LaFayette Historic Board approves update for business

BY KADIE TAYLOR

THE LAFAYETTE SUN

LAFAYETTE — The LaFayette Historic Preservation Board held a public hearing on Tuesday, May 5, to consider requests on two properties. 

The board heard a request from Weltha Elain Smith, owner of the Small Town Nail Spa on 78 1st St. SE, LaFayette, “To install a new wall sign for the new business and update the outside with an awning, restoring the original brick colors, new windows, door and replace bricks that have fallen off on the back side of the building.”

Smith said her business has been in its current location for two years, but after hearing from other entrepreneurs in the esthetics and beauty space, she saw how expanding to a larger building that could hold multiple businesses could be beneficial to her business, the other businesse and the city of LaFayette. 

“If you take four entrepreneurs in that building, [and assume each of them has] 20-30 clients, that’s 100-plus more cars and people here in LaFayette,” she said. “I made a decision that I am going to invest my private sector dollars into becoming an incubator and bring in businesses here to LaFayette. I’m collaborating with [the owner of the larger building] Mr. Eric on this, and he has given me permission to do what I need to do.”

Smith said she plans to ensure the updates to the building will match the historic accuracy and aesthetic of the nearby buildings. 

“I want to bring the building back to its original state as much as I possibly can,” she said. “We want to put an awning on that’s going to complement Auburn-Opelika Dental and then just put two beautiful windows in with maybe some flower boxes. [We will] take the spooky little door off the front and maybe put a wood door.”

As Smith opens the spaces to small businesses after renovations and updates to the buildings, she said she will select businesses that complement one another and not have duplicates of the businesses within the building. 

“I have probably about 30 inquiries,” she said. “I just know it’s going to be a quiet space. I’m going to selectively pick the business owners who are going to come in.”

The board voted to approve the request by Smith. 

The board heard a request from Kim Langley regarding his building at 2 1st St. SE in LaFayette, “To paint the facade, install new lighting, neutral paint colors, add porch to the rear of the building and paint a sign on the front facade of the building and on the side of the building facing the bank, removing the current front porch roof and replacing post and roof of the building.”

Langley explained how, alongside the other updates and changes he proposed, one of the updates was to the back porch of his building, where half of the porch is behind his building, and the other half is behind a building owned by Pamela Holloway. 

Holloway said she agreed that the porch should be repaired or replaced, but said she had brought that concern to the board previously. 

“You can’t cut the porch in half,” said Superintendent George Green. “If they don’t come to an agreement, I don’t think you need to vote on it either way. Simply because you can’t cut it in half and be safe. It’s already about to fall. So, if you go up there and mess with it in any type of way, there’s a danger and a greater risk of something happening. It either needs to be replaced or fixed, but you can’t vote on and take half of it down.”

After an extended discussion on who would take responsibility for paying for the porch repairs or replacement, and the desire for and recommendation of a notarized legal agreement by the board and one of the parties, no agreement was made between Langley and Holloway. 

The board then made a motion to vote to approve for Langley to repair the awning, paint a sign and complete the other proposed painting. 

Board members Ed Yeargan and David Ennis voted yes, Marilyn Vines voted no and Terrance Holloway abstained, leading to a failed motion.

“I can’t agree to this because this is a safety hazard, and it’s just a matter of time with both of them,” said Vines. “I know that Pam has done some things to tinker with it, and he’s talking about doing some things to tinker with it, but this is something that needs to be done. I don’t know if the city needs to condemn it, and look to both of them to come to some sort of agreement, but I don’t want to have a safety hazard here and have to deal with this, and then [someone] ask the board, ‘How come we didn’t deal with this?’”

Green advised chair of the board Yeargan to have Langley and Holloway come to an agreement and return to the board at a later date.