[MassHistPres] Open space

[jworden at swwalaw.com]

 In Arlington, we have had several such cases.  Two involved building in the front yard of - if not a mansion - at least a substantial historic house.  Both were denied on the grounds that the setting was an essential part of the district.  Side & back yards are different.  In one recent case, we found that the typography - large chunk of ledge, historic house nestled into hillside - did not admit to constructing a new building.  In other cases, we have required that the proposed new structure be architecturally appropriate, and scaled to fit the small, narrow confines of the lot.  Of course, nowadays developers want to build mega-houses, so we turned them down.  In a case where there was a separate lot, and an appropriately scaled house was proposed, it was allowed (although I for one voted against it, the house actually does look fairly good, and in a few years probably will look as though it's always been there).

J. Worden
Arlington HDC

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From: masshistpres-request at cs.umb.edu
Date: Fri Jun 15 11:00:03 CDT 2007
To: masshistpres at cs.umb.edu
Subject: MassHistPres Digest, Vol 16, Issue 11

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Today's Topics:

   1. HD Open Space (Suzanne W. Pelton)
   2. Re: HD Open Space (Dennis De Witt)


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Message: 1
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 10:55:41 -0400
From:  W. Pelton <sw.pelton at verizon.net>
Subject: [MassHistPres] HD Open Space
To: Masshistpres <masshistpres at cs.umb.edu>
Message-ID: <64A4C22E-FE7C-4865-B074-7FEE5A704E49 at verizon.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed

Does anyone have a story to share of denying a building permit on an
open space in an historic district on the grounds that the Bylaw
protects the district as it existed at the time it was established?
What was the result?

Suzanne W. Pelton
Lenox Historical Commission, Secretary


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Message: 2
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 11:19:08 -0400
From: Dennis De Witt <djdewitt at rcn.com>
Subject: Re: [MassHistPres] HD Open Space
To: MHC listserve <masshistpres at cs.umb.edu>
Message-ID: <43830CDD-0AF5-4CE2-A4EC-444C2F3A7452 at rcn.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed

Can you expand on that?  Do you mean an ordinary building lot?  of
something like subdividing the front yard of a mansion?

Dennis De Witt


On Jun 15, 2007, at 10:55 AM, Suzanne W. Pelton wrote:

> Does anyone have a story to share of denying a building permit on an
> open space in an historic district on the grounds that the Bylaw
> protects the district as it existed at the time it was established?
> What was the result?
>
> Suzanne W. Pelton
> Lenox Historical Commission, Secretary
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