Seneca considering Extension of Design Review Guidelines

The City of Seneca is considering an extension of its design review guidelines.  Currently, the guidelines apply only to buildings and property adjoining the city’s downtown historic district.  Seneca Planning and Development Director Ed Halbig gives details.  “We’re looking at the investments that we have made in development in the city to date and we certainly want to protect those investments, so in 2005 we had proposed some design review guidelines for commercial districts and they weren’t considered at that time, but there has been conversations that the city administration has had with me that said maybe now is the time to consider those and so I am bringing that back before them for their attention and consideration.” According to Halbig, the quality of development in the new Hampton Inn and Suites and the groundbreaking for a specialty dental clinic nearby demonstrate the need to require future buildings to meet similar quality standards. “The design review guidelines address building appearance and what we are talking about is basically limiting the proliferation of simple metal buildings.  It is not that we feel that metal is not an appropriate building material but we look for something a little bit more improved when we talk about the aesthetics of the city.  For instance we have the new hotel on one side of the street and we know that the WW property is for sale or has been offered for sale and if someone were to come in and building across the street, we would want to see something more than like I said simple metal structures.” As other examples of new Seneca development, Halbig referred to a restaurant project and an IT office under construction nearby on Bypass 123.