Abolishing HDC could be on Nov. ballot

Paul Minze, who has had a long-running legal battle against the Historic District Commission over the renovation of a home he bought at 35 Mountain St. in 2014, is planning to circulate a petition that would put dissolving the HDC on the ballot Nov. 3.

“I want to make it clear it is not my intent to dissolve the Eureka Springs Historic District, but to dissolve the HDC,” Minze said. “It is clear that political considerations and favoritism play heavily in their decision making. They have no concern for the cost to the homeowners, in my opinion. In a nutshell, the HDC treats the town as if it was a fiefdom and the property owners are the serfs.”

Minze said the people of Eureka Springs never had the opportunity to vote on the establishment of the Historic District in 1970 or the establishment of HDC in 1978.

“It was just thrust upon them without their knowledge,” Minze said. “The HDC has cost property owners hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years with misinformation and misrepresentation.”

Minze said if the referendum passes, the district which takes in most of the town including areas of newer construction, would still be under the guidelines of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. Minze said he had a call June 29 from Ralph Wilcox with the AHPP who said that you don’t have to have an HDC in order to have an Historic District.

“The guidelines will still have to be followed and will be enforced by the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, which oversees the historic districts of the state,” Minze said. “The city has to provide applications for building permits for buildings in the Historic District. The application would require the property owner to agree that all proposed construction will comply with the HDC guidelines in effect when the vote was taken Nov. 3, 2020. The guidelines would remain in place. Property owners would be required to abide by them, but everyone would be on the same page.”

Mayor Butch Berry said abolishing the HDC would harm not just the aesthetics, but the economy of Eureka Springs.

“I have been a preservation architect actively involved in the preservation of historic structures for more than 40 years,” Berry wrote in an email. “I am very proud of Eureka Springs being a recognized Historic District with National Significance. It is my belief that this has been a signature of Eureka Springs and one of the main attractions for people to not only visit Eureka Springs, but also to live and invest.”

Berry said that the HDC is absolutely critically important to the City of Eureka Springs. He said it is vital to protect the town’s historic fabric for visitors and residents both.

Minze’s conflicts with the HDC were rooted in the placement of one window at the property that was in extreme disrepair when he purchased it. Minze said the property had been added on to haphazardly through the years, with some additions made that he felt were detrimental and needed to be corrected.

There were four windows facing Mountain St. and one window, which he said he had a permit for, was to moved up to the position of the other windows. All four historic windows were restored. Minze said he was issued a Stop Work Order when he raised one of the windows.

“The Stop Work Order was for raising the window, but it stopped work on everything on the inside and outside of the property,” Minze said. “The home was badly in need of a new roof and other major repairs. But, for nine months, I was unable to work either inside or outside of the house because of the Stop Work Order. It wasn’t until I took it to court that Carroll County Circuit Court Judge Scott Jackson said the city couldn’t stop me from protecting my property.”

At the end of 2017, Minze put a new roof on the house. He has completed interior renovations of two housing units in the building and is continuing with work on a third unit.

The decision of the Circuit Court to require Minze to lower the window was appealed to the appellate court. But after nine months, the appellate court sent the case back to the circuit court.

“Now we are waiting to go before the Judge Jackson and see if he will re-rule on it,” Minze said.

Minze said he wouldn’t mind following the rules and guidelines if they were being evenly enforced.

“It goes back to favoritism,” Minze said. “I wonder what would happen if one of the HDC commissioners or one of their friends had owned the property. They are so inconsistent. You can do it at the top of the hill and not at the bottom. We do not take abuse in this country. Why should we take the abuse of the HDC?”

Minze recognizes he might have difficulty getting the 120 signatures needed to put the issue to a vote especially during the Covid-19 epidemic because many people are quarantining. And he says many homeowners, people in the building trades and other businesspeople, are fearful of doing anything that might cost them getting a permit from HDC in the future. He emphasized that people who sign the petition are just the opportunity to vote on the issue.

Over the years some HDC commissioners have complained about lack of enforcement of the guidelines. Failure to get a permit can be punished by a fine of up to $500 per day. But those fines have rarely, if ever, been levied. Appealing an HDC permit denial requires filing a lawsuit with the Circuit Court, a time-consuming and expensive proposition.

A number of times people have done work without a permit, and then state they didn’t know one was necessary. Normally, if the work would have been approved if they had applied for a permit, the HDC approves one retroactively.

The all-volunteer HDC has worked to make residents more aware of the guidelines by sending out a brochure to all mailing addresses in the city in 2019. Brochures are also provided to real estate agents to give to clients. The guidelines and other information including agendas for HDC meetings can be found on the website for the city, eurekasprings.us, under the tab “City Commissions, Historic District.”

Minze said anyone interested in signing the petition can contact him at (972) 832-6051 or by emailing him at paul.candyman@gmail.com.