[MassHistPres] Historic district as tool for turnaround

[slater at alum.rpi.edu]

Does anyone know of any cases where a historic district was created in
an architecturally significant, yet troubled neighborhood which resulted
in the neighborhood becoming stronger (i.e. more owner occupancy, less
crime)?

We are considering attempting to create a historic district in a
neighborhood of Springfield which has some architecturally unique and
significant properties, but one that has been troubled in recent years.
The architecture isn't what you'd call intact -- there have been some
vinyl sided houses, some replacement windows -- however the basic
architecture remains interesting and relatively unbastardized, and there
are still a good number of properties which have not been altered. The
neighborhood is about 70% 2-family, but only about 10% owner-occupied,
with most of the investors being from Eastern MA. 

There are two schools of thought here. The first is that a district
would not work well in the neighborhood because it could repel investors
who would not want to comply with higher standards; it could present
problems with owner occupants who may not financially be able to spend
the extra money to make historically appropriate changes.

The other school of thought is that the protections afforded to
homeowners will repel the wrong kind of fast-buck investors, and will
give owner-occupants the confidence in the neighborhood to invest a
little more in their own properties. I side with the latter sentiment,
since I purchased a house in a historic district for those exact
reasons.

The historic district would only be one part of the puzzle -- we're not
thinking this is a panacea, we think that it is a tool which, along with
other tools such as increased attention, community development money,
etc., would help turn the neighborhood around.

The two streets in question abut two historic district streets, and due
to problems with the non-district streets people are feeling a little
antsy about the two district streets since they are like a little island
in a storm. If the two non-district streets turned around this would
make the island a little bigger and hopefully buffer the existing
streets better.

I'd be curious to know if this has been tried anywhere in this state
before.

Thanks,

Ralph Slate
Springfield, MA

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