BAR skirts informational vacuum – forwards CDBG application conditionally

On Tuesday evening, April 28, a three-person virtual-world quorum of the Front Royal Board of Architectural Review moved along a Certificate of Appropriateness (COA) request from Bill Powers for his State Farm Insurance office building at 135 North Royal Avenue, with a few stipulations.

Those stipulations primarily revolved around uncertainty about the existing material in some upper story gables. Powers’ request included the installation of 4-1/2-inch white vinyl Dutch Lap siding on those gables. However, from a visual survey at a street distance from a site visit, board member Andrea White said the existing gable siding appeared to be wood.

The three present members, BAR Chair Angela Toler, Laure Runyon, and White were like-minded in that their approval of all requested work should be on a “like for like” material basis.

Other aspects of the COA request were for the installation of Granite Gray roof shingles and a white-painted chimney. Photos included in the one-item agenda packet indicated those two requests appeared to be verifiable as “like for like” on the existing structure.

“My thought was if all of this was wood and remotely historic original, then I would like to keep the gable matching all the other finishes,” Toler said, adding, “But if the rest of this is already vinyl then I can be a little more flexible.”

Unfortunately as was noted by staff, Powers was not logged in virtually to comment on what existing materials were in place on the building.

“I’m thinking that with our lack of information and our tendency to keep the appropriate fabrics in the district, the three of us are really in favor of keeping wood in the gables right now,” Toler told her board quorum.

Another gable in the rear of the building

Acting Town Planning Director Chris Brock noted that Powers wanted his request included as part of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) project for matching State-funded Historic Downtown Front Royal revitalization. And if not at the East Main and Chester Streets intersection focus of many of those CDBG projects between Royal and Commerce Avenues, his building’s presence just three blocks north between North Royal and Chester Streets does have him eligible in the town’s Historic District Overlay section, Brock pointed out.

The CDBG inclusion would mandate review by that project’s State Historical Review agencies, Brock observed. “So even if you approve the vinyl, they may not,” he told the board.

“I’d say for that block grant there’d be no way they would approve the vinyl here. They’re even more strict and rigorous about materials than we have been. They might even start asking questions about the roof,” Toler agreed with Brock’s assessment.

“I think we’re all really in agreement here, especially moving forward with the other grant application,” Toler said of the CDBG variable. “We could … approve the roof, approve the paint, but then the gables would need to be wood.”

Above, a 2019 photo of the building housing Bill Powers State Farm Insurance Agency in the main structure; below a ‘Historic Image’ included in the agenda materials dating to a previous tenant and/or owner.

The question was raised whether that wood would have to be styled to mimic the vinyl Dutch Lap siding in the request, “or tell them it has to be wood and let them choose (between that style or wood shingles).”

Noting the uncertainty about the existing materials, Toler suggested going with the replacement of a “like wood product” (not like wood, but like design).

And that is how the BAR forwarded approval of the Powers’ Certificate of Appropriateness for the work on his building.