[MassHistPres] Brookline's 6th LHD

[Dennis De Witt]

As Chris has just noted, Brookline established its 6th LHD at Spring Town Meeting.  

Sounds easier in that brief description than in reality, as the maps below show.

It started with an early September stay on a non-NR house (across the street from an NRD) which meant that there was a 12 month delay.  Had it been on the NR, there would have been an 18 month delay in Brookline.  Every Brookline LHD has started with actual or threatened demolitions.

Although a neighboring NRD partly overlaps this LHD, most of the area in the approved LHD, and virtually all of the area originally considered, was not in an NRD.  So there was not that underlying sense of definition nor documentation.  To meet the tight schedule to get to Spring Town Meeting, the Preservation Commission required that the neighborhood hire a preservation consultant to write the study report.  (That had been true of two prior LHD proposals.)  In addition, there was no operating neighborhood association, although the part of the area that did eventually become the LHD had a history of organizing in response to institutional conversions of existing large houses.  (This area is very close to the Longwood medical area.)

The idea of an LHD first arose in an October neighborhood meeting -- and, as usual, all alternatives, especially zoning, were discussed first.  A couple of participants with some preservation history saw some adjacent issues/opportunities and roughed out an ideal potential boundary based primarily on architectural and urbanistic considerations. 
 
The upper map drawn in November included two especially appealing streets of Victorian houses and an Upjohn church along its western side (the farthest from the demo case property), and correctly tried not to draw boundaries down the centers of streets where possible.  On that map NR properties have a yellow lot color and two abutting adjacent NRD are outlined in red.

The middle map is after the first round of reality testing through a) neighborhood Q&A meetings that including representatives of the Preservation Commission and b) the Brookline LHD process which requires that the neighborhood get owners to sign a petition.  But this map preceded any of the required formal public hearings and presentations. (The demo case property is the center of the three upper blue ones.)

The last map is what was voted by Town Meeting after one big cut at the Preservation Commission and a smaller one at the Advisory Committee.  

Brookline's Town Meeting likes to see 80% support.  That part of the area which became the LHD had 85% support.  The remainder had about 50% giving the total for the middle map about 65%

One misjudged issue was inclusion of a large athletic field belonging to a Boston institution where some work done recently had gotten neighbors worked up -- but apparently not THAT worked up.  

The other was the two parallel western streets (N is up) which have always seemed natural LHD material -- except not sufficiently so to a number of their owners.  With the exception of one individual, there wasn't especially strong opposition so much as disinterest -- including on the part of some people who are more likely to be focused on social and Green issues.  There was also talk about Neighborhood Conservation District alternatives, which became a major red herring.  (In this situation an adjacent NCD probably won't ever happen but the fact that the idea was out there, being given credibility in some preservation contexts, contributed to the loss of the larger boundary.)

In the end, after all the trimming, the LHD passed without significant opposition at the Advisory Committee, the Board of Selectmen, and Town Meeting.  

However, the race not over yet.  The AG has and takes 90 days to review any warrant article -- even tho this is no different than the five previous Brookline LHD articles.  That leaves only six days in September to post the by-law and get the map filed in the registry of deeds before the demo delay runs out!

Dennis De Witt

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