[MassHistPres] Procedure advice

[Alicia Primer]

Thank you for such good advice, from your vast experience. We all, even here in little ($$) Weston, hear so often about economically infeasibility and your approach is a good one.

ALICIA PRIMER

Weston: 781-899-5597
Groton Long Point: 860-536-0035
cell: 781-771-9510

“The greenest building is the one already built.” Carl Elefante
________________________________
From: MassHistPres <masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu> on behalf of Ralph Slate <slater at alum.rpi.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2022 12:56 PM
To: masshistpres at cs.umb.edu <masshistpres at cs.umb.edu>
Subject: Re: [MassHistPres] Procedure advice

My advice (as a former commissioner in Springfield, where we had a *lot* of similar situations) is to treat the application as though the work has not yet been done. Review the proposal based on its merits, and then vote accordingly. Steer the applicant away from any discussion about the work already being done, focus solely on what is being applied for. If the owner is asking to approve a certain door design as appropriate (i.e. the one already installed), then determine if that design is appropriate or not for the property.

If the Commission does not approve the petition, then next enter into a discussion about how to remediate the situation which has occurred. This could include putting the original door back, if the owner still has it, or it could involve discussion about replicating the original design with a new custom door, or perhaps installing a similar vintage salvage door. That part is going to be dependent on your community, and what you value (design vs. vintage of materials, etc).

You could even remediate by allowing the new door without approving the application, a reason to do this is that, in my opinion, every HDC decision is a brick in the wall of precedent. If you vote to approve the door, even under hardship, when there is no true hardship, then I believe that this opens you up to claims of being arbitrary when someone with the same style house applies for the same new door without having yet done the work.

I also think that while discussing remediation, the commission can go a bit further than what is stipulated in the guidelines. For example, we would often have people install white vinyl windows, and upon application, would deny the installation, and then in remediation, we would come to an agreement that the windows could remain as long as they were painted a darker color - even though our guidelines do not control paint color.

That was a compromise between asking someone who just spent $20,000 on vinyl windows to spend another $60,000 on wooden windows, and just saying "oh well, I guess you did the work, nothing we can do about it now" (because that sets up incentives for not asking for permission). Painting the vinyl windows dark made them look a lot better (we have primarily Victorian houses in our districts), and it also was a minor penalty to the homeowner which they could satisfy with their own sweat equity, or could spend far less than $60,000 to restore what had been taken away.

Ralph Slate
Springfield, MA

On 4/12/2022 11:35 AM, Alisa Struthers wrote:
Dennis,
Thank you so much for your time to help with this matter before us.
So how would we go about addressing this at the  hearing, do we address the door that has already been installed and then address the request to
replace the front door that is listed on the application. First time I've have this come up and I just am not sure in which order to address the door .
I'm lost as to how to go about this
thank you so much
Alisa
Townsend Historic Districts Commission



-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis De Witt <abtdewitt at rcn.com><mailto:abtdewitt at rcn.com>
To: Alisa Struthers <alisa_55 at verizon.net><mailto:alisa_55 at verizon.net>
Cc: MHC MHC listserve <masshistpres at cs.umb.edu><mailto:masshistpres at cs.umb.edu>
Sent: Tue, Apr 12, 2022 10:11 am
Subject: Re: [MassHistPres] Procedure advice

Alisa

In Brookline, the developer would be told by staff that retroactive approval seemed unlikely but that he could apply for a retroactive certificate.  And if the commission denied it, as seems likely, then either he could agree to a like kind replacement that could be approved or the Commission would ask the Building Commissioner to impose a 300/day fine.  It almost never goes that far because they want the stop work order lifted.  There is currently a Warrant Article for spring town meeting to transfer the power to impose the fine to the Commission.

Dennis

On Apr 12, 2022, at 8:55 AM, Alisa Struthers <alisa_55 at verizon.net<mailto:alisa_55 at verizon.net>> wrote:

Good Morning All
We have a property in our historic district that was bought by a realtor
A lot of work has been completed without a work permit or review by the HDC
a cease work order has been put in place by the building commissioner.
Exterior work included replacement of 2 windows and front door replacement, both not period correct
 The formal application is seeking 4 things one of which is to replace the front door.
The commission will address the unpermitted work and then move to the application topics.
I am seeking advice on how to handle the front door issue
1- it's up for review as unpermitted work
2- it's asked for approval on the application
any advice as to how to approach this at the public hearing?
Much appreciated
Alisa Struthers
Townsend Historic Districts Commission
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