LA GRANDE — Owners of La Grande business are at odds with the city over replacing windows in their building in the city’s historic district.

Jay and Kristin Wilson, owners of Appliances and More, 212 Greenwood St., claim they have to replace transom windows due to rotting wood. But the La Grande Landmarks Commission contends the windows are in good condition. The commission wants the windows to remain in the building due to their historic characteristics.

But the Wilsons said the city gave its permission to replace the windows and during the Dec. 4 La Grande City Council meeting sought to appeal a decision from the city’s Landmarks Commission preventing the replacement.

But now, the whole project is on hold.

“We’re still in this limbo trying to figure out how we move forward,” Community Development Director Mike Boquist said following hours of back and forth between the involved parties.

Project history

After successfully operating Appliances and More in Baker City since opening the store in 2017, the Wilsons opened the second location in 2023 in La Grande. The 10,000-square-foot store is a historic contributing building within the historic district of downtown La Grande.

There are four categories of buildings within the district: non-contributing buildings, historic non-contributing buildings, historic contributing buildings and buildings listed on the national register. Boquist said he considers historic contributing buildings to be the highest priority for preservation within the district.

“These are those 1800 early 1900 buildings that have a lot of historic integrity left,” he said. “They’re very valuable to our downtown. These are our priority for preservation.”

The Wilsons in August 2023 submitted an application for four projects to the La Grande Landmarks Commission, which approved everything except for the replacement of the transom windows. Boquist said the retention of the transom windows was a condition of approval on the commission’s decision order.

“The transom windows were identified to be in a good condition and are a historically significant element of this building to help characterize this building as being a historically contributing building in our district. And so therefore, they wanted them saved,” Boquist told the council during the Dec. 4, 2024, meeting.

Following the meeting with the landmarks commission in 2023, the Wilsons’ contractor, Ne-Hi Enterprises, came out to measure the bottom windows. This is when the building owners learned the wood supporting the windows was rotted due to leaks. According to the Wilsons, the contractor’s assessment revealed the structural integrity was compromised and the transom windows could not be safely left in place if the lower windows were removed.

There is no written record of the evaluation or its findings included in the appeal, but Kristin Wilson said they may be able to get one from Ne-Hi Enterprises.

The landmarks commission did not learn about this information until the following year when members of the commission did their own evaluation.

Differences arise

In January, Jay and Kristin Wilson applied for building permits to complete two projects — a window project and a garage door project. This is where the two accounts of the situation diverge.

The Wilsons claim the building permit applications they filed with the city included details of their intent to replace the transom windows. They said the building inspector reviewed the assessment and issued the permit with the understanding that all windows, including the transom windows, would be replaced.

Neither Jay nor Kristin Wilson were at the store during the inspection, but their manager was and spoke with the inspector. The building inspector, Joe Fisher, left his position earlier this year and was not at the meeting.

Given their understanding of the situation, the Wilsons purchased custom modern integrated storefront and transom window combos in February.

“Those windows are custom,” Kristin Wilson told the city council in December’s meeting. “There is a huge expense in these windows.”

Boquist said the application on file with the city has no mention of the transom windows.

Documents out of order

During the Dec. 4 appeal before the city council, Kristin and Jay Wilson presented their building permit application from January, which includes an illustration that states their plans to remove the transom windows.

However, Boquist told the council this illustration was not included within the building permit that is on file with the city. In fact, he said, the illustration came from the initial application to the landmarks commission, which denied that particular illustration.

The building permit was placed on hold in May following the Wilsons’ application for grant funding from urban renewal, which raised red flags for the city because it included the intent to remove the transom windows.

In September, the Wilsons went before the landmarks commission again and requested an amendment to the original decision. Commission members held a work session at Appliances and More to inspect the windows and verify the information.

“Our landmarks commissioners are highly qualified. We have contractors on there. We have folks that have architectural degrees that manage the construction of schools. We have folks that are very qualified to do these evaluations and make this determination,” Boquist said.

They did not find any rot, according to Boquist, but did find the windows leaked. During the inspection the commission determined the transom windows were in good condition. The members said the leaks could be fixed with caulking, so they upheld their original decision and denied the removal of the transom windows.

But Kristin Wilson told the city council, “I don’t know how you have a building that leaks as bad as these windows do and would not cause rot to the wood over time.”

Part of the confusion between city staff and the Wilsons during the city council meeting evolved from the city not having the cover page for the window project on file. The two building permit applications were merged into one permit in the city’s records. (The cover page is separate from the illustration.)

However, Boquist said even if they had this page, there is no explicit mention of the transom windows in the application.

Next steps

City Manager Robert Strope did not think it was appropriate for the council to make a decision on the appeal until city staff had the opportunity to sit down with the applicants to see what solutions could exist.

Councilors tabled the discussion until the next meeting on Jan. 8, 2025.

“The frustrating part for us is we thought we’d gone through all the right hoops and did the right things,” Jay Wilson said.

“We’re honest people,” Kristin Wilson said. “We’ve done what we thought was right.”

Boquist said the city had not yet scheduled a follow up conversation with the Wilsons as of Dec. 9, but he and Strope would be doing so once they had the opportunity to review the record.

Boquist added the city may need additional information or evidence from the applicants to determine the next steps.