Old Southwest homeowner Paula Anselmo replaced a front window with a set of French doors last year to make it easier for her wheelchair-bound mother to maneuver from the house onto the porch.

That modification put her at odds with the city of Roanoke's Architectural Review Board, which ruled that she had violated historic district guidelines and denied her petition for approval.

Thursday, Anselmo quietly prepared to take her fight to Roanoke Circuit Court. She made an appearance in the city's housing court and pleaded not guilty to failing to acquire a certificate of appropriateness for the modifications.

She did not contest, however, that she did not have the certificate when the French doors were installed, and she did not present any other evidence.

Roanoke General District Court Judge Skip Burkart found her guilty and levied a $250 fine, but Anselmo immediately appealed, kicking the case up to the higher court.

Her attorney, Neal Johnson, said her intention was to move the case as quickly as possible to circuit court so the case need be tried only one time.

Anselmo and her boyfriend, Keith Hummer, declined to comment after Thursday's hearing.

According to city records, Anselmo had the front window of her house in the 600 block of Mountain Avenue replaced with a set of French doors in 2006. She intends to have her elderly parents from Massachusetts move in with her, and the modification was done to make it easier for her mother, who uses a wheelchair, to go out onto the front porch.

But on Aug. 31, 2006, the city building inspector's office notified her that she had violated city code and needed to remove the French doors.

She applied for a certificate of appropriateness from the review board on Oct. 12, 2006. Hummer, who spoke for Anselmo, argued that the federal and state Fair Housing Acts allowed for reasonable modifications for handicapped accessibility.

However, concluding that replacing the window with a door violated the historic guidelines, and noting that the French doors did not meet handicap accessibility standards while the existing front door did, the board denied her request on a vote of 5-0.

Anselmo appealed to the city council, which upheld the board's ruling 6-1. Councilman Brian Wishneff provided the dissenting vote.

In March, she was served with a summons for not complying with the council's order to remove the French doors.

She took her case to the Virginia Fair Housing Board, arguing that the Architectural Review Board and the city council were discriminating against her because of her attempt to modify her home to accommodate someone with a disability. But in August, the housing board ruled that there had been no discrimination.

The criminal case against Anselmo had been delayed until after the housing board made its ruling.

Conflict has sparked in recent years between the review board and its supporters, and homeowners who feel the enforcement of historic guidelines has become unreasonably strict.

In August, Roanoke Circuit Court became the arena for a surprise upset in that battle when Old Southwest resident Aubrey Hicks won the right to finish replacing his roof.

Judge William Broadhurst ruled that the review board's actions were "arbitrary and capricious" in denying Hicks a certificate of appropriateness.