SEESUU appeals BAR denial of Downtown Historic District demolition application for sections of 131 E. Main St.

On Tuesday, December 27, Front Royal Town Manager Joe Waltz confirmed that an appeal of the Town Board of Architectural Review (BAR) denial of a demolition application by SEESUU LLC and its principal Gary Wayland for portions of the “Old Murphy Theater” building at 131 East Main Street had been received by the Council Clerk’s office the previous week on Thursday, December 22. Following a public hearing on December 13, the BAR voted 4-1, Duane Vaughan dissenting, to deny the demolition application. Vaughan later confirmed that his negative vote was cast to give the applicant additional time to reconsider his reluctance to provide sought after information on the structural integrity of the targeted portions of the building. But with the applicant’s stated resistance to additional expenditures to acquire that information without guarantees on a final outcome for his redevelopment plan, the board majority opted for an immediate final decision to deny the application.

Views of the old Murphy Theater building, above looking south down Church St. from East Main, below looking north toward E. Main from the rear of the building. The demolition is proposed for the two lighter bricked sections to the rear, circa 1950s newest and most rear section’s apartments, and the “sometime before World War II” towering in part, former opera, theater, and stage area terra cotta brick section.

The applicant had 10 days to file an appeal directly to the town’s elected officials, who have final say on rezoning and other development or redevelopment applications in the Historic Front Royal Downtown Business District. With no council meetings scheduled for the final week of the year prior to the newly elected council and mayoral lineup taking their seats come January, Waltz indicated that the matter would first come before council at a January 9th work session, with a public hearing and potential vote on the SEESUU appeal slated for January 23rd.

While BAR Chairman Collin Waters made it clear that only the demolition aspect of SEESUU’s redevelopment plan was on the table at the BAR’s public hearing on December 13, many of the public hearing’s 14 speakers referenced the previously discussed redevelopment plan to rebuild the demolished portions of the building to facilitate 60 “dwelling units” of 600 square feet or less. As previously reported by Royal Examiner: “Parking, parking, parking” was a continued refrain from the 13 speakers opposed to, or cautious about, what demolition authorization would lead to. The large number of “dwelling units” too small to be termed apartments by Town Zoning standards is a plan opponents believe will negatively impact downtown commercial district parking availability to existing businesses’ customers and staffs.

Several of the BAR public hearing speakers had past or present owner or management connections to nearby downtown businesses and buildings, including the Murphy Theater building itself. The general message from 13 of the 14 speakers, SEESUU’s real estate agent Bill Barnett being the exception, was to proceed with extreme caution on an application with so few answers to specific questions regarding the potential for redevelopment rather than demolition of the targeted portions of the building. Wayland made it clear that only the “sometime before World War II” terra cotta section and circa 1940s/’50s rear apartment addition were being requested for demolition, not the darker bricked original 1879 Methodist Church portion or the 1908/’09 commercial section fronting East Main Street.

Applicant Gary Wayland pleads his case at podium as BAR and public, latter largely un-pictured, listen. BAR Chairman Collin Waters, facing Wayland at far end of table, took the point in seeking applicant information on the structural status of the terra cotta section to determine the viability of redevelopment rather than demolition. Below, former building co-owner Suzanne Silek raised an interesting potential consequence of demolition and rebuilding. She wondered if bodies she was told were not recovered from a church cemetery when it was moved to facilitate the building’s expansion south, might not be disturbed by a major reconstruction project.

It will be interesting to see how many of the December 13th BAR public hearing speakers return to state their cases, or new ones appear to express varying opinions, to council. It appears this matter will be the first major decision faced by the newly aligned council with new members Bruce Rappaport and Josh Ingram aboard, and almost as-new members Skip Rogers (recent appointment to fill vacancy) and Wayne Sealock (November special election victory), along with current Vice-Mayor and soon to be Mayor Lori Athey Cockrell, in place.

How will the newly aligned council roll? – Stay tuned, sports fans.