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REPORT <br />To the Honorable Mayor and City Council <br />From the City Manager <br /> <br />September 12, 2016 <br /> <br />SUBJECT <br />Main Street Historic District Expansion and Historic Landmark Designations <br /> <br />RECOMMENDATION <br />Hold a public hearing and adopt a resolution designating the Main Street Historic District <br />Expansion area an Historic District, and designating the properties at 847-849 Main <br />Street, 935 Main Street, and 1101 Main Street as Historic Landmarks <br /> <br />BACKGROUND <br />The existing Main Street Historic District was adopted by the City Council in 2002 and <br />comprises nine structures, eight of which are designated as being contributors to the <br />District. Contributing structures are those that were constructed during the period of <br />historical significance for the district, and that have a high degree of original character <br />and architectural detailing. Four of the eight contributing structures in the existing Main <br />Street Historic District are also designated as local historic landmarks and comprise the <br />“Downtown Historic Commercial District” that was placed on the National Register of <br />Historic Places in 1977. Those four buildings are the “Diller-Chamberlain Store <br />Building”; the “Bank of San Mateo County Building”; the “Fitzpatrick Building”; and the <br />“San Mateo County Loan Association Building.” The other four contributing structures <br />are the “Alhambra Theater” (also a designated local historic landmark); the “Sequoia <br />Hotel”; the “Odd Fellows Hall”; and the “Clifton Motor Co. Building.” The one non- <br />contributing structure is the “Mezes Plaza” office building at the southeast corner of <br />Broadway and Main Street. <br /> <br />CONSIDERATION OF AN EXPANDED HISTORIC DISTRICT <br />As part of the City’s preliminary work on the Downtown Precise Plan, a comprehensive <br />survey of the downtown area was conducted by a qualified architectural historian in <br />2007. The historian concluded that the Main Street Historic District could be expanded <br />to include several additional properties which the historian viewed as having historic <br />potential. Section 40.7 of the Historic Preservation Ordinance specifies that requests <br />for historic landmarks, sites, and districts may be submitted by any person, and that the <br />Historic Resources Advisory Committee (HRAC), Planning Commission, or City Council <br />may also initiate historic designation requests on their own motion. As such, and based <br />upon the conclusion of the historian who prepared the downtown survey, the HRAC is <br />proposing the Main Street Historic District Expansion for designation (Attachment 1). <br /> <br />7.B. - Page 1