[MassHistPres] Demo Delay By-Law - remedies

[Tony Willoughby]

The two years is in reference to the building permit moratorium, not the 
$300/day.  The fine goes on forever, which can add up to quite a bit.  :-)

Mendon recently passed a similar bylaw.  We are a pretty conservative 
town, many people have very strong opinions about "property owner's rights".

The Town Meeting was contentious.  There were two attempts to amend 
(read: castrate) it.  One was to reduce the delay from 6 to 3 months. 
The other was to eliminate the $300/day fine.  Both amendments were 
rejected.  In the end it passed by a relatively slim margin.
 
http://mendonma.net/depts/media/HistoricalCommission/Demolition%20Delay%20Bylaw/Passed%20by%20Town%20Meeting%20(May%201%202009).pdf




Garrett Laws wrote:
> No offense intended to anyone involved with the initial drafting of the 
> first demo-delay bylaw that is the template for everyone else...$300 is 
> never going to act as potenial deterant to demolishing a whole building 
> never mind removing a component of a historic structure that truly shows 
> the character that the building as that would show any layman that it 
> has historic fabric. 
> It costs nearly the same amount of money to cut a knife for running 
> molding...
> 
> $ 300 a day for 2 years is ~ $ 220,000 which is a number that a 
> commercial project could easily wrap into part of their "cost of doing 
> business". At the potential cost of my company losing business...maybe 
> there should a percentage fine assessed  against the value of the property?
> 
> I'm not trying to slam the intent of getting a bylaw up and running in 
> Wareham, just point out that there may be a need to have a different 
> financial incentive to retain or not remove without permission a 
> structure that may be historic.
> 
> Can of worms fully opened???
> 
> Garrett
> 
> On Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 12:02 PM, Robin Ragle-Davis 
> <robin at rrinteractive.com <mailto:robin at rrinteractive.com>> wrote:
> 
>     We are working on a draft of a demo delay by-law in Wareham.
> 
>     I would like to get some input into the various versions of the
>     Enforcement and Remedies section.
> 
>     Our goal is two-fold. First to draft a by-law that will be accepted
>     by Town Meeting and second to have a remedies section that works
>     well as a deterrent but is also realistic.
> 
>     The Sample demo-delay text is as follows:
> 
>     "Any owner of a building subject to this bylaw that demolished the
>     building without first obtaining a demolition permit in accordance
>     with the provisions of this bylaw shall be subject to a fine of not
>     more than Three Hundred Dollars.  Each day the violation exists
>     shall constitute a separate offense until a faithful restoration of
>     the demolished building is completed or unless otherwise agreed to
>     by the Commission.
>     If a building subject to this bylaw is demolished without first
>     obtaining a demolition permit, no building permit shall be issued
>     for a period of two years from the date of the demolition on the
>     subject parcel of land or any adjoining parcels of land under common
>     ownership and control unless the building permit is for the faithful
>     restoration referred to above or unless otherwise agreed to by the
>     Commission."
> 
>     Robin Ragle-Davis, Chair
> 
>     Wareham Historical Commission
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> 
> 
> -- 
> Cheers,
> Garrett
> 
> Garrett Laws, Manager
> The Copper & Slate Company
> Fine Roofing and Exterior Finish Carpentry
> 238A Calvary Street
> Waltham, MA 02453
> Ph: (781) 893-1916
> Fax: (781) 893-2041
> 
> Copperandslate at Gmail.com or
> GLaws at hbuilders.net <mailto:GLaws at hbuilders.net>
> 
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-- 
Tony Willoughby tonyw at pobox.com

"My career is about as promising as a Civil War leg wound."
-Warren Zevon