[MassHistPres] historic districts - color

[John Worden]

In response to Mr. Yates -

The statute doesn't preclude a district from governing color (Lexington and 
Cambridge, for example require color approval), but many local district 
by-laws exclude color as a review consideration because of the "urban 
legend" that it causes a big problem.  When I pointed this out as an 
advantage to a property owner in an area proposed for expansion of one of 
our districts a few years ago, she said that she wished we did control 
color, since she didn't like the purple house at the end of her street.

J. Worden
Arlington HDC


> Message: 4
> Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2008 15:14:38 -0500
> From: "Brian Yates" <byates at comteam.org>
> Subject: Re: [MassHistPres] Creating historic districts
> To: "Gretchen Schuler" <ggschuler at verizon.net>
> Cc: masshistpres at cs.umb.edu
> Message-ID:
> <fb80590c0812081214i6a014633v8603f5359e8b1c01 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> The other argument you'll hear is that it won't let me change the color of
> my home.  Probably not a big objection in this case but neighbors may fear
> an enlarged district.  so scotch this one up front.  The law doesn't allow 
> a
> district to regulate color.
>
>