Historic Zoning Commission addresses two pieces of business in June meeting

Published 3:17 pm Tuesday, June 27, 2023

The Elizabethton Historic Zoning Commission met in their June regular session meeting on Monday in the Elizabethton Council Chambers with two items on their scheduled business agenda.

In the evening’s first agenda item, the commission addressed a request by Watauga Property Group, owners of 625 East Elk Avenue, who were requesting a Certificate of Appropriateness for the installation of a new window on the 3rd floor of the building to provide egress. The subject property is located within the City of Elizabethton’s Historic Zoning District.

The group stated in their application that they had “brought on Mitch Cox to manage [their] properties as well as assist with renovation projects for [their] commercial buildings.” Additionally, the contractor is planning to coordinate and assist with “the cutting into the brick for the addition of a window on the 3rd floor of the building that will be lined up with the window below.”

Historic zoning guideline state the following in regard to the addition of window openings in section 6.0 (Windows): 6.2 states, “The Commission will not approve the partial or complete blocking in openings of, or the cutting of new openings.”

After discussing the issue, the commission decided to defer a decision on the Certificate of Appropriateness as there were three specific pieces of information needed from the developers:

The second piece of business surrounded a proposed marquee for the Bonnie Kate Theater by the Friends of the Bonnie Kate.

Currently, work is being done on the Bonnie Kate as part of a grant received by the City of Elizabethton from the DIG grant program (Downtown Improvement Grant0, however no money was set aside in the grant for the marquee.

The Friends of the Bonnie Kate have been doing fundraising to help make it possible to acquire the marquee.

In their application, the applicant indicated that the replacement will be in the same location and will be the same size and shape of the original support medallions. According to the application, this will “[reveal] original brick work and architecture of building façade.”

The historic zoning guidelines are silent in regard to sign installations. However, Section 1.0 (General Guidelines) can be applied to determine if the sign is consistent with both previous installations as well as the architectural style of the building.

Additionally, prior to installation of any sign in the City, a sign permit will need to be issued by the Building Department. The applicant was made aware that the review of the marquee has not been completed by the Building Department. Therefore, approval by the Commission will be subject to full compliance with the City’s sign ordinance prior to issuance of a permit and installation.

In a 5-0 vote, the Commission approved the Certificate of Appropriateness.