Poised to disband the Kent Architectural Review Board on Feb. 21, city council members instead unanimously decided to further debate the matter.
The board is tasked with providing “certificates of appropriateness” for all new structures, exterior facade renovations and alterations, as well as signage in the downtown/West River Overlay district — roughly Kent’s downtown area and one parcel west of the Main Street bridge.
Council’s committee of the whole, which comprises the same members as council itself, will continue to debate whether to disband the board, have it revert to an advisory-only role or to establish a historical district in the overlay district.
The committee discussed the ARB’s fate on Feb. 7, and seemed poised to disband the board. Only Chris Hook, Jack Amrhein and Mike DeLeone voted to retain the ARB but have its recommendation be advisory in nature. That decision wasn’t final though: council has the final say.
Council’s vote came on the heels of entreaties from local realtor Allan Orashan, Kent Historical Society Director Julie Kenworthy and architect Doug Fuller, all of whom urged council to recast the ARB in an advisory role.
Orashan said the city stands to benefit from the board’s experience and expertise, and Fuller said the ARB has promoted progress that otherwise could not have been achieved. Kenworthy offered the Historical Society’s help in designating the downtown area as a historic district.
The way the overlay district’s design guidelines are now written, anyone could build whatever they want in any color they want, Fuller said, adding that “good quality developers appreciate good quality guidelines.”
As an advisory board, the ARB could issue comments and suggestions, Community Development Director Bridget Susel said earlier this month.
Should city leaders choose that route, Kent would have to repeal current requirements for applicants to obtain a certificate of appropriateness, and the Community Development Department would simply note the board members’ comments, Susel told council members earlier this month.
Council also attempted, but did not succeed, in authorizing the department emergency authority to review zoning and building permits in the overlay district.
With council members Melissa Celko and Amrhein in opposition, council lacked the necessary votes to approve the ordinance as an emergency measure. Instead, it could only consider the proposed ordinance on the first of three required readings. That vote carried, again with Celko and Amrhein in opposition. Council member Robin Turner did not attend the meeting.
After the meeting, Celko characterized her vote as “a rookie mistake,” saying she did not realize she was impacting some developer’s current projects.
“I thought I was voting to allow those two projects to go through, but also provide the opportunity for us to revisit the role of the ARB,” she said. “My intention was to offer some breathing space for us to figure out what the role of the ARB should be moving forward.”
Amrhein, a veteran council member, also said he’d erred.
“I got confused. It was my mistake. I voted wrong. I thought it had to do with disbanding the ARB,” Amrhein said after the meeting.
Amrhein said he and Celko anticipate being able to correct their error March 6, when council intends to hold a special meeting prior to its regular committee meetings. That special meeting has not yet been officially scheduled.
Without the emergency authorization in place, Kent’s building department and planning commission is unable to approve permits for exterior work or exterior signs because no certificate of appropriateness would exist, Susel told council members earlier this month.
The city has two signage applications that have been on hold since December, and such extended waiting periods are untenable, Susel had said earlier in February.
Earlier this month, Assistant Law Director Eric Fink told council it had a third option: to designate the downtown area as a historic district. Susel said the idea has been floated before, but had met with considerable pushback from downtown property owners. Should council now designate downtown as a historic district, the city would need to hire a consultant to write specific guidelines for that district, she said.
She also noted that there would be a difference between the overlay district and any historical district the city might create.
Even so, council members Heidi Shaffer Bish and Roger Sidoti on Feb. 21 urged the establishment of a downtown historic district, saying it would be a draw to Kent’s downtown area. Council member Gwen Rosenberg, who cast the lone vote against Shaffer Bish’s formal proposal to consider a historic district, pointed out that Kent’s downtown is more eclectic than historic in nature.
“I don’t think we need more regulations on our buildings downtown,” she said.
The ARB in recent years has been a source of consternation to some local entrepreneurs, most recently to local business owner Mike Beder, who tangled with its members over the exterior color palette and sign for his downtown retail store, Kent Sportswear.
After Beder took his dissatisfaction with the ARB to council, the city hired CT Consultants to overhaul Kent’s design guidelines. CT submitted its report in 2023, asserting that legally, the ARB could not require applicants to adhere to voluntary guidelines.
For now, the city’s zoning code still requires that an ARB exists, but it can no longer issue certificates of appropriateness based on design guidelines that are no longer part of that code.
The ARB issue has its roots in 2021, when entrepreneur Valerie Landis petitioned the ARB for permission to install an internally lit sign at her West College Avenue business Garage 108. When the ARB refused, Landis took her plea to City Council, saying the board’s decisions were inconsistent at best.
After all, another business in the area had such a sign, she reasoned.
For the first time ever, council overturned an ARB decision, only to be faced with Beder’s request for a second upheaval. Instead of granting it, council hired CT Consultants to overhaul the city’s design guidelines, and city leaders cut a deal with Beder. He could keep his storefront colors and sign until the new design guidelines were cleared.
It’s been a year, and to this day Beder says he’s heard nothing.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.