Citizen concerns spur DHR briefing to Town staff on Afton Inn obligations

As noted at the end of our related story on the EDA’s February 28 Board of Director’s meeting, following a closed session Friday morning the EDA authorized filing an FOIA request to the Town of Front Royal. That FOIA inquiry seeks all communications between the Town and the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR) regarding the $700,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and the Afton Inn.

The Afton Inn, formerly Montview Hotel, prior to its porch structure falling victim to that new-fangled horseless carriage transportation thing, circa 1920-ish. Now the Afton appears in the crosshairs of State DHR scrutiny of CDBG funding. Courtesy Photo/Warren Heritage Society.Royal Examiner Photos/Roger Bianchini

That grant involves federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding administered through the State for improvements to Front Royal’s Historic Downtown Business District. It also requires a $700,000 match from the Town and is running up toward a mid-September deadline for downtown façade and other grant enabled improvements to have gotten underway.

Royal Examiner believes a February 21 letter from the Review and Compliance Division of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources to Interim Front Royal Planning Director and Zoning Administrator Chris Brock is at the root of that FOIA request.

The letter, signed by DHR Architectural Historian Laura Lavernia, points out that the Afton Inn building is tied to the Town’s acquisition of the CDBG, which was awarded through the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development and is bound by conditions of a “Programmatic Agreement executed between DHR and the Town for the Front Royal Downtown Revitalization Project.”

According to Lavernia, the Town would have to provide substantial justification to DHR for authorization of demolition.

“At a minimum, the rationale for this sudden change in scope warrants a substantive explanation and some discussion with our office before drastic measures are taken that cannot be undone,” she informed Brock.

‘At a minimum, the rationale for this sudden change in scope warrants a substantive explanation and some discussion with our office before drastic measures are taken that cannot be undone,’ DHR’s Review and Compliance Division wrote the Town on Feb. 21, concerning any potential plan to demolish the Afton Inn. But is Mother Nature taking care of that?

Lavernia’s letter opens by tracking the Afton Inn’s history, historical registries and a troubling observation about the Town’s intent toward the structure.

“The Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR) understands that the Town is considering the demolition of the Afton Inn located at 2 East Main Street … listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), the Virginia Landmarks Register, and contributing resources to the NRHP-listed Front Royal Historic District … Formerly called the Mountview Inn, the building appears to have been constructed sometime in 1868 – 1870 … in the Italianate style … Its successful rehabilitation will be a source of pride for years to come – and for future generations to appreciate,” the letter from DHR Architectural Historian Laura Lavernia states.

Contacted Wednesday, February 26, Interim Planning Director Brock acknowledged receipt of the letter but said it was not in response to any request for information on demolition from him.

“I don’t know what it’s in reference to, newspaper articles or what – I can’t speculate,” Brock told Royal Examiner. Brock said he forwarded the letter to Interim Town Manager Matt Tederick.

When contacted, Tederick concurred with Brock’s assessment, stating that to his knowledge no one at Town Hall had initiated a request to demolish the building, which he noted is still owned by the EDA. The Town transferred ownership to the EDA under a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) in 2014 to facilitate the property’s marketing and redevelopment.

As for the impetus for the February 21 communication from DHR, Interim Town Manager Tederick suggested the possibility that media reports of past public meeting remarks by Mayor Gene Tewalt or EDA Board member and Asset Committee Chairman Greg Harold indicating the potential of demolition as a possible outcome of the languishing Afton Inn renovation project, as a possible cause.

“My impression is no one wants to tear it down. Everyone wants something to be done, Tederick said of the property.

However, as previously reported by Royal Examiner Harold revisited his discontent with the mid-December reversal of the Town staff’s initial prioritization of winterization of the 151-year-old building at the head of Front Royal’s Historic Downtown Business District during a perhaps ironically timed February 21 EDA Asset Committee meeting.

As recounted in detail in our related story on the Town’s absence and presence at the February 28 EDA Board meeting, Harold pointed to early November through early December emails from Town Attorney Doug Napier indicating winterization of the Afton Inn was a “priority” of the Town and that from a public safety perspective the Town had an obligation to see that the physical stabilization of the Afton Inn was accomplished.

However, as Tederick told the Joint Town-County Tourism Advisory Board about the future of tourism promotion in this community on Wednesday, “the devil is in the detail”.

‘The devil is in the detail,’ Interim Town Manager Tederick told the Joint Town-County Tourism Advisory Board about the future and funding of tourism in this community. That seems true on multiple fronts.

And the detail of financial responsibility for maintenance and repair, or demolition, of the Afton Inn appears to be a detail the Town Council, its administrative staff and attorneys aren’t ready to accept.

It was the interim town manager who informed the EDA on December 13, that any indication the Town would fund Afton Inn winterization costs was a “mistake”.

And while the Memorandum of Agreement referenced in our related EDA meeting story does state that the Town is responsible for covering maintenance and repair costs of the Afton building sought by the EDA as owner, it adds that “the Town shall not require the EDA to perform any repairs, maintenance or demolition of any part of the Afton Inn building UNLESS the Town AGREES to bear the cost of such repairs, maintenance and/or demolition.” (EMPHASIS added)

With the DHR letter’s impetus a mystery, Royal Examiner set out to get the answer from its writer. Two days after leaving several phone messages for Lavernia at various DHR numbers we got a call from DHR Media Relations official Randy Jones. After explaining our query on what led Lavernia to send the letter to Interim Town Planning Director Brock, he set out to get an answer.

A short time late he called back with that answer.

The impetus was three-pronged, Jones explained. It began with what Jones described as “several citizens reaching out to DHR” with concerns about the Afton Inn’s status and the Town’s role in assuring that status was maintained as the EDA negotiates to resurrect the stalled renovation project. Asked about names or numbers of the citizens who contact DHR, Jones would provide no additional detail.

Next door neighbors – maybe current Town officials don’t think any downtown building should be taller than Town Hall either. The Afton’s modern saga began in 2006-7 when the council sued its Board of Zoning Appeals for authorizing then-owner Frank Barros’s elaborate renovation plan that would have made the Afton 10-feet taller than the courthouse across the street, which is against town code.

However, he said that Lavernia wanted the Town’s interim planning director and interim town manager to understand all the financial and legal implications of the Afton Inn’s inclusion in the East Main Street Community Development Block Grant for the revitalization of Front Royal’s Historic Downtown Business District. From the content of Lavernia’s letter, it would seem the Virginia Department of Historic Resources considers the Afton Inn an important part of that revitalization project.

One might ask, and we’re sure someone’s lawyer eventually will, could the Afton’s inclusion in the CDBG project mandate that Town funding of maintenance or repair work must be made available to the owner if deemed necessary to assure the structure’s survival?

So, is Tederick right – did media reports of past EDA or public criticism of Town actions regarding its relationship to the EDA and Afton Inn redevelopment fuel citizen concerns about the status of the Afton Inn, leading to Lavernia’s February 21 letter to Town Hall?

Harold’s pointed public comments aimed the Town’s way citing “The Town’s Charade of Partnership” with the EDA and numerous “acts of bad faith” seemingly designed to cripple the EDA’s ability to effectively continue to function, including in resurrecting 2 East Main Street LLC Afton renovation project, began on December 13, as noted above, the day Tederick informed the EDA that any impression given that the Town was prepared to fund winterization costs of the Afton was a “mistake”.

Perhaps ironically, Harold publicly refocused on the Afton Inn aspect of Town-EDA relations on February 21, the date of Lavernia’s cautionary DHR letter to a Town staff increasingly populated by interim administrators under the direction of a town council under increasing public scrutiny as to exactly what its vision of the future of the Town of Front Royal, its financial and governmental apparatus is.

We see you; do you hear us? – a number of town citizens, including Scott Jenkins here on Feb. 10, have asked council recently. At issue is as a radical reorganization and austerity plan tied to an FY 2021 budget proposal that began being implemented five months before the end of FY 2020 and six days before that 2021 budget proposal was publicly presented to council. Has saving the Afton Inn for redevelopment fallen victim to the council’s desire to reduce taxes and slash the Town’s annual operational budget?

Now it may be up to the Front Royal Town Council’s six members, and the mayor, to more clearly explain that vision and the decision not to fund the approximate $15,000 cost of a stabilizing winterization of the Afton Inn.

Citizens are left to wonder, is the council’s vision for $1.4 million dollars of renovated downtown business facades and Village Commons improvements, with a renovated Afton Inn pointing the way to that revitalized historic downtown business district?

Or is it perhaps a vision of bricks in the dust, surrounding a parking lot where the Afton Inn once stood, tied to a tax and revenue reduction in the face of $29 million in planned capital improvements? – Improvements apparently not tied to historic downtown revitalization or the restoration of the Afton Inn.

Yea, let’s fix it up and put it on the Historic Downtown Front Royal Trolley route. – BUT the devil is in the detail …

Now it appears that not only do Town citizens want those questions answered, but so does the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

See related story

Town notifies EDA of Afton Inn issues – opts out of discussing responsibility