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Monument Ave. resident calls vinyl window scrutiny ‘ludicrous’

Posted at 7:47 PM, Mar 25, 2013
and last updated 2013-03-25 19:47:28-04

RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR)--The Committee of Architectural Review (CAR) has found another Monument Avenue home owner in violation of historic guidelines because they have vinyl windows.

"It's ludicrous," said Monument Avenue resident Champe Granger.

Granger believes the city of Richmond has bigger things to worry about than the windows on her Monument Avenue home.

"Where does that rank for you on the city of Richmond?" "It wouldn't make the top 1000," said Granger.

On Friday she was given a notice that a few of her home's vinyl windows are in violation of the historic guidelines.

"Now we've become the target of this small group of folks," said Granger.

A recent firestorm started with Granger's neighbor  over the use of vinyl windows in historic properties. Thomas Houghton replaced his wood window with vinyl ones and did so without the approval of Richmond's nine member commission.

"If we don't follow the guidelines we're not doing our job," said CAR member Joseph Yates.

Yates was one of many who spoke to city council about the importance of historic integrity. The defense for Houghton highlighted several other homes along Monument also with vinyl windows. The commission took note and looked in to it.

"There were two other notices of violation issued," said Yates.

One of them was Granger who had spoken on her neighbor's behalf at the earlier meeting. She claimed her few vinyl windows were put in before she moved in and she doesn’t plan on moving them out.

"We don't need to have ourselves or our neighbors wasting time," said Yates.