[MassHistPres] Demo Delay Definition of Demolition

[Jack LeMenager]

George — Winchester adopted a demo delay bylaw in 1996, and vastly expanded and revised it in 2016. 

Our definition of demolition is:
2.6. “Demolition” shall mean any act of (a) pulling down, tearing down, destroying, or razing a Building or substantially all of a Building, (b) moving a Building from its site or foundation from its current location, or (c) commencing the work of any of the foregoing.

But we always struggled with the notion of “substantially all” and subsequently debated it for years. Last spring, we finally settled on the following:
To guide the Building Commissioner in applying Chapter 14 of the Code of Bylaws to projects that involve significant demolition short of a complete demolition, the Historical Commission interprets demolition of “substantially all of a building” in Section 2.6(a) to mean pulling down, tearing down, destroying, or razing 2/3 or more of the exterior cladding, sheathing, or framing of the building as determined by measurements of area on elevation views of the exterior sides of the building. This interpretation should be applied without regard to whether all or any part of the building is viewable from a public way. 

Hope that helps.

Jack LeMenager
Chair, Winchester Historical Commission


> On Nov 3, 2023, at 9:50 AM, George Triantaris via MassHistPres <masshistpres at cs.umb.edu> wrote:
> 
> We are in the process of drafting a demolition delay bylaw for Harvard Mass and I wonder if any towns have included a definition of "substantial demolition" which is referenced but not defined in the boilerplate sample bylaw supplied by the Commonwealth.   
> 
> DEMOLITION - Any act of pulling down, destroying, removing, moving, dismantling or razing a building or commencing the work of total or substantial destruction with the intent of completing the same.
> 
> I am worried that without a definition of substantial demolition, developers will simply leave a small portion of the building such as the facade and argue that they have not "demolished" the structure in order to get around the bylaw.   Any advice would be most welcome.
> 
> --
> Many thanks,
> 
> George Triantaris, Chair
> Harvard Historical Commission
> https://www.harvard-ma.gov/historical-commission  
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Jack LeMenager
781.454.7611
jlemen11 at icloud.com



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