City hears staff and volunteers on two-track plan to preserve historic rice dryers

City staff and a volunteer advisory group presented the council with two paths to preserve the city’s historic rice-dryer structures and encourage compatible redevelopment.

Community development staff explained the immediate option is to apply the International Existing Building Code (IEBC), a point‑based compliance method the city adopted in its 2023 code update. The IEBC lets property owners hire licensed design professionals to evaluate existing conditions against safety, egress and fire-safety criteria and submit a score-based package to the city. As a staff member summarized, the IEBC “is a point-based method” that can allow reuse where some elements are deficient but other safety categories exceed minimums; owners would hire design professionals to run the analysis and submit plans to the city for approval.

Advisory-group members and the structural engineer working on the dryers emphasized life‑safety is the priority but urged a partnership approach. Structural engineer Steve Shildra said that while codes are helpful guides, “if the design professional is comfortable and puts his seal on it, we would move forward,” and urged the city to collaborate with owners and designers rather than treat the process as adversarial.

Council and advisory members also discussed a longer-term zoning strategy. Staff described a potential preservation-oriented zoning district or PDD language that could require council approval for demolition or set conditions to ensure the dryers remain part of any redevelopment. Several councilmembers pressed for draft ordinance language, liability analysis and clearer direction; one councilmember asked staff to return with a draft ordinance focused specifically on protecting the dryers and options for revitalization around them.

Advisory members said feedback from property owners was mixed: some want flexibility to redevelop, others support preservation. Tracy Rodriguez, a building official on the advisory group, noted the IEBC process relies on licensed architects/engineers to document phased plans (phase 1/2/3) that can satisfy the point system, while the city’s role is review and inspection after plan submittal. Council directed staff and the advisory group to continue meeting and to return with recommended draft language and implementation steps.

Next steps: staff will continue HPEG meetings, refine recommendations, and present draft ordinance language and a proposed implementation path (IEBC guidance plus a longer-term zoning/demolition-review option) to a future council meeting.