The Cape Charles Town Council denied an appeal to a Historic District Review Board decision regarding the removal of a chimney.
The house in question is the former church at the corner of Madison and Strawberry. The church had an outside chimney at one point, however, the 1999 renovation encompassed it.
The chimney extends through the roof, and down into one of the bathrooms. The applicants wished to remove the chimney in order to make the bathroom more usable. The applicant also argued that since the chimney was part of the 1999 renovation, it was no longer historical.
The town denied the application for removal of the chimney based on the fact that it was part of the original structure and established part of the home’s historic character.
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Now Santa will know where to go when he has to go.
Sure am glad we did our renovations years ago. We had a similar useless chimney through the attic and down the side of the kitchen. We renovated the attic for a wonderful place for the grandchildren to stay when they visit (dorm room). The kitchen has been renovated as well and no useless chimney taking up space! I sympathize with those folks.
PS. Cape Charles is not Williamsburg. The rules used by the review board should make sense for Cape Charles. Modern materials should be allowed. They look like the real thing and no maintenance. We (residents of Cape Charles) should be overjoyed that anyone wants to fix up run down old houses! Why would anyone want to put money into using wood for rehab when it will rot and need repeated painting. Also that chimney can’t be seen from the front of that building and is useless. Really dumb.