City Leaders Critical of Demolition

City leaders used last night's City Council meeting to express their disappointment over the June 11 demolition of a historic Caroline Street house. Perhaps none leveled as blistering a critique as Ward 4 Councilor Bea Paolucci, who once had a view of the now demolished home at 1407 Caroline Street. She said that the circumstances which led to the demolition of the increasingly neglected Caroline Street house amounted to an architectural "rape" and that city officials had ample time and authority to address issues with the structure.

"There are many things which could have been done to save this property," said Paolucci. "We could have started many years ago by aggressively enforcing our maintenance code."

The demolition of the structure has caused something of an uproar among city leaders concerned with historic preservation, which regulates buildings in the city's downtown historic district. Normally, the demolition of a historic building must be approved by the ARB. But because 1407 Caroline Street was deemed unsafe by city officials, state law meant that the ARB had no say in the decision to demolish the building.

Paolucci's comments were backed up by Ward 1 Councilor Brad Ellis who said that "historic preservation should not be billed as watching historic buildings rot."

Jamie Scully, the new chair of the ARB, addressed the City Council during a public comment period early on in the meeting. He called for a meeting between city officials and others with a stake in the historic district to discuss strategies to promote historic preservation practices.

"We consider the loss of 1407 Caroline Street a tragedy, but it's gone and we'll move on," said Scully. "We would like to take a more proactive role in engaging city departments…we applaud the city for implementing a property maintenance code…we hope to see this program strengthen."

Paolucci said that the demolition of the building should not have come as a complete surprise to city leaders. She cited two city memos, one from Fredericksburg Senior Planner Erik Nelson to members of the ARB on May 25 and a second memo from Assistant City Manager Mark Whitley to the City Council on June 1 which lay out the possibility that the new owner of the building, John Janey could demolish the structure without ARB review. Those memos are attached to this article as PDFs.

Because of this knowledge, Paolucci said that the ARB could have reached out to Janey to explore options other than demolition.

Mayor Thomas Tomzak was receptive to the concerns expressed, but noted that extensive restorations carry a prhibitive financial burden for property owners.

"It's easy to come out after the fact," said Tomzak. "Nothing has been done to raise any funds since we had the last episode of deteriorated structures being removed."