[MassHistPres] Demolition delay success?

[Jack LeMenager]

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
> 
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Jack LeMenager
781.454.7611
jlemen11 at icloud.com



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