The Eureka Springs Board of Zoning Adjustment has upheld a stop work order issued in May by the city’s building inspector on a property that was being rebuilt after being damaged in a 2022 fire.
At a special called meeting on Tuesday, May 23, BOZA commissioners voted unanimously to affirm a stop work order that was issued for 1 Washington St., a multi-unit complex that was destroyed by a March 17, 2022 fire.
BOZA chair Susan Harman said building inspector Jacob Coburn issued the stop work order for “failure to obtain a certificate of appropriateness from the Historic District Commission for alterations to a structure in a historic district” and “failure to comply with municipal code requirements regarding construction debris.”
The city’s historic district commission had issued a certificate of appropriateness in April 2022, but that certificate was revoked in January because of “unapproved alterations” to the roof of the property in the historic district.
However, building owners Bill King and John Rankine said the alterations to the roof of the property, which included removing a rear room above the main roof that did not have an exterior exit, were required according to the city’s fire marshal.
King told commissioners that the removal of the third-level room was part of rebuild plans submitted to Kylee Hevrdejs, who at the time was the city’s director of historic preservation and planning director.
“I submitted drawings of the roof and Kylee, who worked here at the time, did not write down that that rear room that was on top of the building was being removed,” King said. “It was by order of the fire marshal. Everything else you see from the street is exactly as it was. But that top room that burned off completely was a fire trap and the fire marshal said we could not rebuild it.” While the certificate of appropriateness from the HDC stated that a rebuild had to happen identical to the way the property was before the fire, King said the revisions to the structure were submitted as required.
“If you have the plans that I submitted to the city at the time I applied to the HDC, they somehow lost the paperwork in the transition of employees,” King said. “I resubmitted them a few weeks ago and it clearly states that the room will be removed and should be removed. Must be removed.”
Harman told commissioners that the April 18, 2022, certificate of appropriateness issued for the damaged roof removal and replacement was OK’d and stated that the project had to have the “same design and dimensions” as the original structure.” On January 19, 2023, a letter was issued by the city preservation officer revoking the certificate of appropriateness for “unapproved alterations,” Harman said, adding that a “partial” application was submitted to the HDC on May 1 just before the stop work order was issued.
Kyle Palmer, current city historic preservation officer and city planning director, said he sent a letter to the owners on March 2, 2023.
“It was giving them notification that they had unapproved alterations and they had a certain amount of time to get back to me with a plan on that,” said Palmer, who added that plans for the project were submitted to him on May 1.
King said when the issue was brought to his attention he reached out to Hevrdejs to confirm that the alterations to the roof were in the original plans that were approved in the certificate of appropriateness.
“I actually contacted Kylee, the former employee, and she said she would call the city and tell them where the paperwork was,” King said. “And she responded back to me … Actually, Kyle told me that she was basically told that she no longer works for the city and she should butt out.”
In the end, commissioners referenced a delay between contacts of the property owners submitting information regarding the alterations while King said he felt they were just doing what the fire marshal instructed.
“There is no plan to fix the issue,” King said. “It’s going to have to stay the way it is by the order of the fire marshal.”
“The fire marshal can give recommendations, but he does not make decisions for the HDC,” Palmer responded.
Palmer later read a letter from city fire marshal James Cowan regarding the property.
“It is my determination … that this apartment with one exit that was accessed by the interior had no direct access to an exterior exit cannot be permitted to be rebuilt,” Palmer read from Cowan’s letter, which later stated, “I would not allow it to be rebuilt as previously configured.”
In response, King said the space referenced in Cowan’s letter was not an apartment.
“Just to clarify, it was not an apartment, it was a room and I kept the stairway locked off so my tenants wouldn’t use it because I knew it was a fire trap,” he said.
“I get that and I completely understand that,” Harman responded. “But HDC isn’t in the business of determining what is safe or not safe. They are just looking at the structure and the design of the building. So even if it was completely enclosed with a small crawl space it still would have to have been the right structure.”
King replied: “But it was in the plan I submitted to HDC that got lost.”
