Those living in historic districts in the Heights may have noticed a few unfamiliar faces taking notes on homes along neighborhood streets. Chances are they may have seen employees with Winter & Company, a design firm working with the city of Houston to develop its design guidelines for the Historic Preservation Ordinance.
Noré Winter, president at Winter & Company, said a series of trips are currently planned along the course of the next few months. The initial trip several weeks ago was a short one – just three days – but Winter said staff members will be around the neighborhood quite a bit.
“We will be spending a fair amount of time over the course of the next few months in a variety of field visits and we will be relying on the insights from members of the community as well,” Winter said. “We’ll be staging a series of workshops and smaller focus group meetings down the line, too.”
The initial visit is part of the next phase of the development of design guidelines for those living in historic districts around the city. The city’s Planning & Development Commission faced intense scrutiny from historic homeowners over the past few years for its wildly inconsistent enforcement and approval process for residents seeking to alter historic homes in the Heights. Following a series of articles in The Leader several years ago, the city worked to completely overhaul the ordinance and is now working with Winter & Company to adopt design guidelines that will apply to the Heights (along with separate guidelines for other historic parts of Houston).
Consultants with the firm have much work to do in the next few months, Winter said. The group will be studying local neighborhoods and refining their understanding of what the community values, their issues and technical details.
“We’re trying to look and see if there are any patterns or characteristics among homes in the area, getting an idea or a sense of the typical foot patterns, square footage and other aspects,” Winter said.
Steph McDougal with the Planning department said the firm will return in September but the rest of the schedule is still being finalized.
“There is about a month or two, depending on holidays, between meetings to give them time to digest the information they collect,” McDougal said. “We’re working to help develop an understanding of what people are in favor of and what is in each community and those ideas will be more refined over time.”
McDougal also emphasized that the three historic districts in the Heights will have their guidelines completed first with other guidelines for districts across the Houston area to come further down the line.
Both McDougal and Winter emphasized that they want to be as inclusive as possible and residents can expect to see a more solid schedule for community meetings with firm representatives soon.
“We are trying to provide an array of ways in which people can communicate and share their ideas,” McDougal said. “From our standpoint, what is most important is that the community makes an informed decision and for us to recommend that decision to council.”