With all the work that is being put into the process, it appears that many of the questions do not have answers. That's fine, as this is not an exact

With all the work that is being put into the process, it appears that many of the questions do not have answers. That's fine, as this is not an exact science. However, some questions that do have answers are answered in a fashion that to me appears to lack straighforwardness. The one that comes to mind initially is the question about added cost for permits if in a historic district. My interpretation to the posted answer is yes, it does add a cost to the process. There are other examples as well.

We regret that you believe the answers are not straight forward. We believe that some of the answers are not a straight yes or no. For instance, in your example of the additional cost of permitting we received different input from different individuals. We interviewed 12 residents in other local historic districts in Decatur. Ten of those residents reported that the process did not add cost to their renovation project. They had one meeting with the HPC, everything was approved and they moved on to construction. Two stated it did add cost. In general, you would assume that it could depending on the level of professional help you may have in the design of your project. We presented the answer as we did so that you could draw your own conclusion. We do not know your other examples, but our intentions were good on all of the questions.