If they had it to do over again, some councilmen said they would not have voted to allow vinyl windows in the city’s historic districts.

“I’m the first to admit I made a mistake,” said Councilman Jeff Watt, who voted to overrule the Historic District Review Commission after the commission denied requests for vinyl windows.

“I made a decision without having all the facts,” Watt said during a break at a City Council work session Jan. 19.

Councilman Harold Phillips also said he made a mistake in voting last summer to allow a property owner to keep vinyl windows on the upper level of a house at 311 W. Kansas St. after replacement windows were installed without the review commission’s approval. The house is in the Dougherty Historic District just west of Liberty Square, which is also a historic district.

“I’m sorry I did it. It was a poor decision,” Phillips said.

Phillips, though, joined councilmen Lyndell Brenton and Greg Duncan in December in denying a certificate of appropriateness to allow original wood windows to be removed and replaced with vinyl windows at a 1910 prairie style foursquare at 202 W. Franklin St. also in the Dougherty Historic District. Voting to allow the vinyl windows were councilmen Nick King, Fred Foster, Jeff Moore, Jeff Watt and Paul Jenness.

“It’s crappy policy. What the council said is we don’t give a flip what he puts in there,” Phillips said.

Mayor Greg Canuteson called for the joint session Jan. 19 after controversy erupted after the council twice in six months overrode the review commission’s denial for certificates of appropriateness for vinyl windows from two property owners.

Under city regulations, property owners must first seek approval from the review commission to make exterior changes to homes or buildings located in the city’s five historic districts or designated as landmarks. City Council has authority to override the review commission.

The issue first surfaced in June when the owner of a 1921 bungalow replaced the old vinyl windows on an upper level of the house with new vinyl windows.

Vinyl windows are not compatible with historic homes and are not allowed, Mike Gilmore, a member of the review commission, told the city council at the nearly 3-hour joint meeting between the review panel and the council.

Gilmore said these were not rules the local review commission had made up but were guidelines established by national and state standards.

According to Jonna Wensel, community development manager, who presented the council with a brief history of historic districts, said Liberty became a Certified Local Government in 1986. After adopting a preservation ordinance and establishing the review commission, the city hired a consultant to undertake a historic resources survey to identify and nominate eligible landmarks and neighborhoods.

Wensel said there are currently 2,300 communities in the U.S. that had adopted preservation ordinances and 48 of those are in Missouri.

“Liberty was one of the first seven cities in Missouri to be certified and is considered to have one of the best programs in the state,” she said.

Liberty Editor Angie Anaya Borgedalen can be reached at 781-4941 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .