NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — The fight over saving a historic home in Norfolk broke out in a city courtroom.
Neighbors in the Freemason area faced off with the city and the owner of a historic home on West Freemason Street.
The residents want a judge to rule in favor of saving the home that caught fire by an arsonist nearly two years ago.
After a four-hour hearing, Circuit Court Judge David Lannetti ruled to delay the demolition of the home for at least 30 days.
10 On Your Side asked attorney Joe Sherman, who is representing the Freemason Street Area Association, why he thinks Judge Lannetti gave 30 days.
“Because there is substantial evidence that the house is not an imminent threat to the public, and I think the emergency status was abused in this case,” Sherman said.
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Judge Lannetti wants more time to get more briefs on complicated legal issues. He wants to make sure there is legal ground to grant the relief the Freemason residents want.
It appears to be a jurisdictional issue as to whether the temporary injunction was even filed in time.
Sherman claims he saw the city’s August 14 order to repair or demolish to homeowner Mark Sinesi for the first time on Wednesday.
It could be Sherman only had 14 days to appeal, and missed the deadline.
Outside court he told said, “The first time we saw the letter ordering the house be destroyed was today.
So it is hard for us to respond to things we don’t see.”
The home was damaged in a fire two years ago and has sat vacant since.
There’s debate over whether to repair it or demolish it. On the stand Sinesi said, “I bought this home because it was my dream to refurbish it and to live in it. I put in $300,000 when arsonists burned it in December 2016, destroying my dreams…. we had arguments with insurance that did not have appreciation for historic homes. They didn’t understand the value of 100-year-old windows (dealing with depreciation). I had arguments with insurance, who didn’t pay what the historic structure was worth.This was going to be my home. We ended up with an excellent architectural plan. I love the Freemason area.”
When Sinesi realized the fire was changing everything, he got engineering plans that indicated to him the only alternative was to destroy the home, and sell the very large lot.
Sherman says at that point Sinesi and the city wanted to fast-track the demolition, but the residents want a slower process and want a say in what happens to the historic home. They want the established process to be followed.
“If the exception consumes the rule, then why would anyone go get a certificate of exemption when you can just let your property deteriorate and then get permission to demolish it?” Sherman asked. “Why would you ever ask for permission when you can just get an exemption?”
The city had argued the house had deteriorated so much, if left in its current state, it could cause death or physical harm.
The residents disagree, and put on a materials and construction expert, who says the brick shell is structurally sound and not a threat to collapse at all. The inside has issues, but can be restored.
The residents claim the city and the home owner are trying to eliminate the public discussion on whether to save the home by ordering an emergency demolition.
The Freemason community wants to go through the proper channels to allow public input on the importance of saving historic structures in historic housing districts.
10 On Your Side asked Sherman what Sinesi should have done.
“What he should do is apply for a certificate of appropriateness just like everyone else in the neighborhood does. Everybody with a historic home buys a home knowing they have to preserve it. So instead of going through an exemption, he should go through the process and get a permit to demolish from the city’s architectural review board. If they say then to tear it down then so be it.”
Sherman says the city and state have made laws that protect historic structures, so the significant state interest in protecting historical preservation proved to provide economic benefits.”
Sherman says Norfolk is a perfect example of this, “If you look at downtown Norfolk right now, it is going gangbusters because there has been so much historical rehabilitation and redevelopment downtown. It’s good for everybody, so for him to get as exemption and skip the process cheats the entire city out of the opportunity to have the property rehabilitated, and put back into the tax base, and used in a way to make everybody’s enjoyment of the city increase. The house is on the Cannonball Trail and it is on the Elizabeth River Trail.”
For his part, Sinesi showed himself as a victim too, even though evidence came out that he has been a repeat violator for housing code violations and has a few open charges now.
“What I had was taken from me by an arsonist. One of my code violations was electrical and plumbing, which had been destroyed. I didn’t have the money to fix it … copper pipes were stolen, AC units stripped of copper too,” Sinesi said.
Sinesi pushed back against Sherman when he accused Sinesi of calculating not to do the work to fix the code violations, to save money, and then demolish the home and sell the valuable property to developers of townhomes or condominiums.
Sherman pointed out Sinesi stands to make around $200,000-$250,000 over what he had purchased the house for.
“I can assure you I spent far more than that fixing the house before it was set on fire,” Sinesi shot back.
WEB EXTRA: Drone 10 video of fire-damaged home
