Historic Commission gives OK to 'Ice Storm' facade
By Joey Pitchford
Published in News on September 6, 2018 10:51 AM
The Goldsboro Historic District Commission approved a previously denied request Wednesday evening by Councilman Antonio Williams to resurface part of the front facade of the downtown business he co-owns.
One commission member saying the request should not have been denied in the first place.
In September 2017, the Historic District Commission denied the request because, as the commission believed, the wood veneer added to the outside of the Ice Storm building at 116 S. Center St. covered up the building's original material of stucco, metal and brick. According to the commission's guidelines at the time, owners of buildings within the historic district were required to preserve the original materials of the structures when doing renovations.
Williams, and co-owner Yvonnia Moore, appealed the decision, but the ruling was upheld by the Goldsboro Board of Adjustment later that month.
In May, the commission amended its guidelines to allow certain new materials to be added to non-contributing buildings in the historic district -- buildings which do not make the district historic -- if approved by the commission. Wood was among those materials, setting the stage for Williams' request to be re-heard.
On Wednesday, Moore said that the denial of the original request was made based on false information.
"When we first came to the historic board, there was some information that was very misleading, because it was stated that the reason we were not in compliance was because we covered up stucco," she said. "That was actually not the case.
"There was nothing that we had done that was not in agreement with what this building is. If you actually look at this building, the same material we have is the same material that continues down on the other end."
Historic Commission member Jay Bauer said that he had gone to the Ice Storm later and checked it out for himself.
"I went and looked at it afterwards, it looks like you're not able to see what the material is because it's covered up. But if you go around to the back side of the column, the original materials are there," he said. "We were given some erroneous information about what was there, and I don't see a problem out there at all."
Jennifer Collins, Goldsboro's assistant planning director, said that the city received the list of materials for the building directly from David Weil, president of property management group Weil Enterprises. She said she would double check to see if a mistake had been made regarding the Ice Storm facade.
Bauer made a motion that the commission approve the request, which commission member Alicia Pierce seconded. The motion passed unanimously. Approval allows Williams and Moore to keep the existing facade intact.