[MassHistPres] Penalty for Alterations without a Certificate from historic di

[Roger Reed]

If the work has already been done without a certificate, we would require
the owner to apply for a retroactive certificate of appropriateness (an
option with a fine on our application form).  This should not imply that
he would automatically receive approval for completed work, but it would
allow the Commission to review the project as if no work had been done. 
We recently had a case where work was done without a permit and the owner
applied for a retro COA.  He was denied and then had the option (as per
40C) of asking for a certificate of hardship.  Chris Skelly has a good
working definition of what constitutes a hardship in an LHD, as you may
have seen on this site recently.

If the alterations are approvable, I certainly would not worry about
making him restore the building just to make a point, if thats what your
question implies.

Dcolebslade at aol.com on Sunday, December 17, 2006 at 12:17 PM +0000 wrote:
>Can a historic district commission require an owner who has altered a  
>building without a Certificate in the historic district to "return the 
>building to 
>its original configuration" on the basis alone that it was done 
>illegally?  
>What if the alterations have been done in such a way  that the changes
>are 
>potentially worthy of a Certificate?   Have any commissions done that?  
> 
> 
> 
>Can this return to its original configuration be a specific  "penalty"
>that 
>would be announced in the Guidelines?  That is, is there  anything in
>Chapter 
>40C that would prevent this penalty?  The purpose of  this "penalty"
>would be 
>deterrence to others.
> 
> 
> 
>Thank you.
> 
>Betty Slade
>Westport
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