Title
Consider/Discuss/Act on a Request by Owner Dawn and Dan Dillard for a Certificate of Appropriateness for the Rehabilitation of the Residence Located at 609 N Benge Street.
Summary
COUNCIL GOAL: Enhance the Quality of Life in Downtown McKinney
MEETING DATE: August 7, 2025
DEPARTMENT: Development Services - Planning Department
CONTACT: Rayna Alam, Historic Preservation Planner
Cassie Bumgarner, Planning Manager
RECOMMENDED HPAB ACTION:
• Staff recommends denial of the Certificate of Appropriateness. The proposed design of the alterations to this home does not meet Standards 2, 4, 9, and 10 of the Secretary of the Interiors Standards for Rehabilitation.
ITEM SUMMARY:
• The applicant requests approval of a Certificate of Appropriateness for the rehabilitation of the residence located at 609 N Benge Street and is proposing the following work:
• Significant renovation to the existing structure
• A two-story rear addition and a single-story side addition
• Extension of the front porch to the north
• Elevating the original front sloped roof line to allow for a second floor
• Staff evaluated the request and found that the request was not compatible with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation as it significantly alters the design, massing, and characteristics of the historic structure
• Staff spoke briefly with the architect about the proposed design. During the conversation, Staff explained that the proposed changes to the house were too great to be approved on a Staff level. Staff has forwarded the item to the Historic Preservation Advisory Board.
• In Staff’s review of the proposal, neither the rear two-story addition or side addition meet the Standards due to incompatibility with the size, scale, and massing of the historic property, and greatly impacts the essential form and integrity of the historic property.
• In the evaluation of the proposed additions, staff felt that the design did not fit the following Standards:
• Standard 2 - The historic character of a property will be retained and preserved. The removal of distinctive materials or alteration of features, spaces, and spatial relationships that characterize a property will be avoided.
o The proposed additions and roofline changes alter the way the façade is perceived because of their size, scale, and massing which changes the space. The visual impact of the expansion alters the feeling of the home. The additions and expansion of the front porch do not retain the historic massing or design of the home.
• Standard 4 - Most properties change over time; those changes that have acquired historic significance in their own right shall be retained and preserved.
o Proposed two-story addition alters a previous addition which has acquired historical significance in its own right. The previous addition is undated, but was identified in the 2023 McKinney Historic Resource Survey.
• Standard 9 - New additions, exterior alterations, or related new construction shall not destroy historic materials that characterize the property. The new work shall be differentiated from the old and shall be compatible with the massing, size, scale, and architectural features to protect the historic integrity of the property and its environment.
o The massing and size of the proposed additions feel disproportionate to the size of the original historic home. Generally, the two-story addition as well as the side addition gives a more vertical and wide emphasis that is not compatible with the style of the home. Instead of being differentiated from the original home, the additions are directly modifying the design and massing of the historic home.
• Standard 10 - New additions and adjacent or related new construction shall be undertaken in such a manner that if removed in the future, the essential form and integrity of the historic property and its environment would be unimpaired.
o The new additions require significant alterations to the home including elevating the roof. Their current design has a large impact on the essential form of the residence and the changes are not easily reversible due to their size and massing.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
• The Zoning Ordinance states that owners shall not construct, reconstruct, alter, change, restore, expand, or demolish any exterior architectural feature of a building or structure that is visible from a public right-of-way located in the H - Historic Preservation Overlay district without first obtaining a certificate of appropriateness.
• The criteria for approval mandates that the following standards, guidelines, and criteria be used in a balanced evaluation of the project:
o Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation and Guidelines for Rehabilitating Historic Buildings to assist in the consideration of all applications.
o Checklist of design elements to be reviewed and evaluated.
o Consideration of the preservation priority rating assigned to the property in question.
• The McKinney Historic Resource Survey of 2023 found the home at 609 N Benge Street to be a low priority rating, built circa 1940.
• Definition of low priority: Typifies a common local building form, architectural style or type, with little or no identified historic associations; is a moderate to severely altered resource that exemplifies a distinctive building type or architectural style, or that has only minor historic significance.