Trustees vote to dissolve Architectural Review Board

The Fredonia Village Board, in a split decision on Sept. 7, decided to dissolve its Architectural Review Board and give its responsibilities to the village’s Plan Commission.

Trustee Joshua Haas suggested the change, describing issues with attendance and being able to reach a quorum at its Architectural Review Board meetings.

“If they are similar enough, I think combining the two into one board would just make things easier for everyone,” Haas said.

Trustee Kurt Meyle agreed.

“I think it will make it easier to make it one board instead of two,” he said. “It will streamline the processes.”

Trustee Don Dohrwardt, however, argued the board has a “completely different” set of prerequisites than the commission.

“Our job is to serve the public. The Plan Commission is going to become a bottleneck because they will have all types of stuff to be working on,” he said. “This is one of the worst ideas. It sounds good, but it’s very important to have an active and working architectural board that has experience. This would be a terrible thing to do.

“The Architectural Review Board is full of the experts.”

The village attorney Johnathan Woodward of Housman and Feind told the board the move would “really not change anything. It doesn’t change or lessen any standards, it just says the body that looks at the applicants would be the Plan Commission,” he said. “Architectural controls are just sent to the Plan Commission.”

Additionally, the attorney said, permit applications will still go to the building inspector, and if they are compliant, the building inspector can issue the permit. If the application isn’t compliant, the permit request will go straight to the Plan Commission.

The board voted 4-3 to dissolve the Architectural Review Board.

“This is a dangerous thing we have just done,” Dohrwardt said after the vote.