Property owner wants to display permanent sign
Keith Walker/News & Messenger
Gaudencio Fernandez wants to display a sign of protest permanently at 9500 Liberty St. in Manassas.
Like it or not, former Manassas property owner Gaudencio Fernandez is planning on submitting a special use permit application for a much larger, more permanent sign to replace his controversial structure at 9500 Liberty St.
In January, Fernandez came to the city offices for what officials thought would be a building permit application for the existing structure. However, Fernandez instead presented plans for a 220-foot long, 16-foot-high L-shaped structure that would display murals “expressing the community’s ideas.”
“We wanted more room to display the great history of our country and show that it doesn’t just belong to white Americans, it belongs to us,” Fernandez said.
According to Manassas Community Development Director Elizabeth Via, the city denied a building permit for the proposed structure on Jan. 3 because what he was proposing would have necessitated a special use permit. On Wednesday, Fernandez said he would be applying for the special use permit by the middle of April.
Because of the reinforcements that were done last fall on the second version of the sign, the city had requested that Fernandez get a building permit because the city began to consider the once temporary structure permanent. Fernandez never applied for that permit and the case has been passed along to the city attorney’s office for possible litigation, Via said.
City code requires that a written application must be submitted and approved before a structure can be constructed, enlarged, altered or demolished.
If built, the new structure would replace a third version of the sign Fernandez recently placed on the site. It contains the angriest rhetoric yet since cloth was first draped across the remaining wall of the demolished house last summer.
The current sign calls Manassas and Prince William “the national capital of intolerance” and is littered with statements like “the actions of Prince William County and Manassas City Council are similar to the collaboration between local governments and the KKK in the 1900s.”
Fernandez said as long as the city and county back the newly instituted Immigration and Customs Enforcement 287(g) program, he will not take the current sign down.
“As we long as we have not seen any changes, we will not remove our message,” Fernandez said.
The same week the building permit was denied in January, Fernandez and Montclair architect Don Little presented their case for rezoning the Liberty Street property to commercial to allow for a mixed-use building.
Via said a special use permit would require a public hearing and the city’s Planning Commission and Architectural Review Board would each have to review the issue before sending it to the city council.
A recommendation by the ARB would be necessary because the structure is located in the historic district. The property is zoned residential and would not have to be re-zoned to conform with what Fernandez is proposing, Via said.
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Reader Reactions
Someone check HIS immigration status.
Only in America is enforcing laws considered racist. Its the argument they use when all others fail.
dotheright, I believe the racist comment you are referring to - “We are the Capital of Intolerance when one race of people tries to move in and change the fabric of the community by forcing their customs on its neighbors” - were made by Mr. Cobra in his 9:06 posting, not me. I too, share your confusion of how racist comments such as these ended up in a illegal immigrant discussion.
I was so shocked I almost missed his following stereotype-comment that “we see our schools crammed with non-English-speaking children of whom many will never make it out of high school”.
I would note, however, it is not solely businesses that profit from cheap labor but also consumers that purchase the 49 cent burgers or the $300,000 town home that would cost $400,000 if built with native-American labor. Of course, with AOL, Sprint and techs continuing to layoff, there may soon be US competition for $6.00 hour burger-flipper positions. Thank you for your thoughts.
Raywilliams - the only one on this page spewing racist garbage is your ranting comments. Counseling would help.
I am against illegal aliens of all kinds.
I am also against overcrowding and abuse of our social services and noncompliance with our existing laws and ordinances in this town. It is not one race doing this as you suggest and it is not just illegals.
I think, with exception of yourself, people are tired of the invasion, not because of the race, because it was so sudden and fueled by low cost labor and profit taking by corporations and small business that decided to profit from cheap labor at the expense of our community.
Cheap labor is overseas. There is no cheap labor here for the common citizen. We pay for it in social services, overcrowding, ESL costs and many more hidden costs while the profit takers whine their racist rant.
(sigh) Once again a triade by Mr. Cobra that once again shows his paranoid racist fears and his continued mix of legal immigrants with illegal immigrants. Getting SO boring. HSM’s thinly disguised plan to out all immigrants veiled by a call for ICE and the deportation of illegal immigrants. The simple line of “when one race of people tries to move in and change the fabric of the community” pulls back this veil and demonstrates a racist, biggoted position that HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT PROBLEM. Separate the issues or continued to be labled a racist. AND, if that is what you believe in, I’m okay with that. You are who you are and welcome to be whomever you wish to be. But if so, admit it and move on and stop blurring the lines of those here legally and those not. If you don’t like all immigrants or just Hispanic immigrants or just immigrants that live in your neighorhood, just be a man and say so.
It is the race issue that fires me up, not the illegal issue. Long after the illegals are gone, we’ll still have racists in Manassas. I’d rather live next door to an immigrant.
The sign should be changed to say yes we are the Capital of Intolerance when it comes to law breaking. We are the Capital of Intolerance when it comes to gang activity in our community. We are the Capital of Intolerance when one race of people tries to move in and change the fabric of the community by forcing their customs on its neighbors. We are the Capital of Intolerance when we see our schools crammed with non-English speaking children of whom many will never make it out of High School. Mr. Fernandez and his ilk like to present themselves as civil rights protectors. They want absolutely no enforcement when it comes to Hispanic Illegal Immigrants. He is treading on thin ice if thinks the Citizens of Manassas will continue to allow him to spit in our face. Tell all your illegal immigrant friends to go home and follow the law of entry into the US. And for all of those that continue to direct the word racist and bigot of those that oppose illegal immigration, we will now counter that with the word Traitor. Those that advocate the presence of foreign law breakers in our community are just that, Traitors. Let’s see if you take a little of your own medicine.
So if I break into your house would you call the police? I bet you would. Guess that makes you a hypocrite and intolerant.
I hope that the decision makers do the right thing and deny this request for a permanent sign. His billboards already represent an act of treason. This man should be penalized in the same manner as others who are found guilty of committing treason.
Isn’t there a sign ordinance or limits to what a person can do in this town? Free speech is one thing, putting up permanent billboards is another.
Get rid of this guy and his racist sign.
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