§ 200-22. Standards for review.

In considering an application for certificate of approval, the Board shall be guided by the following general standards in addition to any design guidelines in the ordinance designating the landmark or historic district and the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation (Revised 1990):

A. 

Every reasonable effort shall be made to provide a compatible use for a property that requires minimal alteration of the building, structure, or site and its environment or to use a property for its originally intended purpose.

B. 

The distinguishing original qualities or character of a building, structure, or site and its environment shall not be destroyed. The removal or alteration of any historic material or distinctive architectural feature should be avoided when possible.

C. 

All buildings, structures, and sites shall be recognized as products of their own time. Alterations that have no historical basis or that seek to create an earlier time appearance shall be discouraged.

D. 

Changes that may have taken place in the course of time are evidence of the history and development of a building, structure or site and its environment. These changes may have acquired significance in their own right. This significance shall be recognized and respected.

E. 

Distinctive stylistic features or examples of skilled craftsmanship that characterize a building, structure, or site shall be treated with sensitivity.

F. 

Deteriorated architectural features shall be repaired rather than replaced, wherever possible. In the event replacement is necessary, the new material should match the material being replaced in composition, design, color, texture, and other visual qualities. Repair or replacement of missing architectural features should be based on accurate duplication of features, substantiated by historic, physical or pictorial evidence, rather than on conjectural designs or the availability of different architectural elements from other buildings or structures.

G. 

The surface cleaning of the structures shall be undertaken with the gentlest means possible. Sandblasting and other cleaning methods that damage the historic building material shall not be undertaken.

H. 

Every reasonable effort shall be made to protect and preserve archaeological resources affected by, or adjacent to, any project.

I. 

Contemporary design for alterations and additions to existing properties shall not be discouraged when such alterations and additions do not destroy significant historical, architectural, or cultural material, and such design is compatible with the size, scale, color, material, and character of the property, neighborhood, or environment.