[MassHistPres] an LHD not NCD

[Dennis De Witt]

Brookline’s spring Town Meeting overwhelmingly created the town’s 8th LHD.  The 65 single family house A&C era Crowninshield Rd. area is remarkable consistent is style and scale and very clearly bounded.  Although the Preservation Commission had already hired a consultant to inventory it, with an eye to creating an NRD, the neighborhood was galvanized by the arrival of a 40B proposal on two lots in one corner of the area adjacent to Commonwealth Ave.

Initially there was some consideration of whether to go after an LHD or a Neighborhood Conservation District (NCD).  Two factors quickly moved the leadership group towards an LHD.  

First, as an LHD the district would be on the State Register and therefore, theoretically, 40B projects within it may be subject to the MHC adverse impact mitigation process — although it might require the neighborhood going to court to get the relevant state housing agency to come to the table.

Second, Brookline’s NCD bylaw effectively presents the neighborhood with an infinitely variable “do it yourself” smorgasbord of possible items to be subject to review and possible trigger points — one might argue an unfair burden — and an opportunity for endless indecisiveness, compromising, and floundering.  Thus far only one very organized and highly motivated neighborhood has successfully developed a review formula and gotten it through Town Meeting vs at least three that have seriously considered the idea of an NCD with little prospect of success.  

Therefore the neighborhood went with an LHD where the guidelines are a “given” and there was some possibility of getting it though Town meeting in the remarkably short five months after the demolition delay was first imposed.

This is not to suggest that an LHD will trump a 40B but it is an expression of community values and gives the neighborhood’s attorney one more tool to work with.

Like all districts in Brookline, the informally expected level of owner support going into Town Meeting had to exceed 80%.

Dennis De Witt