[MassHistPres] Globe story

[Gretchen Schuler]

Not only should the extension of time for completion of a hearing and
filing of a decision be received in writing, it also should be filed with
the Town Clerk as part of record in order to preserve the Commission's and
the applicants' rights.  I am assuming that is the case for a City; I know
it is the case for a Town...

Gretchen Schuler
Wayland Historic District Commission

On Sun, Jul 8, 2018 at 8:59 AM, Dennis De Witt <djd184 at verizon.net> wrote:

> The following story in today’s Globe contains a couple of lessons worth
> noting
> — if an LHD Commission defers an issue to a later meeting, the applicant's
> agreement should be recorded in writing.
>
> — Be wary of any proposal to adopt the optional provision in MGL 40c to
> allow an appeal to the regional planning council rather than to the
> superior court — which is the default provision in 40c.  When the case is
> heard by the planning council’s arbitration panel, they hear the case de
> novo, as if it had never come before the local commission.  According to
> Brookline’s town council when adopting this option was unsuccessfully
> proposed by a Brookline LHD opponent, Brookline's town council would then
> have been be left in the position of defending not what Brookline's
> Commission determined based on its hearing but rather of opposing what the
> arbitration panel determined based on the arbitration panel's hearing of
> the case.
>
> Also, of course, because of the Dover Amendment, in this case any HDC
> could potentially exercise more oversight in this case than a municipality
> could have though zoning.
>
> Dennis De Witt
> Brookline
>
>
> NEWTON — . . .  Lasell College’s plan to install a quartet of 70-ft. tall
> lights on an athletic field across the street. The college says Grellier
> Field, home to many of Lasell’s varsity and intramural sports teams, could
> be lit up as many as 230 nights a year.
>
> The battle over Lasell’s proposed lights has escalated over the last two
> years, involving more than 40 neighbors, various college officials, an
> array of city departments, a regional planning agency and, now, the
> superior court.
>
> Lasell says it needs the lights so that its students can have more
> opportunities to play intramural and recreational sports.
>
> “We currently don’t have enough hours of sunlight and enough field
> capacity on either of our two fields,” said Lindsey Beauregard, Lasell’s
> associate director of government and community relations. She said the
> field will also be rented to nonprofit organizations with an educational
> mission.
>
> Under Lasell’s most recent proposal, the field would be lit until 10 p.m.
> Monday through Saturday and until 8 p.m. on Sundays during the spring and
> fall. In the winter months, the lights would be on until 7 p.m.
>
> Neighbors say that’s too late and too often. Determined to block the
> project, they have banded together to form GLARe, short for Grellier Lights
> Abutters Response. They have forked over tens of thousands of dollars in
> legal costs to fight it.
>
> “Not only is it expensive, but we’re all here fearing for our quality of
> life,” said Lauren Shea, another neighbor and a former Globe employee.
>
> Recently, the college, frustrated with neighbors’ opposition, managed to
> move forward on a legal technicality.
>
> “Basically the response has been the same throughout this whole thing
> which has been a straight ‘no’ to wanting the lights,” said Beauregard.
>
> The school first raised the idea in 2013 but did not pursue it in earnest
> until 2016, Beauregard said. In July of last year, the school invited
> neighbors to campus for a presentation on the project, demonstrating the
> height of the lights with cherrypickers on the field.
>
> Bruce Leslie, a doctor who has lived in the neighborhood for 25 years,
> said the meeting was more of a lecture than a conversation.
>
> “It wasn’t a give and a take,” Leslie said.
>
> Tensions came to a head at an August 8 meeting of the Auburndale Historic
> District Commission, which had to sign off on the project because two of
> the four proposed lights fall within the Auburndale Historic District.
>
> During the meeting, Lenny Gentile, an abutter and city councilor, and the
> neighbors’ lawyer, Stephen Buchbinder, suggested that the discussion be
> postponed because several neighbors were out of town. Commission members
> decided to return to the issue in September, according to the minutes.
>
> But Lasell says it didn’t agree to the delay. In mid-September, the
> college wrote to the commission to say that the postponement hadn’t been
> documented in writing. At a historic district commission meeting later that
> month, the college said the lengthy delay entitled Lasell to a Certificate
> of Hardship, an exception that would allow it to bypasss the commission
> altogether.
>
> “That obviously was seen as being a little devious and not being very
> upfront on the part of the college because some of the neighbors were there
> in August and clearly came away feeling that the college had agreed,” said
> Gentile.
>
> Beauregard said the college stands by its contention that it never
> assented to the delay: “There was never a nod. There was never a verbal
> approval.”
>
> The historic district commission unanimously voted to deny Lasell’s
> request for a Certificate of Hardship.
>
> Lasell requested a legal review from the Metropolitan Area Planning
> Council, which appointed a panel that in January granted Lasell the
> Certificate of Hardship. One member of the panel, though, said the
> situation “leaves one with a bad taste.”
>
> “There is a certain amount of coexistence that’s going to be going on, and
> this is kind of the wrong way to do it, to try to slip something in on a
> technicality when there have been ongoing discussions for many months, many
> years, ” said panel member Marilyn Fenollosa, according to a transcription
> of the meeting.
>
> Beauregard said Lasell wasn’t at fault for the technicality.
>
> “The city put people in that commission without knowing the laws and the
> rules and the regulations about it, so it wasn’t malicious,” she said.
>
> The historic district commission has appealed the council’s decision to
> the superior court, according to a lawyer for the city. Newton’s
> commissioner of inspectional services has issued the school a permit to
> build the lights’ underground foundations. Lasell still needs permits for
> the lights themselves; the college says it plans to move forward.
>
> Leslie said some GLARe members will meet with Lasell College president
> Michael Alexander on July 9.
>
> “We’d like to try to resolve this,” said Leslie.
>
>
>
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