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The owner of a home in Mainstrasse Village will have to change his plans to place vinyl windows on his historic home.

The Covington City Commission upheld the decision of the city’s Urban Design Review Board (UDRB) which told homeowner Greg Cansler that in the Mainstrasse historic preservation overlay zone, wood windows must be selected.

Cansler, who owns the home on the corner of Philadelphia & Keene Streets, argued that he is surrounded by mostly boarded up homes and that his new vinyl windows would be an improvement to a section of the neighborhood that has been troubled for the 9 years he’s owned the property.

“My family experienced many horrible things living in this neighborhood such as a man lying in the street suffering from stab wounds,” Cansler said. “We lived in constant fear they would harm us and we could never let our kids play outside. We stayed indoors as much as possible.” Cansler painted a frightening picture of the corner, saying that fights erupted nightly and that his home had been vandalized many times. Feral cats are bred and fed in the area, he said. “My backyard was and still is a neighborhood litter box for feral cats.” He said one of his pets was even killed by a stray animal. “I stopped complaining over fears of retaliation from neighbors.”

Cansler spent $3,500 on an order of custom vinyl windows from a local business, but did so without getting a certificate of approval. In an historic preservation overlay zone such as Mainstrasse Village, a review by city staff or the UDRB is necessary for most exterior work. The city’s design guidelines require vinyl windows unless the windows are not highly visible, in which case vinyl can be permitted. The trouble for Cansler is, his house sits on the corner and the entire side is visible from Keene Street and wood windows would cost more than $10,000.

Historic preservation officer Emily Ahouse said that wood windows are an important defining character of Victorian homes. “When you look at a vinyl window compared to a wood window, the profile of the frame is very different,” she said. “It’s a different texture. It changes the character of the opening. It’s very typical in historic preservation design guidelines to require a return to the historic materials and keeping the materials. That is pretty standard.”

Cansler appeared before the UDRB twice. The board offered a compromise opportunity for Cansler in which case the side windows could be replaced with vinyl as long as the front ones were wood, but that vote ended in a tie, and Cansler said that he can’t afford any wood windows, anyway.

“The front windows are non-negotiable, those have to be wood based on the clear guidelines,” said assistant city solicitor Don Warner at Wednesday’s appeal to the city commission. “If you reverse, even in part, you will be saying the UDRB decision was arbitrary and capricious.”

And that is the guideline by which UDRB appeals must be reviewed by the city commission. Was the board’s decision arbitrary and capricious? Cansler believes so, but Mayor Sherry Carran and City Commissioners Chuck Eilerman, Jordan Huizenga, and Bill Wells disagreed, voting unanimously to uphold the UDRB decision (Commissioner Steve Frank was not present).

“I tend to really agree with you,” Huizenga told Cansler. “The challenge is, my understanding is, our role in this process is to determine if the UDRB decision is arbitrary and capricious.”
 
Cansler’s case was the third such appeal of a UDRB decision to the city commission in 2015, a highly unusual number. The city commission upheld the UDRB’s decision to block Columbia Sussex from razing the Bavarian Brewery Building (a case that now awaits a decision from the Kenton Circuit Court), and overturned the board’s vote to prevent a local attorney from building a modern townhouse in Licking Riverside. A fourth case could soon be appealed, too, if Baker Hunt Art & Cultural Center seeks reversal of the UDRB’s denial of its plan to build a modern garden pavilion in Licking Riverside.
 
Cansler cited the attorney’s townhouse in his appeal. “You allowed (attorney Todd) McMurtry to build a whole new house in an historic neighborhood,” he told the commission. “This is a very blighted community. People like me who want to make improvements to the areas are being prevented by you and the board and it’s going to be another boarded up home, and is this what you want? Do you really want me to live in a boarded up house?”
 
The house’s windows are falling in, and some are taped up. Cansler said new windows are necessary to secure the property and to make it livable again. He and his family have since vacated the home and he is now divorced but hopes to finish a renovation of the property and move back in. 
 
“We feel for the position you are in but we also have things we have to uphold,” Mayor Carran said. “A lot of work has gone into these design guidelines. The previous preservation officer spent years and had huge support. If we go against these guidelines, we are taking steps backwards that maybe you cannot understand, but we understand because we know the work that has been involved.”

Cansler has the opportunity to appeal to Kenton Circuit Court or to return to the UDRB and ask for a new vote on the compromise proposal of vinyl windows on the side and wood in the front.

Written by Michael Monks, editor & publisher