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South Bend and St. Joseph County th HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION 227 WEST JEFFERSON BLVD. SOUTH BEND, IN 46601-1830 Phone: 574-235-9798 Fax: 574-235-9578 e-mail: historic@michiana.org John H. Oxian, President A Certified Local Government Karen R. Hammond -Nash, Director Saturday, September 20, 2003 Mr. Jerry Kline 113 West North Shore Drive South Bend, IN 46617 RE: proposed fence & other renovations at 107 West North Shore Drive Dear Jerry: Thank you for your call Friday. I was in meetings all day that day, and did not receive your message until Saturday. I will be on vacation next week, so I am responding by a quick note before I set off. It is unlucky that apparently neither the person who sold this house to Mrs. Sheets, nor any of her neighbors, informed her that she lived in a historic district, and needed a Certificate of Appropriateness for work done to the exterior of her home. It is even more unlucky that appar- ently none of the contractors who performed work for her, including replacing the roof, rebuild- ing parts of the porch, and re -pouring the concrete walks and steps around her house, happened to remember to apply for building permits (or C of As) before performing their work. Since building permits are required in every part of South Bend and St. Joseph County, such universal forgetfulness is truly perplexing, especially since, as far as I know, all those projects would have received almost instant approval, and the failure to get building permits as required can subject contractors or homeowners to fines, and contractors to action against their licenses. Not only would C of As have been readily granted for most or al of those earlier projects, you can the imagine the absolute joy with which we would have approved the removal of the ugly parking pad (really a small parking lot) in the back yard. The most recent contractor to forget to apply for a permit at 107 West North Shore Drive was L.L. Geans, who "forgot" to apply for a building permit for a six foot -plus concrete block fence, even though eve fence, anywhere in the City, even a fence just two feet long, requires a building permit. Every licensed contractor who installs fences in South Bend knows that, even if, as he says, he did not know that fences in historic districts required C of As. I do not know what fines he or his employer may be subject to, nor want action, if any, may be taken against his license, as that is entirely under the authority of the Building Department. From my point of view, he deserves any thing he gets. It is because of this failure to get permits in advance that work on the proposed concrete block fence was stopped in progress. While it was the Building Department, and not HPC, that stopped the work, HPC is entirely in agreement with the Building Commissioner, and believes that that department acted exactly as it should. COMMISSIONERS Mary Jane Chase Virginia O'Hair (Secretary) Gerald Ujdak (Vice President) Martha Choitz Lynn A. Patrick Diane Wrobel-Illes Catherine Hostetler (Treasurer) Joann Sporleder (Architectural Historian) John Livingston (Attorney)