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Board delays decision on Conrad house
Owners told to try for a compromise
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Published: November 10, 2009
After hearing arguments from both sides, the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners postponed a decision last night on whether the River John Conrad House should keep its designation as a historic property.
Instead, a narrow majority on the board asked the county's historic resources commission to meet with homeowners Kerry Link and Nadja Lesko to see if a compromise can be reached in the long-running dispute.
Debate has centered on whether the changes that were made to the house in the 1980s were so far-reaching that the house has lost its historical significance. The historic designation was given to the house in 1981.
Link and Lesko want to add on to the house, but to do that they must have the historical designation removed. Opponents of their request say that the couple knew when they bought the house in 1989 that it had restrictions on what changes could be made.
Both sides filled the commissioners' meeting room last night in about equal numbers. In the end, a board majority voted 4-3 to put off a decision until Dec. 21 to allow for the possibility that a compromise can be worked out.
Voting in favor of the extension were commissioners Beaufort Bailey, Debra Conrad, Richard Linville and Walter Marshall, who put forward the idea of looking for a compromise. Commissioners Ted Kaplan and Gloria Whisenhunt, along with Dave Plyler, the board chairman, opposed the delay. They favored granting the homeowners their request to repeal the historic designation.
Link said he had talked with someone on the historic preservation panel once, and sounded skeptical last night that a compromise was possible.
No one disputes that the house was altered before Link and Lesko bought it. Link argued last night that the changes were so extensive that he and Lesko, when they bought the house, were sold a "false bill of goods" about its historical significance.
State officials are recommending that the county keep the historic designation, although the state opinion is not binding. The county's historic resources commission is also recommending that the historic designation stay in place.
John Larson, the vice president for restoration at Old Salem Museum and Gardens, told commissioners last night that the exterior alterations made in the 1980s were done to restore the house to the way it looked in 1805.
"This is still a historic building," Larson said.
wyoung@wsjournal.com
727-7369
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