Weeks resigns chair of Historic Architectural Review Board

Calling the immediate emergency demolition of the Don Pedro Fornells House, previously located at 62 Spanish Street, a “most unfortunate and unexpected, accident”, former mayor Len Weeks resigned from the Historic Architectural Review Board in a letter addressed to City Manager John Regan.

On September 25, 2014, Weeks, without benefit of permits and against direction from three city staff members, proceeded to excavate two-foot-deep trenches the entire circumference of the building. Within hours, the two-story building began to collapse.

“My continued involvement with the Historic Architectural Review Board may be seen as a distraction for other members of our Board, applicants, the city commission, staff, residents and business owners,” Weeks wrote in his 1-page resignation letter. “At this time, I need to spend as much of my time as possible re-building this property and taking care of my family and businesses.”

For the past 37 years, Weeks, who did not attend the meeting, told Regan that he has always been proud of his involvement in the development and improvements of our Historic Downtown. He has served on both the Planning and Zoning Board and the Historic Architectural Review Board — of which, he was the chairman.

Citizen complaints began to come in almost immediately from other members of the community demanding Weeks’ removal at last night’s commission meeting; however, his resignation makes those demands moot. Unfortunately for Weeks, repercussions from the way in which he handled the ancient 200-year-old construction project won’t stop with a simple board resignation.

According to City Manager John Regan, Weeks has already been informed that he will be receiving three notices from the City’s Code Enforcement Department for violations of the City’s building code. Regan told Historic City News to expect to see fines in the $10,000 to $15,000 range for those charges — Weeks can appeal the decisions.
 
“I have spent the past 2 weeks, since the accident, securing the site, and removing and salvaging as much of the former building as possible. It is my goal to reuse as much as possible in a replacement building,” Weeks said. “At this time, I would like to start to move forward with replacing the building as quickly as possible.”

Click to read the full Weeks Resignation.