Plans to restore and reopen the historic Dog House Tavern in Langley cleared a couple of hurdles last week.

Dog House owners Janice and Charlie Kleiner won conditional approval from a pair of Langley citizen boards to move forward with conceptual designs.

Plans for the building include a residence and office/retail space upstairs, restaurant and bar at street level, event space on the lower level, and a two-car garage off Anthes Avenue for the residents.

According to the plans, each floor would include new decks looking toward Camano Island.

According to the concepts, presented May 19 to the Design Review Board, the building’s facades will remain largely unchanged, including the bright red paint.

“Bob (Waterman) and his group are going to hold you to the fire on that one,” said Bob Dalton, the design board’s chairman, referring to Waterman and the Langley Historic Preservation Commission.

The Kleiners, who’ve owned the building since 2010, submitted the conceptual designs to Langley’s Historic Preservation Commission and Design Review Board last week.

Waterman said the Kleiners are interested in seeing if their changes — including the decks, a different First Street awning and restoring the old windows — would qualify them for the city’s historic register and a property tax break. They presented their drawings to the preservation commission May 12.

“Our sense was, in looking at their plans, that although there will be additions such as the decks and windows, the main mass and two sides — south side and west side, would retain their historic characters,” Waterman said last Thursday.

On Tuesday, Janice Kleiner and Weston made a similar presentation to the Design Review Board.

Other than a few concerns about lighting, fire escapes, future signage and paint color, the design board members said they are pleased with what they saw.

“It’s low impact and I support it,” said Ron Kasprisin, a design board member.

The Dog House Tavern has come a long way in two years. After a stop-and-start restoration and renovation plan, the building’s future looked grim.

In 2014, the Langley City Council passed an ordinance outlining steps for demolishing buildings that are eligible to be, or already on, the national or state historic registers. The city’s guidelines would prevent demolition by neglect and allow Langley to keep buildings it deems historically important.

Those rules were developed in response to an inquiry by the Kleiners about demolition.

Waterman said he fully supports the Kleiners’ designs because they are in line with the structure’s history.

Weston said he was seeking a general nod from city representatives before going forward for a structural engineer’s designs to be submitted to the Community Planning Department for review.

The four members said they conditionally approve of the concepts, but still need to review the exterior lighting, signage and awning before giving a full approval.