[MassHistPres] Churches in LHDs

[John Worden]

In response to the message from Ralph Slate, reproduced below, I think it is 
well established in court cases that the imposition of historic district 
controls is not a taking.  There are many churches in historic districts 
throughout Massachusetts.  In Arlington, we have three churches in 
districts.

John Worden
Arlington HDC


> Message: 3
> Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:36:34 -0700
> From: <slater at alum.rpi.edu>
> Subject: [MassHistPres] Churches in LHDs
> To: <masshistpres at cs.umb.edu>
> Message-ID: <1c8e301ca532d$6f773ec0$056a010a at mail2world.com>
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>
> Our city attorney is floating a theory that it is may not be legal to
> include churches in local historic districts because this would be a
> violation of the separation of church & state, in particular because any
> encumbrance would be considered a "taking" under the 5th amendment,
> particularly since the building would not be permitted to be demolished.
>
> Can anyone speak to that? That seems like a very dangerous path to go
> down.
>
> Ralph Slate
> Springfield, MA
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