Afton Inn Developer Responds Quickly to Citation from the Town

In two notices dated June 27, issued by the Town of Front Royal’s Department of Planning and Zoning, the owner of the Afton Inn property at 2 East Main Street, Alan J. Omar, was alerted to the fact that the structure is unsafe and that the premises are in violation of Town code on several points. A plan for the structure’s safety was demanded by July 27, and compliance with the code, with respect to the several zoning violations, was demanded by July 8. In an email exchange that transpired from July 7 to July 8, Omar described his plan to respond to the citation to Property Maintenance Official Daniel Wells. All this information results from an FOIA request from the Royal Examiner to the planning and zoning department.

Afton Inn with new fencing installed—photo by Mike McCool, Royal Examiner.

As for the building being unsafe, Wells clarified in the correspondence that he wasn’t citing the structural integrity of the building, which has been buttressed by Omar in a variety of ways: “There has been a significant amount of work done on this building,” Omar writes, “that includes significant structural repairs and upgrades, major masonry work inside and outside, and added heavy-duty steel to further strengthen the structure. Every floor has new LVL floor joists.” What one sees driving by, a frankly ugly building is not reflective of the exterior of the work that has gone on inside. Wells cited the numerous unsecured openings that leave the building unsafe, largely due to the fencing being broken down in several places. As of July 8, a crew was working to rectify the fencing situation.

“We’ve been having a hard time communicating with our previous fencing company since March regarding fence repairs and maintenance,” Omar said in an interview with the Royal Examiner. “After receiving the notice, we finally decided to replace the fence ourselves. We bought panels and installed new fencing that looks much better and is much more secure. Any public safety concerns are our priority and were fixed immediately.” As for the grass that needed to be cut, that task has been expedited, the POD has been removed, and as for the building permits that have expired for two years, Omar says there is no active construction under the building permits. The work on structural integrity was done before the permits expired. “We are definitely going to renew the permits,” Omar said, “Most likely in the coming month.”

“Although the project is on hold temporarily,” Omar said, “we fully intend to complete this development. We are just working with a longer timeline. We are waiting for better economic conditions and lower interest rates. In the meantime, we plan on using private funding and making smaller progress where possible. This is a privately owned property, and despite the strong opinions, people should understand that this building is privately owned and should be respected just like anyone else’s home or business.” He said: “We have a plan for this project and have invested a significant amount of our money into the Afton. We have not received one penny from the government. We have done everything that has been done to the building with our own money. This includes $200K in masonry work, several hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on added steel, new concrete foundation, and every floor has new floor joists. The entire inside structure has been overhauled with commercial grade steel and LVL floor joists.” One might conclude that Omar is completely invested.

Unsafe Structure Notice – Sent 6-28-2024

Warning Notice – Zoning – Sent 6-28-2024