Planners order 95-year-old to fix windows or face legal action

The majority of the Macon-Bibb County Planning and Zoning Commission recently decided a 95-year-old Macon woman can’t continue to skirt historic district guidelines, a ruling contrary to the wishes of the Design Review Board.

About 27 years ago, Paula East replaced historic windows with vinyl ones in her 1860 slate row house at 931 Walnut St. and reconfigured the six-over-six design of the panes. The work was done without the required certificate of appropriateness and in violation of regulations, according to documents filed with the commission. A recent complaint about the windows brought the matter to the panel’s attention.

East’s friends appealed for mercy, considering her age, health considerations and the dancer’s contributions to the community over several decades.

“It would not be in her best interest to undergo major construction work inside the home,” a letter of support stated. “At 95 years old, exposure to dust and disruption from such work could potentially aggravate respiratory insufficiencies and pose unnecessary health risks.”

On May 4, the review board voted to allow the vinyl windows to stay for now, noting the replacement occurred more than two decades ago and removal at this time is not reasonable. Any future work on the home would need to meet historic district guidelines, including future window replacements.

During the commission’s May 11 administrative meeting, Chair Jeane Easom questioned the review board’s proposed exception. P&Z Executive Director Jeff Ruggieri explained that the review board considered it was more than two decades since the violation occurred.

He noted that some other states limit the time period that someone could be held responsible for earlier violations. In his prior position in North Carolina, Ruggieri could not enforce violations more than four years old.

In the Walnut Street case, East’s neighbor Edwin Atkins appealed to the commission to enforce historic district regulations on the property.

“My concern is that the visual beauty and historic elements of the 1860 slate row homes are protected. That’s it,” Atkins told commissioners. “I urge the board not to allow incorrect or incompatible window designs to diminish the authenticity, reduce the real estate values and establish a precedent for the future owners.”

P&Z Vice Chair Tim Jones moved to deny the application that would have allowed East to keep those windows until they needed to be replaced.

“I’m not going to let her situation influence me, her age and everything,” Jones said. “I know what we’ve been doing about windows and we’re enforcing the regulation.”

Easom also said East’s community service does not change the legal parameters she should follow for her property.

“While she may be 95 years old, when she installed those windows she was not and she knew what she was doing,” Easom said. “And she defied the recommendation of the planning and zoning at that time, and so we take great offense to that, or at least I do.”

P&Z plans to notify East that she has up to 60 days to bring the windows into historic district guidelines or face possible legal action, fines or jail time.