Design Board Oks Duplexes, Tower Request
Florence Morning News - September 13, 2007
By Charles Tomlinson
The Florence Design Review Board has approved duplexes at Pine and Graham streets after a long debate over whether vinyl siding would be appropriate in the Timrod Park neighborhood.
The board also issued a certificate of appropriateness for an expansion at the Morning News offices that includes 11 satellite dishes and a transmission tower for WBTW News13.
Approval for the 10-unit, single-story duplexes came with the compromise that vinyl siding can be placed only on the unexposed sides of the house, while a concrete-fiber siding called HardiePlank is installed along the front.
The builder, however, can still use vinyl on the duplexes’ gables.
But Timrod Neighborhood Association President Betty Shelley said the people who live around her are “anti-vinyl siding.”
“I am actually unhappy that there’s any vinyl at all because we are trying to maintain the character of the cottage-style ... and arts-and-crafts homes” in the neighborhood, she said.
The duplexes’ developer is Tony Hall of Florence-based Lexus Development. Florence County approved his site plan two years ago for the homes near the Beth Israel Congregation synagogue.
Hall said he wanted to cooperate with the city and assured he would use vinyl siding that’s a “name-brand product with a warranty on it.”
The board voted 7-2 to issue a certificate of appropriateness for the duplexes. Julia Buyck and John Scott cast the dissenting votes.
Florence City Council in February approved an overlay district that triggers a Design Review Board vote on development and renovations in the Timrod Park neighborhood. The district was requested by Timrod Park-area residents.
The board unanimously approved the 4,000-square-foot Morning News office expansion, which would accommodate nearly 20 WBTW News13 employees from the station’s TV Road location.
Media General, which owns WBTW News13 and the Morning News, was the applicant for the project.
The WBTW tower, which will be 80 feet tall, was dropped from its original 150-foot height.
The board voted in July to deny a 110-foot Alltel tower near South Irby and Laurel streets because it would have been incompatible with downtown development.
The WBTW tower will stand behind the Dargan Street Morning News building, which will help obscure it from the roadways.
Board members had expressed concerns earlier that the tower would be visible to pedestrians near the upcoming Francis Marion University Center for the Performing Arts as well as the relocated Florence Little Theatre.
The satellite dishes will range from 12 feet to 18 feet in diameter, and a 4-foot-tall brick wall will screen them from passers-by.