fourth resignation was received Monday from Michael McDevitt, which will be voted on at the next regular council meeting.
According to the city’s website, the nine-member board already had three vacancies, and with the new resignations, the board is unable to function.
The website indicates that the next HARB meeting, scheduled for Feb. 17, has been cancelled.
David Barr, the city’s community development director, informed council that the stated reasons for the resignations focused on staff support of the panel, specifically the keeping of minutes and the sending of resolutions (the board’s official decisions) to the applicants.
“They didn’t feel they wanted to spend their time (serving on the HARB); it wasn’t fruitful,” Barr said. “I will say that none of the board members contacted me in advance of their resignations, so I didn’t have an opportunity to resolve or correct any of this.”
But Barr emphasized that the resignations are causing the city administration to reflect on what it is doing in the matter of historical preservation and how it is operating.
Barr explained the city’s HARB staff consists of a director and a trainee assistant.
“I think there’s a lot of things the HARB doesn’t know that our team is doing and, you know, as expected, there’s a lot of things that go on with these city employees that the HARB may not know about,” Barr stated.
Barr further explained that the administration assigned the staff members to initiatives and projects and asked for numerous reports.
“When I joined the city, I was struck by the volume of materials that we had accumulated and so I put her (the HARB director) to task to just get those things organized and that was probably around the time last year when some of this really reached a head, as I now understand,” Barr said.
Barr further added that the two employees were sent to enforce some things, which he believes didn’t need to be done.
Barr said the whole matter is being taken very seriously since it is a big deal when there are so many resignations.
Council member Chris Miller said it may be helpful for the city to conduct exit interviews to find out why this happened.
Council solicitor Michael Gombar said that should be handled by either the administration or within the nominating committee, reminding council that if the matter involves personnel issues, that cannot be discussed at a public meeting.
Councilman Jaime Baez said he believes such challenges present the city with an opportunity for growth.
When questioned directly, Barr said the city is not considering eliminating the HARB districts.
While he said he is not ready to make a formal presentation, he explained one possible solution could be to switch from a HARB model to historical preservation enforcement through the city’s zoning office.
“We could create a historical zoning overlay through our zoning code and we would enforce the historic presentation through the zoning process,” Barr said.
Gombar reminded council and the administration that any alterations or modifications to the enforcement of HARB would have to done through the ordinance process.
Managing Director Jack Gombach said there will be many administrative discussions that will be taking place internally before any recommendations are made to council.
“We are looking at all sorts of different options to how to continue the work of the HARB during this transition,” Gombach said. “I don’t think there is a definitive path forward just yet.”
The city has five historical districts: Centre Park, Callowhill, Prince, Penn’s Common and College Heights.
Whenever property owners in those districts wish to make any alterations to the exteriors of their buildings, they must apply to the HARB, and if any alterations are outside of the HARB guidelines, they must appear before the HARB board during a public hearing.
The board is an advisory citizens group composed of volunteer professionals and residents which are appointed by council.