Maybe I should mention, this exterior door is replacing what is now a gigantic window extending down to 10" above the floor, which we felt was unsafe. It was an exterior wood door at some point in the past but was replaced by this monstrous window by a previous tenant. So, we are replacing the original entry to the space with a solid wood door instead of the floor to ceiling window (design review approved this). We were told that we could use a solid core wood door, which we were thrilled about because we are trying to re-use and recycle existing architectural items wherever possible to keep with the city's green initiatives. (There is also an unfortunately frequent tradition of businesses getting rocks thrown through their glass doors in this town -- our sidelight in question is not located where someone could break it and reach in to unlock the door, as they did at the business next door recently).
And now aside from the little plexiglass sidelight, my partner says the inspector doesn't like our chosen door because the wood trim is "usually flat," and ours is rounded with carvings in it. I can't see anything about wood trim on doors needing to be flat? I'm a little confused. We told him the bottom 10" of the door will have a flat kickplate per ADA code. And the trim does not stick out more than 4" so it is not a protrusion. I know that our door is slightly unusual looking but that seems more like something for design review? Am I missing something here? I know it's not a standard grey fiberglass door, but was not expecting these little things to be a problem since we were told a wood door would be ok. Our architect is also surprised by this.