City council overturns Historic Review Board decision on roof color
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
David Kilner, owner of DAK Homes, explains to the Bardstown City Council the history of the roof at a home on 117 W. Broadway.
Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015, 10 a.m. — In a special meeting prior to Tuesday’s regular meeting, the Bardstown City Council overturned a decision by the Historic Review Board regarding the roof color of a home at 117 West Broadway Ave.
On May 19, 2015, the HRB denied a request by David Kilner, owner of DAK Homes LLC on behalf of the property owner, Charles Jemley, to change the color of the roof’s home from red to gray.
Speaking to the council during the hearing Tuesday, Kilner said the family told him the metal roof on the home when it was built in 1912 was originally gray in color. The roof was painted fire-engine red about 1940 — a color objectionable to members of the Jemley family, though he said they didn’t want to absorb the costs of repainting it gray at that time. The owner wants to return the roof to a gray color in order to “tone down” the red and accent the home’s other architectural features.
The HRB denied the color change request due to its regulations that state the only metal roof colors allowed in the historic district are red and green.
City Attorney Tim Butler told the council that the HRB has allowed other roof colors in the past if the color can be proven to have been used in the past. That proof can take the form of paint scrapings that show an earlier color was used, he said.
Kilner told the council that the metal on the roof was originally gray and that the color wasn’t paint but the natural appearance of the material. Existing photos are black and white and don’t indicate the roof color.
Kilner pointed out that other houses in the historic district have gray roofs, and gave Spalding Hall as just one example. In those cases, the HRB has allowed the roof colors because they were proven to be historically accurate.
Butler pointed out that the HRB members weren’t opposed to the gray color, just that there was no proof it was a pre-existing or historically accurate one.
Citing statements from the family regarding the original roof color as sufficient proof, the council approved the color change from red to gray, allowing the HRB staff to approve the roof’s final gray color.
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