Paul Minze took his battle with the Historic District Commission to court on June 12, and Circuit Judge Scott Jackson ordered the HDC to grant him a permit to repair his roof and porch. The two parties have an Aug. 14 court date to litigate remaining issues.
In 2014, Minze bought a house at 35 Mountain St., and his contractor received HDC approval for work on the exterior at the HDC’s meeting on Jan. 2, 2015. When he returned in April to ask about replacing his roof, Minze was told he had improperly changed the location of a window.
Minze’s house has four windows facing Mountain, and the tops of three of the windows line up. The fourth was lower than the others, and Minze said the HDC approved his plan to raise the window to the level of the others at the Jan. 2 meeting.
The building inspector eventually tagged the house, preventing any further work. Minze received court approval to continue work on the interior, and then filed the current lawsuit to allow work on the roof and porch.
In a letter in the June 6 issue of the Independent, Minze said he had been “diligently attempting to restore his property,” and the dispute over placement of one window has “caused the plaintiff undue hardship and expense.”
“The city stands on its right to preserve the historic district,” City Attorney Tim Weaver said in court, insisting Minze did not follow HDC’s rules. “We have a duty to stand behind the stop order.” Weaver said Minze had not filed an application for the roof work, and attacked the plaintiff’s argument that the HDC would have rejected his application for a permit.
“We are here without a disapproval,” he said, and described Minze’s lawsuit as an attempt to use the court to circumvent the HDC.
After the judge’s ruling, the city received an application by courier, and HDC staff member Glenna Booth said it had been approved.