[MassHistPres] Historical Commission designated seats

[Stacy Spies]

Hopkinton's Historic District Commission bylaws state, "If within 60 days
after submission of a written request for nominees to [the Boston Society
of Architects], no such nominations have been made, the Select Board may
proceed to make appointment to the Commission without the nomination of
such organization."
Jenn Doherty at MHC can probably let you know if that statement is standard
in Massachusetts.

Stacy Spies, Chair
Hopkinton Historic District Commission

On Wed, Nov 3, 2021 at 9:52 AM Ralph Slate <slater at alum.rpi.edu> wrote:

> Many communities have LHD ordinances that specify that some of the HDC
> seats should be chosen from lists of two persons submitted by various
> external agencies - for example, a local historical society (defaulting to
> SPNEA/Historic New England), the local American Institute of Architects
> chapter, or the local Board of Realtors. Or, in Springfield, the
> Springfield Preservation Trust, a non-profit whose mission is historic
> preservation.
>
> Many communities also have LHD ordinances that specify the appointment of
> alternate members, who fill in to vote when a regular member is not able to
> do so, either because of absence or recusal.
>
> Would it be permissible for a city or town to hold the designated seats
> open, and appoint alternate members instead, so that the city/town would
> have more control over who is appointed? In other words, prevent those
> local bodies from being able to submit their two names by just leaving
> seats open, but retaining quorum by using alternates instead?
>
> Before anyone reacts negatively toward me, I'm not asking this question
> because it is something I want to do. I'm curious if anyone has dealt with
> this before, particularly given the considerable power that a HDC has over
> development in a community, something that an administration might want to
> be able to influence. And perhaps to give people a heads' up, if they are
> writing ordinance to add alternate members to their commission.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ralph Slate
> Springfield, MA
> _______________________________________________
> MassHistPres mailing list
> MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu
> https://mailman.cs.umb.edu/listinfo/masshistpres
>


-- 
Stacy Spies
Chair, Hopkinton Center Historic District Commission
<https://www.hopkintonma.gov/hhdc/>
Facebook @HopkintonHistoricDistrict
<https://www.facebook.com/HopkintonHistoricDistrict/>

-- 





All email messages and attached content sent from and to this email 
account are public records unless qualified as an exemption under the 
*Massachusetts Public Records Law 
<http://www.sec.state.ma.us/pre/preidx.htm>*.

Visit us online at 
*www.hopkintonma.gov <http://www.hopkintonma.gov>.*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.cs.umb.edu/pipermail/masshistpres/attachments/20211104/020d6dc6/attachment.html>