Town Council once again overturned another arrogant decision by the Historic District Review Board (or should that be the Historic District Review Bored?).
Applicants, David Jackson and Stephanie Paige appealed the Historic District Review Board’s decision to deny a modification to a Certificate of Appropriateness to allow a parged block foundation for their renovated home.
As anyone that has renovated any of these old houses will tell you, once you crack into it, things will probably change and modifications to the original plans will have to be made. That is the case here.
The applicants originally wanted to use stone facade for the foundation, but that became cost-prohibitive. They wanted to substitute parged block for the stone facade. The HDRB denied the application because they wanted them to use brick instead, even though parged block is approved in the Historic District Guidelines, and exists on several houses in the immediate area.
Councilman Andy Buchholz admonished the Board, “It says right in the guidelines they can use parged block. Who do you think you are? You can’t tell them what they can and can’t use. I don’t understand what you’re trying to do here.”
The consensus among Town Council was that the HDRB once again severely over-stepped.
“Why are we even here with this?” asked Buchholz.
The decision to reverse the HDRB’s decision was unanimous.
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