[MassHistPres] Anyone else experience ? Town meeting voted for historic preservation on a building now not being followed through?

[roberta cameron]

Hi Sally,
How much time transpired between when the Town meeting voted and when the
developer prepared their plan? Who was responsible for preparing the PR? It
has been my experience that the process can take a long time before the PR
is recorded, which can make it difficult to enforce the condition to put a
building under a PR as the conditional funding is driven by some urgency,
and the acquisition or restoration has long been completed in the years it
can take for the PR to be accepted and executed. I have some noncompliant
projects, but haven't dealt with enforcing the grant agreement, which would
likely require legal action to claw back the funding. Fortunately none of
them have proposed demolition, but it could happen.

*Roberta Cameron, AICP*

*Community Preservation Act Manager*

Mayor’s Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development

City of Somerville

rcameron at somervillema.gov <lmorton at somervillema.gov>

On Tue, Dec 31, 2024 at 9:02 AM sally milne via MassHistPres <
masshistpres at cs.umb.edu> wrote:

> Greetings,
>
>  The first Baptist Church of West Harwich is a Macris listed, National
> Register eligible, historic building within Captains ‘ Row and within a
> District of Critical planning concern.
>  The town sought ,through a town meeting article , to clear the title of
> the church and through a complicated process of RFP and Purchase and Sale
> to find a developer to preserve the building with a historic preservation
> restriction  and use for housing.  The original  Town meeting article also
> included a motion that passed ensuring that the historic preservation
> restriction on the building follow the specific  MG. Laws  which were
> cited  through help with the Mass. Historical Commission. This would
> supposedly ensure the Restriction was done properly. I believe the town
> will argue that the Selectboard was given authority to engage in
> negotiations and any necessary steps to complete the deal. So. Just remove
> the Historic Preservation restriction!
>     Now apparently  the town did not follow through and the developer is
> asking for a complete demolition citing engineering reports as to the
> condition.  Rafters are old growth
>     Oak.  No new deeds recored yet. The developer (Davenport)  has a
> signed statement from the church owner endorsing a demolition though I
> don’t believe the deal is yet finalized. Confusing? Who really owns it? The
> developer will  now appear before the Historic Commission asking for
> complete demolition.                    .
>
>    What recourse is there. ? Can town meeting vote be ignored or not
> enacted ?
>
>
> As always I appreciate this group so much
> Wishing everyone a Happy New Year
> Sally Urbano
> Individually
> Captains’ Row West Harwich
>
>
>
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