WHEREAS, since 2010, Pittsfield Township’s Master Plan has delineated historic preservation, along with celebrating our arts and culture, as a primary objective for our community as a result of which we’ve established two (2) historic districts since then; and

 WHEREAS, the State of Michigan has declared historic preservation to be a public purpose and has established procedures whereby a local unit of government may establish local historic districts; and

 WHEREAS, the Local Historic Districts Act (“the Act”) requires and authorizes a local unit of government to appoint a historic district study committee before establishing a historic district; and

 WHEREAS, the Pittsfield Township Historic District Commission has requested the Board of Trustees to appoint a historic district study committee to consider establishment of the Byrd Center Historic District; and

 WHEREAS, the Pittsfield Charter Township Board of Trustees supports historic preservation efforts in the township; and

 WHEREAS, the Local Historic Districts Act requires that the committee contain a majority of persons who have a clearly demonstrated interest in or knowledge of historic preservation; and

 WHEREAS, the Local Historic Districts Act also requires that the committee contain representation from one or more duly organized local historic preservation organizations; and

 WHEREAS, the persons listed below meet both of the above criteria;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, the Pittsfield Charter Township Board of Trustees establishes the Byrd Center Historic District Study Committee; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Byrd Center Historic District Study Committee shall perform the following tasks, as required by Section 3 of the Local Historic District Act (MCL 399.203):

a) Conduct a photographic inventory of resources within each proposed historic district following procedures established or approved by the department.

b) Conduct basic research of each proposed historic district and the historic resources located within that district.
c) Determine the total number of historic and nonhistoric resources within a proposed historic district and the percentage of historic resources of that total. In evaluating the significance of historic resources, the committee shall be guided by the selection criteria for evaluation issued by the United States secretary of the interior for inclusion of resources in the national register of historic places, as set forth in 36 C.F.R. part 60, and criteria established or approved by the department, if any.

 d) Prepare a preliminary historic district study committee report that addresses at a minimum all of the following:

e) Transmit copies of the preliminary report for review and recommendations to the local planning body, to the department, to the Michigan historical commission, and to the state historic preservation review board.
f) Make copies of the preliminary report available to the public pursuant to the Act.

 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Byrd Center Historic District Study Committee shall meet all other requirements and deadlines established for such committees by the Act.

 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the following persons are appointed to the Byrd Center Historic District Study Committee:

•  Dr. Dan Bonenberger
• Ina Hanel-Gerdenich
• Joyce Hunter
• Betty LeClair
• Al Paas
• Helen Richards
• Patricia Scribner
• Ed Wall
• Mary Ellen Wall