[MassHistPres] CPA policy

[Tucker, Jonathan]

All:

We have a community group which successfully sought CPA funds for a feasibility study and rehabilitation of an historic barn.  The group is now requesting that our Historical Commission recommend to our Select Board and Community Preservation Act Committee that the Town waive its normal requirement that any granting of CPA funds for an historic preservation project on a private property be accompanied by a granting to the Town of an historic preservation deed restriction on that property.

The applicants want to not only use the CPA funds they received for a feasibility study, but also want--before the feasibility study has been completed--to use some of the other approved CPA funds to stabilize the building.  They make it clear that there is no guarantee that they will in the end preserve the building.  If the feasibility study proves that the building's restoration will be too costly for their organization, they may seek to demolish it, in which case whatever Town CPA funds were invested in stabilization would be lost.

Funding for study is understood to be a provisional matter.  The answer to the question of whether or not a building can be restored may well be No--the purpose of the CPA funds is to find out.  But the use of Town CPA funds to provisionally stabilize a building that might subsequently be torn down wanders into more questionable territory.  It still allows (and may be necessary) for the possibility or preservation to endure, but it's a deliberate risk of public funds.

How do other communities handle this?  Do you automatically require deed restrictions in exchange for CPA funding of projects on private property?  Do you require deed restrictions for some kinds of projects but not for others (which kinds?  why?)?  Do you allow for waivers?  Would you grant this one?

A toothy matter worthy of a rainy Friday afternoon.

Have at it,

Jonathan Tucker
Planning Director
Amherst Planning Department
4 Boltwood Avenue, Town Hall
Amherst, MA  01002
(413) 259-3040
tuckerj at amherstma.gov