The Eureka Springs Historic District Commission has OK’d the removal of an ancillary garage that sits just inches from the fence of an electrical substation on Dairy Hollow Road. The approval comes with the condition that a historic home and rock wall on the property be preserved.
At a special called meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 29, the HDC voted 5-1 to permit American Electric Power, which recently purchased the property at 332 Dairy Hollow Road, to destroy the garage. The company has 30 days to submit to the city a preservation and maintenance plan for the historic home structure.
AEP, the parent company of SWEPCO, wants to revamp and expand the substation, which has been at the location since approximately the 1960s, according to project manager James Ball.
“We will not expand our fence line,” Ball told commissioners. “[The expansion] will stay on original AEP property and will not encroach on the current property [of the home].”
The removal of the garage is needed for a temporary drivable path to aid in workers getting to the back of the substation for work on the upgrades.
“One, we want to get rid of it because it’s in extreme, close proximity to our substation fence,” Ball said. “We do not like having that. We want at least, at a minimum, a three-foot buffer around our stations for safety reasons. And then during construction, we want to use [the area] as a drive patch to the back of the station so it’ll be easier access and we don’t have to tear up as much going around to the back side.” The vote to approve AEP’s plan came after city building inspector Jacob Coburn wrote a letter to Kyle Palmer, city preservation officer, condemning the garage structure.
“After performing an inspection on the garage structure located at 332 Dairy Hollow, due to the building’s current condition it is, in my professional opinion, that the garage structure located on that property be scheduled for demolition,” HDC chair Dee Bright read to commissioners from Coburn’s letter. “None of the structural supports supporting the roof to the building meet the current code requirements. This is most likely due to the age of the building, material, as well as the structure being exposed to the natural elements.”
Palmer reminded commissioners before the vote that AEP was going to proceed with its plans for the work on the substation regardless of whether the HDC application was approved.
“If the commission decides to approve this application it does give us an opportunity to put this preservation plan on the contributing structure and have a little bit more control over it that way,” Palmer told commissioners.
Commissioners also added that the rock wall in front of the home and connected to the garage must be preserved, something that Ball said he will make sure happens.
“I like the rock,” Ball said. “That’s kind of cool. I don’t want to do anything to it and it’s my call. I’ll tell the contractors to preserve this rock fence.”
The approval comes after two site visits by commissioners to the property and an Aug. 16 HDC meeting where Ball told commissioners that the home on the property, built around 1910, would temporarily be used as SWEPCO office space and likely eventually sold.
A number of residents in the area of Dairy Hollow Road spoke against the project at the Aug. 16 meeting, but most of the comments centered on the home on the property.
