A 95-year-old historic district homeowner can keep her vinyl windows, which are against regulations, after Macon-Bibb County Planning & Zoning staff uncovered a prior approval from 2002 under a different address.
After Tuesday’s hearings, P&Z Executive Director Jeff Ruggieri acknowledged the mistake to the commissioners who found Paula East in violation on May 11.
“Over the past couple weeks, we put you in some pretty difficult situations, and we have revised our review and processes to severely restrict or fully eliminate those instances in the future,” Ruggieri said.
“We appreciate that. Y’all do an excellent job,” P&Z Chair Jeane Easom said.
The three commissioners present Tuesday, Easom, Vice Chair Tim Jones and Kesia Stafford, were the ones who voted to hold Paula East in violation for work P&Z staff incorrectly reported was done without approval about a quarter-century ago.
Easom said the historic district designation for the property is the main reason she was so emphatic about the denial.
The Design Review Board, (DRB), voted May 4 to allow East to keep the windows because the reported violation occurred more than two decades ago and “removal at this time is not reasonable,” but on May 11 commissioners voted 3-2 to uphold the historic district guidelines with Mindy Attaway and Robby Redmond siding with the DRB.
The issue surfaced after neighbor Edwin Atkins recently reported the violations were devaluing his historic home, two doors down from East in the 1860 historic slate row house on the National Register of Historic Places.
P&Z staff investigated Atkins’ complaint and did not find a certificate of appropriateness on file for East’s home at 931 Walnut St.
After East and her granddaughter Flora Chakmakis visited P&Z May 21, Ruggieri dug through old P&Z minutes and discovered a similar application in 2002 from East for 993 Walnut, which is not an address listed in Macon-Bibb County tax records.
In that case, DRB denied the application but P&Z overruled and allowed East to install vinyl windows as long as she attached muntins, or faux dividers to give the appearance of individual panes, Ruggieri said.
Wednesday, Atkins said he would be satisfied if East’s muntins matched the other six-over-six pattern of the original windows, but they do not.
Ruggieri said the 2002 didn’t specify the design of the muntins, just that they had to be attached.
At the conclusion of Tuesday’s meeting, Easom said: “We can’t do anything about what previous commissions did. We can change it if we want to or we need to, but decisions that were made in the past do affect what we do today, so we gotta get it right first.”
Easom said holding the line on the vinyl window prohibition is out of fairness to others who were held to that standard.
“We have had so many where people do things and they just go ahead and do what they want to do anyway. And Tim and Kesia and I just said, ‘The buck’s got to stop somewhere.’ There’s no limit on age in our regs,” Easom told The Macon Newsroom after the meeting.
Vice Chair Tim Jones said he can’t remember an incident like this oversight in his 12 years on the commission.
Stafford said she realizes the P&Z staff is very diligent in preparing the reports.
“Always try to make sure you hit every ‘i’ and cross every ‘t,’ and we have to remind others that we are also human and stuff happens,” Stafford said.
Chakmakis said the ordeal has taken a toll on her grandmother who had to be hospitalized following the ruling.
“She was so stressed out. She was crying,” Chakmakis said. “I think it could have been handled much better, but you can’t change the past.”
Violations and variances
Tuesday’s P&Z agenda further showed Stafford that commissioners can’t always rule strictly by regulations.
Penaloza Fabiola had three variance applications for fences improperly positioned in the right-of-way and erected without prior approval, including one at 990 W. Richmond St. that was deferred from May 11 to await a ruling from county engineering about the fence being in the right-of-way.
“If there was a permit applied for, we would have had all these conversations during the submittal of the permit, and we would have worked this all out,” Ruggieri said.
Stafford left the administrative meeting thinking the commissioners would deny the fence variances, including those at 4091 San Juan Ave. and 4083 San Juan Ave.
“I’ll be honest, walking into this one, I was all about just sticking with the rules, and that is just because, you know, when you constantly move the bar, it just creates havoc for us,” Stafford said.
In the Richmond Street case, engineers said the fence could stay, but Fabiola would be responsible for moving or repairing the fence if road work was needed.
During the hearing, Stafford realized the position of the house prevented moving the fence the full 10 feet from the right-of-way, so a variance still would be needed.
She moved to allow the fence to remain in place and the others agreed.
In the other two cases, the fences line up with similar ones along the street, so P&Z supported the variances.
Stafford told Fabiola she was very lucky.
“I’ll just be very direct with you, our intent was to deny it, and it was because again we like to be consistent,” Stafford said.
Easom cautioned: “Tell all your friends to check with P&Z before they do anything.”
“I will,” Fabiola answered.
Because San Juan Avenue homes are zoned for light manufacturing, fences can be 8 feet in height.
In its continuing quest to clear outdated manufacturing zones from residential areas, P&Z staff rezoned to single-family residential 2544 Peacock St. and other properties at 2590, 2578 Peacock, 469 Holloway St. and 2621 Cason St. and additional parcels at 2573, 2547, 2533 Peacock St., 485 Holloway St.
A change in the zoning code now prohibits homes in manufacturing zones, and although those houses would be grandfathered in, the owners could not add on to the house or rebuild without applying for rezoning themselves.
P&Z is trying to clear these properties for residential use themselves and prevent homeowners from having to foot the bill.
Other agenda items
- 4700 Sheraton Drive — Commissioners approved an expanded application for Grand INFINITI to build a roughly 6,700-square-foot automobile service center and showroom on 1.8 acres of a 3.2-acre site. P&Z originally approved an 3,360-square-foot garage without the sales floor last October.
- 3960 Heathers Glenn Drive — P&Z approved the expansion of Sacred Portals Church with a 6,000-square-foot new sanctuary building to accommodate 300 people. The existing building that allows for 100 people will be used as a fellowship hall. The church must erect a 10-foot landscaped buffer along the property line to help screen the parking lot from neighbors.
- 122 Florida Ave. — P&Z approved Todd Davis removing a dying tree close to his house and planting a replacement a safe distance away from the building.
- 804 Cherry St. — Miller Heath received permission to build a staircase up the slope on New Street so his wife’s clients will have access to the building from street parking.
Due to a delay in publishing the June 8 agenda in the legal organ, that meeting is cancelled and items will shift to June 22.
— Civic Journalism Senior Fellow Liz Fabian covers Macon-Bibb County government entities for The Macon Newsroom and can be reached at [email protected] or 478-301-2976.
