Historic Zoning Commission

Market Square H-1: Level II

3-E-19-HZ

Applicant Request

Level II. Construction of rootop addition

After-th-fact review of the construction of a shed-roofed structure at approximately 8 feet high and 43 feet long with roof sheathed in corrugated metal with enclosed soffit (~10 inches thick). The structure will be sheathed in stucco and situated approxiately 80 feet back from the front parapet façade of the building. Visibility of the structure ranges from approximately 3 feet to 4 feet when standing against the opposite (west) façades of Market Square. The range of visibility reduces to approximately one foot when standing at the edge of the sidewalk café at 15 Market Square.

Site Info

Two-story brick with stuccoed second story, replacement windows. Altered storefront. Originally matched 22-24. The A. L. Young Dry Goods Store occupied this building from 1880 to 1900. Dry goods merchants such as the McBee Trading Company and J.H. Webb continued to occupy the building until 1950, when a ladies clothes shop, a beauty shop, and a record shop could be found there. In 1965, the building became Bell Brothers Shoe Store.

1) The building at 26 Market Square is a contributing building in the Market Square H-1 Overlay and National Register Historic District.

2) The roof top construction was not reviewed for a Certificate of Appropriateness since it was stated by the applicant to be set back far enough, and to be low enough, to not be visible from the ground of Market Square.

3) In 2004, a rooftop guardrail was approved for 29 Market Square, which is four stories high, based on the Technical Preservation Services Brief Number 36; Interpreting the Secretary of Inteior's Standards for Rehabilitation: "Rooftop additions are almost never appropriate for buildings that are LESS than four stories high."

4) The HZC precedent since at least 2004 has been to deny permanent rooftop construction from the ground within Market Square. For six specific examples of HZC determinations on preceding such COA applications, see "Supplement to Staff Findings for 26 Market Square - Precedent for Permanent Rooftop Construction in Market Square" submitted as an addendum to the Staff Findings in this report.

5) The shed-roofed stuccoed structure with arched doorways was not specifically designed to complement the materials, proportion or style of the historic architecture of the c. 1880s vernacular commerical building.

6) Attempting to allow a "limited" amount of visibility for rooftop construction, or to allow rooftop construction that "is not highly visible" would be an arbitrary measurement and would not be able to be consistently regulated by city building inspectors.