MAINTENANCE AND EXTERIOR CHANGE
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Helping the Commission are a Secretary and a Commission Assistant. Funded by the city, the Commission Secretary prepares meeting agendas and takes minutes. The Secretary also receives applications for projects, keeps project files, and sends out certificates of appropriateness after meetings. Funded by the Village, the Commission Assistant is based at the German Village Meeting Haus. The Commission Assistant can answer your questions, help you with guidelines and procedures, and check over your submission materials.
Categorizing Your Exterior Project No matter which exterior project you have in mind, it involves either maintenance or exterior change. The Architectural Review Chart on the following pages contains common examples of both types of projects. Maintenance includes repair and in-kind replacement of the deteriorated parts of a building. Repair is the routine work that all German Village residents are familiar with—those things you do to maintain your building or site by protecting existing features. Examples include repairing a fence or reglazing a window. As you can see on the chart, no certificate is necessary for repairs. In-kind replacement involves duplicating a deteriorated part with one of the exact same material, design, arrangement, texture, or color. Examples include replacing a damaged wood porch column with a wood column of the same design, or replacing several slates on a roof with matching slates. Before beginning work, ask the Commission Assistant to review your replacement project. Exterior change includes alterations, new construction, additions, demolition, major site work or landscaping, building fences or signs, or a change in land use. For these projects, you should apply for a certificate of appropriateness from the German Village Commission. This is also true for any interior work changing your building’s exterior or involving a change of use or a building permit. The city of Columbus requires a certificate of appropriateness before issuing a building permit for any work in German Village.