[MassHistPres] question on demo delay expiration times

Fri May 4 13:01:00 EDT 2012

P.S. In reviewing the two  Superior Court cases I'm aware of, it was ordered
that 1. the Building official is required to provide the Commission the
opportunity to review and approve or reject an application for demolition,
and  2. that the Commission has the authority to stay a demolition permit
for six months.   Greenfield's term is also six months unless work has
commenced.  

Marcia Starkey  

From: masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu
[mailto:masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu] On Behalf Of Dennis De Witt
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2012 2:14 PM
To: MHC MHC listserve
Subject: Re: [MassHistPres] question on demo delay expiration times

Charles makes a good point.  This sort of situation can be addressed by
rulemaking -- and sometimes it is better done so that way.

For many years the Brookline Preservation Commission operated without a set
of Rules & Regs. -- at least none that I could find.  When we were enhancing
our demo delay law to include a provision to cover certain public interiors
and demolition by neglect we were told by the town's Advisory Committee
(which vets all Town Meeting articles) not to incorporate several complex
sets of criteria into the by-law.  That became a trigger for a set of Rules
& Regs that eventually ran to about 15 pp. -- not including LHD design
guidelines which are incorporated by reference -- once we had taken into
account all applicable issues and statutes. No trip back to town meeting was
needed for any of it.

Naturally Town Counsel and the Building inspector were consulted.  

One of the items covered was the expiration of a lifted demo delay.  Here,
FYI, is the adopted language -- for better or worse, allowing more time than
Cambridge.  The few obvious cases where this has been an issue have involved
spans of more than three years

Section 7.  Required reapplication

If no Demolition Permit is issued within three years of the Commission's
determination of Significance and of the termination of any court action
preventing the issuance of said permit, whichever period shall be longer, or
if a Demolition Permit is issued but the building is not demolished before
the expiration of said permit, including any extensions allowed by the
Building Commissioner, then any subsequent Application for the demolition of
the building shall be processed in accordance with sections 5.3.3. through
5.3.12 inclusive, without reference to any prior determination with respect
to Significance.  Upon a showing by the applicant that due to the complex
nature of the development project and despite the applicant's significant
efforts he or she has been unable to permit, design and/or finance a project
within three years, the Preservation Commission may extend the time for a
Demolition Permit for a reasonable time to accommodate such a project.

Dennis De Witt

On May 3, 2012, at 1:26 PM, Sullivan, Charles M. wrote:

In Cambridge, building and demolition permits are considered to be valid for
six months. The CHC held a public hearing and adopted a policy that our
various permissions would also be valid for six months, with one six-month
extension allowed at the discretion of the chair. I would follow the advice
of your town counsel with regard to the present case, and at some future
time adopt an explicit policy to govern this kind of situation.

Charles Sullivan
__________________________________
Charles M. Sullivan, Executive Director
Cambridge Historical Commission
831 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, Mass.  02139
617 349-4684 (direct line)
617 349-3116 (fax)

-----Original Message-----
From: masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu
[mailto:masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu] On Behalf Of Marisa Morra
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2012 9:34 AM
To: masshistpres at cs.umb.edu
Subject: [MassHistPres] question on demo delay expiration times

I am the Co-Chair of the Weston Historic Commission

We have an issue before us that we have discussed many times, but have never
actually had a case until now. We have a c.1912 house in a NR historic area
that waited out a 6 month demolition delay (our maximum) 8 years ago, but
never did anything to the house.  Now they want to tear it down and build
new, and do no think that they need to come back in to the Historic
Commission for review again.  

Our building inspector/ building permit administrator has said that a demo
delay application is part of the demolition/building permit and therefore
has a 2 year expiration date, like an actual demo permit. This is not
EXPLICITLY  written on our demolition delay application, but is explicitly
written on the demolition permit application.

Town counsel has said there is nothing in the bylaws that says we cannot
bring them in again.

Can we bring them in and go thorough the same process again without
explicitly sating that on our own application? This would meant they have to
go through initial determination, then [3-4 weeks later ]Public hearing,
then we could  impose a 6 month demolition delay from the public hearing
date. 

Does anyone have a similar situation? 

Does anyone know of a legal case that corresponds to this?

thank you
Marisa Morra
Co-Chair, WHC
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