[MassHistPres] Demolition Delay Success (Aubrey Theall)

[Courtney Meyer]

Thanks everyone for your help and insight!

On Mon, Sep 25, 2023 at 4:02 PM aubrey theall via MassHistPres <
masshistpres at cs.umb.edu> wrote:

> We have a demolition delay bylaw in Groton that affords 18 months delay.
> We have a very historic home in town presently under demo delay and it
> seems the owner is content to wait us out until the delay expires in
> November of 24.  There does not appear to be an appetite in town to create
> a single address historic district as a lever to block the demo.
> Unfortunately, therefore, there’s a good chance the home will be lost
> despite the existence of the bylaw.
>
> Aubrey Theall
> Groton Historical Commission
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> > On Sep 25, 2023, at 3:44 PM, masshistpres-request at cs.umb.edu wrote:
> >
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> > Today's Topics:
> >
> >   1. Demolition delay success? (Courtney Meyer)
> >   2. Re: Demolition delay success? (Jack LeMenager)
> >   3. Re: Demolition delay success? (Ralph Slate)
> >   4. Re: Demolition delay success? (annelusk at gmail.com)
> >
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 1
> > Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2023 13:15:00 -0400
> > From: Courtney Meyer <courtney.opalka at gmail.com>
> > To: MHC MHC Listserve <MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu>
> > Subject: [MassHistPres] Demolition delay success?
> > Message-ID:
> >    <CAKsLO89kg4v4n0qpM-X7HtDon_9yeBMw9Nzot3PcAk8g5x=yTg at mail.gmail.com>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
> >
> > Hi all,
> >
> > Our Historical Commission is considering instituting a demolition delay
> > bylaw. Does anyone have success stories in buildings they've saved as a
> > result of a demolition delay? Or any pros/cons folks would like to share
> > about the process?
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > Courtney Meyer
> > Hadley Historical Commission
> >
> > --
> > Today's Children, Tomorrow's World
> > www.theglobalchild.org
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> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 2
> > Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2023 13:50:44 -0400
> > From: Jack LeMenager <jlemen11 at icloud.com>
> > To: Courtney Meyer <courtney.opalka at gmail.com>
> > Cc: MHC MHC Listserve <MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu>
> > Subject: Re: [MassHistPres] Demolition delay success?
> > Message-ID: <BA70F887-6920-41A3-8983-F166B519312F at icloud.com>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
> >
> > Winchester instituted a demolition delay bylaw in the mid-1990s, and
> subsequently expanded it over the years to where it now encompasses more
> than half of all properties in town with the lever of a 12-month delay.
> We’ve had mixed success with the bylaw, but feel any historically
> significant property it saves is worth it.
> >
> > Winchester’s challenge, like most suburban Boston communities, is the
> pressure for more housing. Many out-of-town developers see our town as a
> lucrative pocket of Boston suburbia in which to build large, profitable new
> houses. But, because the town has so little open land, those new houses
> usually mean the loss of smaller, older, often historically significant
> homes.
> >
> > Our successes have certainly included instances where a threatened
> property was saved. But in the larger number of cases, we have successfully
> used the delay as a period in which to negotiate with developers for a
> mutually satisfactory outcome, in which case we lift the delay prematurely.
> This can sometimes mean saving the house while allowing the builder to
> renovate and add floor space. More often, however, these negotiations
> result in the design of a new house that is appropriate in scale, massing
> and design for its setting, often among other historic properties.
> >
> > We feel that expanding the delay period to 18 or 24 months would result
> in more successes while also serving as a deterrent to developers unwilling
> or unable to invest in a property that cannot be demolished for such a
> period.
> >
> > Jack LeMenager
> > Chair
> > Winchester Historical Commission
> >
> >> On Sep 25, 2023, at 1:15 PM, Courtney Meyer via MassHistPres <
> masshistpres at cs.umb.edu> wrote:
> >>
> >> Hi all,
> >>
> >> Our Historical Commission is considering instituting a demolition delay
> bylaw. Does anyone have success stories in buildings they've saved as a
> result of a demolition delay? Or any pros/cons folks would like to share
> about the process?
> >>
> >> Thanks!
> >>
> >> Courtney Meyer
> >> Hadley Historical Commission
> >>
> >> --
> >> Today's Children, Tomorrow's World
> >> www.theglobalchild.org <http://www.theglobalchild.org/>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> MassHistPres mailing list
> >> MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu
> >> https://mailman.cs.umb.edu/listinfo/masshistpres
> >
> > Jack LeMenager
> > 781.454.7611
> > jlemen11 at icloud.com
> >
> >
> >
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> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 3
> > Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2023 13:58:16 -0400
> > From: Ralph Slate <slater at alum.rpi.edu>
> > To: masshistpres at cs.umb.edu
> > Subject: Re: [MassHistPres] Demolition delay success?
> > Message-ID: <170eb961-4d44-943a-b0f8-713ac10441dd at alum.rpi.edu>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
> >
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> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 4
> > Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2023 15:38:22 -0400
> > From: <annelusk at gmail.com>
> > To: "'Ralph Slate'" <slater at alum.rpi.edu>,    <masshistpres at cs.umb.edu>
> > Subject: Re: [MassHistPres] Demolition delay success?
> > Message-ID: <002c01d9efe7$d88e5270$89aaf750$@gmail.com>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
> >
> > Ralph,
> >
> >   For your LHDs, what was the percentage of property owners in the
> district who had to say “yes” for the LHD to go forward?
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Anne
> >
> >
> >
> > Anne Lusk, Ph.D.
> >
> > 18 Hart Street, Brookline, MA 02445
> >
> > Boston University Metropolitan College Lecturer – Urban Agriculture
> >
> > 617-879-4887 h
> >
> > 617-872-9201 c
> >
> > <https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/5/4436>
> https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/5/4436
> >
> >
> >
> > From: MassHistPres <masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu> On Behalf Of Ralph
> Slate via MassHistPres
> > Sent: Monday, September 25, 2023 1:58 PM
> > To: masshistpres at cs.umb.edu
> > Subject: Re: [MassHistPres] Demolition delay success?
> >
> >
> >
> > Here are some in Springfield:
> >
> > * 151 Chestnut St., the Wilys Overland building. Owner proposed
> demolition, historical commission delayed it, and created a local historic
> district preventing it from being demolished without approval. Owner sold
> the building to a developer who created the Overland Lofts apartments,
> project is completed and occupied.
> >
> > * 270-274 Liberty Street, the Thomas Wason House. Owner proposed
> demolition, I, along with another member of the Springfield Historical
> Commission, met with the owner, told him of the building's history, he
> changed his tune and instead voluntarily got it listed on the National
> Register and had a Local Historic District created.
> >
> > * 88 Birnie Ave. Former Atlas Motor Car company, an early American auto
> manufacturer. Owner proposed demolition because he thought an empty lot
> would be more marketable than an old building. During the delay period the
> owner found a buyer who wanted the building, it was redeveloped and is
> currently in use as a UHaul self-storage facility.
> >
> > * 55 Emery St., the National Needle building. New owner proposed
> demolition, supposedly to build a hotel. During the delay a local historic
> district was created, blocking demolition. Property sat vacant for a few
> years, but is now being redeveloped into - wait for it - a self-storage
> facility.
> >
> > The issues we have had are:
> >
> > * Sometimes there are forces at play which undermine our process. We had
> one large building go down (Hendy Chocolate company) because "the demo
> application never got sent to the historical commission". We also had
> someone change the date in our GIS system so that a 1840 building suddenly
> became a 1950 building and didn't qualify anymore, and then it just
> disappeared, no prior notice - can't prove who changed the record though.
> >
> > * I suspect that some savvy building owners have preemptively demolished
> their buildings when they were approaching our 100-year cutoff for delay.
> >
> > * There is nothing in our process that ties future use to the lifting of
> the delay. In one instance, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield came
> to us to lift the demolition order on a church. We lifted it, part of the
> reason that people voted yes was because he said that they were going to
> build a smaller, more sustainable church in its place. Right after it was
> demolished, they "changed their mind", no new church built, and old church
> gone. The lot is vacant.
> >
> > * Our delay is 9 months, which is barely enough time to get a LHD
> created. The city has become more resistant to helping with the LHD process
> due to the time and effort it takes to get through it. I think 12 months
> would be a lot better.
> >
> >
> > Ralph Slate
> > Springfield, MA
> >
> >
> >
> > On 9/25/2023 1:35 PM, Courtney Meyer via MassHistPres wrote:
> >
> > Hi all,
> >
> >
> >
> > Our Historical Commission is considering instituting a demolition delay
> bylaw. Does anyone have success stories in buildings they've saved as a
> result of a demolition delay? Or any pros/cons folks would like to share
> about the process?
> >
> >
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> >
> >
> > Courtney Meyer
> >
> > Hadley Historical Commission
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> >
> > Today's Children, Tomorrow's World
> > www.theglobalchild.org <http://www.theglobalchild.org>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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-- 
Today's Children, Tomorrow's World
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