[MassHistPres] 18-month demo delay amendment approved at Medfield town meeting

[Marcia Starkey]

This has come up in the past:  Greenfield has understood that the courts have said that delay does not conflict with the State Building Code. Therefore does a Delay decision apply to a particular application? A new owner should understand this point and the municipality should  clarify  the ordinance or bylaw if needed.   

 

See the 1989 MHC publication “Demolition Delay Protection: A Guide for Local  Historical Commissions” by Maria Letunic Hanlon, Esquire as the most complete Massachusetts explanation I know.    

 

Marcia Starkey, Greenfield HC 

 

From: masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu [mailto:masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu] On Behalf Of David Temple
Sent: Friday, May 03, 2013 12:30 AM
To: Mass HistPres
Subject: [MassHistPres] 18-month demo delay amendment approved at Medfield town meeting

 

A demolition delay extension to 18 months was approved, 251-151, at the Medfield annual town meeting Monday.  The warrant committee and the board of selectmen supported the proposal. Our delay period had been 12 months since 1999; it was initially set at six months when the bylaw was passed in 1994. The delay has always applied to houses over 50 years old. 

 

Predictably, both of the opponents were in construction. Unpredictably, they sought an amendment to limit the scope to houses built before 1900; they did not object to the 18-month delay! 

 

We also closed several procedural loopholes to prevent, we hope, preemptive demo applications. We didn’t realize it until years after old bylaw passed – but a person with no immediate intentions of selling could apply for a demo permit, incur the delay, and then wait many years to sell their delay-approved house.

 

In Medfield, most delay applications have been reviewed and approved without imposing delays. In most of the cases when a delay is imposed, developers come back in a month or two with a modified plan that satisfies the commission’s preservation concerns, and the delay is lifted. In only about 8% of the cases has there been an unbreachable impasse where the builder waits out the delay and tears down the preferably-preserved structure…and everybody loses.  How do these results compare with others?     

 

 

In your reply, please include my original message. AOL users please note!

David Temple 
David F. Temple, Inc. 
300 South Street 
Medfield, MA 02052 
508-359-2915 

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