HPC Approves Renovations, Ponders Pile Driving Impacts

CAPE MAY — The city’s Historic Preservation Commission approved renovations and an addition Monday to 931 Beach Avenue, an historic guesthouse.
Architect Joseph Adamson presented final plans with minor changes from a hearing last summer. He agreed to install Marvin wooden windows and doors.
Commission discussed what type of railing and balusters would be appropriate for the building. Plans submitted copied what is currently on the guesthouse on three stories.
Adamson described the railings and balustrades as a “turned round fatter design” on the first floor.
The balustrades were of a smaller sie on the second and third floors, he said. The house has railings across the entire front and running 40 feet down one side.
HPC Commissioner Tom Carroll said square balusters were an early 20th century detail, a much later style.
Commissioner Corbin Cogswell said HPC needed exact dimensions of balusters before granting final approval. He said HPC would probably be willing to approve a hairpin spear wrought iron fence.
In other business: HPC Solicitor Robert Fineberg led discussion of the commission’s ability to require an applicant to provide engineer’s certification that pile driving would be done appropriately for a project.
“The HPC doesn’t have any direct involvement with that,” he said. “It is not part of our jurisdiction.”
Fineberg said when an applicant went to the construction official’s office for a pile driving permit, they would have to produce an engineer’s certification there is no other alternative to pile driving, and it can be done safely in consideration of surrounding properties.
The application would come to HPC after approval from the construction official, said Fineberg.
Commissioner Warren Coupland said owners of historic homes may not realize the impact of pile driving on their homes. He said even though a contractor carries insurance and is responsible for damage to adjacent homes, once an historic building is damaged, it is no longer in its original state.
Fineberg said HPC must rely on the construction official.
Carroll said nearby pile driving can crumble plaster walls and ceilings in historic homes. He suggested other “gentler” methods be required such as auguring or water jets to drive piles near historic homes.
Fineberg suggested discussion with City Council that HPC would be notified when pile driving was anticipated within a certain number of feet of the historic district and less destructive methods are required to drive piles.