[MassHistPres] Historic District Assistance Request

[Dennis De Witt]

The easy part is paint color — just exclude it from review, as 40c allows.  Brookline did so after its 1st LHD and eliminated at least that obstacle in creating all the LHDs that followed.

Be aware that 40c does not trump 40b — but it does provide a negotiating chip of one is threatened.

Work from the bottom up, with the neighborhood, not from the top down.  The property owner residents should drive the process and take it to town meeting with the commission.  For better or worse Brookline town meeting’s longstanding general rule of thumb is that if about 80% of the property owners sign a petition asking for it, the district normally passes town meeting.  (That said, we lost an LHD extension with 100% owner buy in, including a developer who had proposed two demolitions, because pro-housing advocates got one vote more than ⅓.)

Dennis De Witt
Brookline

> On May 7, 2024, at 9:43 PM, cdw via MassHistPres <masshistpres at cs.umb.edu> wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> The town of Upton Massachusetts currently has a state and federally listed Historic District. However, our current Historic District does not have any real protections besides a demolition delay bylaw.
> 
> In the 1990s, Upton attempted to pass a Historic District bylaw but it was not voted into law by the residents of Upton because they were concerned that the Historical Commission would enforce design standards on individual homes which would prevent residents from adding porches, painting their house the color that they want, and generally restricting freedoms of their properties.
> 
> With the popularity of 40B complexes and business overlay districts, there seems to be a new threat to our community and the very real possibility that our town may lose very special historic homes in our Historic District. With that being said, the Historical Commission would like to re-introduce the Historic District bylaw.
> 
> I was wondering if anyone on the listserv might be able to provide advice and/or guidance about how they successfully introduced a Historic District bylaw into their towns, perhaps share the verbiage that you used for the bylaw and also share any pitfalls that might be avoided.  Thanks so much for your help and assistance!
> 
> Sincerely,
> Craig
> 
> 
> 
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