{"id":165171,"date":"2026-04-14T05:21:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T05:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/165171\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T05:21:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T05:21:22","slug":"reading-delays-new-harb-appointments-gives-temporary-authority-to-historical-preservation-officer-reading-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/165171\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading delays new HARB appointments, gives temporary authority to historical preservation officer | Reading Area"},"content":{"rendered":"

READING, Pa. \u2013\u00a0Reading City Council voted Monday night to authorize delaying appointments to the Historical Architectural Review Board to reevaluate and consider the resources, capacity and management of historic preservation.<\/p>\n

The resolution also authorized the historical preservation officer or the zoning administrator, in the absence of the historic preservation officer, to issue certificates of appropriateness for an unlimited range of construction, demolition or alteration projects.<\/p>\n

The action is a result of a vacant HARB following the resignations of all members of the board earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The board is an advisory citizens group composed of volunteer professionals and residents who are appointed by council.<\/p>\n

The city has five historical districts: Centre Park, Callowhill, Prince, Penn\u2019s Common and College Heights.<\/p>\n

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 HARB guidelines, they must appear before the HARB during a public hearing.<\/p>\n

During the Committee of the Whole meeting earlier in the evening,\u00a0Community Development Director David Barr explained the reasoning of the resolution.<\/p>\n

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Former planner Fritz Rothermel recommended making numerous changes to Reading\u2019s historic districts, including possibly decertifying one of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe HARB resignations recently have caused us to reflect on how we’re conducting the business of historic preservation here in the city,\u201d Barr said.\u00a0\u201cWe’ve been speaking to a lot of different parties and individuals \u2014 most importantly, to the [Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission]. They have agreed to come to Reading in June for an evaluation of our program and to make recommendations within 45 days after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barr said allowing the historical preservation officer to issue the certificates of appropriateness will keep the program running in a temporary capacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur historic preservation officer has 28 years of experience in this work, and we feel that she should be authorized to conduct business at all levels until we have a new HARB or some other arrangement,\u201d Barr added.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Chris Miller said he is glad to hear that the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission is involved.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that’s important,\u201d Miller said. \u201cAnd this is temporary; this is not permanent.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Council President Donna Reed questioned why City Council shouldn\u2019t sit in place of the HARB on a temporary basis.<\/p>\n

Council solicitor Michael Gombar said that couldn\u2019t happen since council is the body to which residents may appeal HARB decisions.<\/p>\n

The vote to delaying appointments to the HARB will be limited to a period of 180 days, with the possibility of one 60-day extension.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. \u2013\u00a0Reading City Council voted Monday night to authorize delaying appointments to the Historical Architectural Review Board…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45479,1089,74438,2004,2001,2716,74439,52544,1093,74440,128,1095,130,129],"class_list":{"0":"post-165171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-centre-park","9":"tag-chris-miller","10":"tag-college-heights","11":"tag-community-development-director","12":"tag-david-barr","13":"tag-donna-reed","14":"tag-historic-preservation-officer","15":"tag-historical-architectural-review-board","16":"tag-michael-gombar","17":"tag-pennsylvania-state-historic-museum-commission","18":"tag-reading-city","19":"tag-reading-city-council","20":"tag-reading-city-headlines","21":"tag-reading-city-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}