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Facade flap brewing on Main Street
by Karina Gianola
The facade of 212 E. Main St., depending on the speaker, ranges anywhere from "dreadful" to "pleasing." But one thing is certain - it has to stay that way a while longer.
The Board of Architectural Review voted unanimously Tuesday to issue a stop-work order to property owners Mitch and Amy Hazam, with Bruce Wood abstaining.
Vice chairwoman Patricia Failmezger said the front of the building does not match the original application, approved on April 10. The board did not, she said, approve a broad strip of dark stone along the top of the building, stone details around the windows, and mismatched colors.
Nimet Soliman, assistant town manager for community development, said that after she received three complaints about the stonework on the building, she made multiple attempts to contact the owners.
Board member David Silek said the building, built in the 1950s, resembles the prison out of the movie "The Shawshank Redemption."
"The thing that just shocks me when you see it is the ledge stone at the top," he said. "It's just dreadful."
Amy Hazam, producing part of the packaging the material had been shipped in, said the stones on the building are what the board had originally approved.
Several board members said the contrast between the stones in the catalog and what the Hazams actually received was so great, they would have returned the order.
"We did what we thought was pleasing, and what was historically accurate," Mitch Hazam said. "We still feel we did exactly what we said."
The board discussed several options that would change the aesthetics of the building, such as extending the framing around the windows.
The order prohibits any outside work to be done on the building until the owners submit a new, detailed plan for its facade. Meanwhile, any interior work can continue. Review of a revised plan for the facade is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 8.
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