[MassHistPres] FW: Fwd: Windfarm near Copenhagen

[Carol]

Jonathan: 


If you think there may be a way to make these 130 wind turbines look attractive, and blend in nicely with the historical aspects of their surroundings such as happened in your Amherst story below, please please let us know. We need a hint, something to grab on to which will lessen our strong feelings against this ghastly project. And about the parade....it hasn't started yet. Watch for the floats. 


My best, 
Carol M Carlson 
HDC, Bedford, MA 
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jonathan Tucker" <TuckerJ at amherstma.gov> 
To: Dcolebslade at aol.com, masshistpres at cs.umb.edu 
Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2010 1:42:15 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern 
Subject: [MassHistPres] FW: Fwd: Windfarm near Copenhagen 






From: Tucker, Jonathan 
Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2010 11:32 AM 
To: 'Dcolebslade at aol.com'; masshistpres at cs.umb.edu 
Subject: RE: [MassHistPres] Fwd: Windfarm near Copenhagen 



I encountered a similarly unexpected and beautiful wind farm atop a craggy granite ridgeline south of the River Awe in the western Highlands of Scotland, above the old drovers’ town of Taynuilt. There is a risk involved in digging in heels on a project like Cape Wind—or any major regional or local change which affects historic preservation. If you fail in your attempt to block the parade, the floats may run over you and the marching bands tread on your face. Which teaches the crowd watching to ignore you next time. Better to remain mobile, so you can follow along the side of the parade, mingle in and out while contributing useful criticism and trying to affect the character of whatever’s going to happen. 



Local example: We had a situation in Amherst in the last few years where a developer got hold of a large, very important historic mansion property on our main historic street, within spitting distance of the Emily Dickinson Museum properties. The developer subdivided the mansion property with a bunch of frontage lots and managed to move another, smaller historic house to a new lot on the side street frontage of the property. Oh, the wailing and gnashing of teeth that ensued. The developer then sold the whole thing to another developer, who moved two more historic houses to lots on that same side street frontage. Throughout this process, Amherst’s Historical Commission (which had demolition delay authority over the moving of each of the houses) tried to walk a carefully balanced line . They attempted to purchase the remaining frontage lots . They worked with the developer to save the new old houses (all of which would have been demolished otherwise). They helped to influence the siting of the newly-moved old houses (maintaining sightlines to the mansion) and develop a compatible aesthetic for their landscaping . They encouraged the developer to work with the owners of an abutting twin mansion property to open up and clear out neglected successional growth so that both mansions could be seen from the main road for the first time in many decades. And so on. They did the quiet steady work which protected everybody’s interests—including the community’s—to the greatest degree that those interests could be protected, against a background of loud lamenting, tossing of ashes, hurling of invective and dark accusation, and general rending of garments by local absolutists trying to pursue a change-nothing-ever policy in the guise of historic preservation. 



The saga on this property is not yet complete, but the new old houses already look like they’ve always been there, and, following renovation, they were snapped up at high prices in the middle of the recession. Meanwhile, thorough deed research by a local historian has demonstrated showed that, during the period of development of this important historic neighborhood (1830s-1880s), houses in the area were treated like checkers and were moved all over the place, such much so that it could be argued that the act of moving existing houses around has significant historical precedence and meaning. 



Continuing to stand out in the middle of the street, waving a brave red flag of defiance after most of the parade has passed by and is continuing on a block or two behind you . . . that may help reinforce some peoples’ sense of their own principled identity, but it doesn’t do anything useful for historic preservation. It looks silly and it marginalizes those who practice it. And, too often, it marginalizes the importance of historic preservation in the process. 



Jonathan Tucker 

Planning Director 

Amherst Planning Department 

4 Boltwood Avenue, Town Hall 

Amherst, MA 01002 

(413) 259-3040 

tuckerj at amherstma.gov 









From: masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu [mailto:masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu] On Behalf Of Dcolebslade at aol.com 
Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2010 9:31 PM 
To: masshistpres at cs.umb.edu 
Subject: [MassHistPres] Fwd: Windfarm near Copenhagen 




This is a photo of a wind farm near Copenhagen which we saw last summer. We saw several others and those on the ship thought they were beautiful. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, so they say, and probably should not be the basis for a decision on such an important trade-off facing preservationists. 





Betty Slade 


Westport 
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