Made Up History

During the Windover Heights Board of Review meeting of October 5, 2005 and specifically during the hearing for 322 West St. NW, and (Docket No. WHBR-08-05), the Chairman of the Windover Heights Board of Review Steve Bukont declared:

"there are surviving historic homes in this neighborhood."

Is this true? No. Consider from the Town information officer in 2003:

"The Town of Vienna has not "officially designated" as historic any landmarks, buildings or structures. The Moorefield House is on the National Register and I believe there are several other sites in town that are on county and/or state registers. We do not have a list of these."

Moorefield was destroyed under the leadership of Maud Robinson and Laine Hyde and is no longer on any registers. The Town of Vienna has never completed an inventory of any homes in within the boundary of the Windover Heights Historic District. No 'historic resource survey' has ever been completed within the boundaries of this District (You could not even do one now as most of the neighborhood have been leveled in the last 20 years). The Virginia Department of Historic Resources produces a 126-page guide titled 'Guidelines for Conducting Cultural Resource Survey in Virginia'. Have any members of this Council reviewed it? Steve Bukont and this Council have purposefully deceived Town residents into thinking there are surviving historic homes. There is no evidence of such. There is no list. No proof.

Laurie Cole, Vienna Town Council

Taking into account Mr. Bukont's words about 'surviving homes', consider a question Laurie Cole asked the Town Zoning Administrator at a BZA hearing:

"The Town's designation of the Windover Heights area as an historic area, does that impose any strictures [restrictions] on subdividing land, tearing down houses, protecting houses. Its not a preservation district is it?"

The Town Zoning Administrator responded:

"No. It's not. A good example is 308 West Street which was removed perhaps 2 years ago and there are two new homes in its place."

Laurie Cole clearly knows this is not about historic preservation. So does the Town Zoning Administrator. Why are others confused? Recall the former Town Attorney's memo from 1998:

"The act of including or not including the property in the historic District is not a zoning or rezoning action and therefore, cannot be spot zoning. The age of the structure has no bearing on whether or not it should be included in the district. Your attention is invited to Section 18-280.2 of the Town's zoning ordinance concerning the boundaries of the Windover Heights Historic district. You will note that it is a historic district created by boundary and makes no reference to the age or character of the structures within the boundary. I have always maintained that if Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated at the local Giant, that structure would be historic. One the other hand, the mayor's antique chicken house is very old, but in my mind has no historic value."

There you have it: a district about nothing. Please don't forget why this memo was written. It was the justification to allow 125 Pleasant Street to be added to the District without Review Board approval.