Historical Commission Needs More Tools To Preserve Town’s Architectural Heritage

Report On The Meeting Of The Amherst Historical Commission, April 20, 2022

The meeting was held over Zoom and was recorded. The packet for the meeting can be viewed here.

Present
Jane Wald, (Chair, until 6:52), Jan Marquardt, (acting chair after 6:52), Becky Lockwood, Pat Auth, Robin Fordham.  Staff: Ben Breger, Staff liaison

 The Historical Commission continues to debate and clarify provisions of the historically significant structures general bylaw which will replace Article 13 of the zoning bylaw, requiring a demolition delay of one year for buildings having historical or other significance according to stated criteria. In contention is still whether the age of the structure or a threshold cut-off date should determine if demolition of all or part of a building needs to be reviewed and who should make this determination. (see also previous reporting on the bylaw in the Indy).

 The competing issues are whether the huge number of tract starter homes built here in the 1960s and 1970s with the rapid growth of UMass are historically significant and need to be reviewed when owners seek alterations. This would increase considerably the work load of both staff and the Historical Commission when at the same time, many custom-built “mid-century modern” homes exist that could be worth preserving as classic examples of a “type of architecture.”

 A fifty-year cutoff seems to be the preservation “industry” norm but 75 years has also been proposed here.  Marquardt says that a date certain should be the threshold because picking the age of the building means it needs to be changed every few years and “we are just kicking the can down the road.” Most important, she said that home owners need to be made aware that any proposed changes to their houses may fall under the purview of this bylaw.

To cut the staff and committee workload so that their time could be spent on the most important buildings, the proposal was to have the building commissioner and one Historical Commission member decide whether to approve a demolition permit or pass it on for the full commission’s review. Members of the Community Resources Committee (CRC) and Planning Board objected to relying on a possibly fallible decision of a single member, yet more than one member (or a constituted subcommittee) would require adhering to the Open Meeting Law adding to staff and commission workload.

It became clear from further discussion and staff review of the CRC and Planning Board meetings that the town needs more tools than demolition delay to preserve our architectural heritage. More Local Historic Districts and Preservation Restrictions are more pro-active preservation tools than a one-year demolition delay while possible alternatives to demolition are investigated. An inventory of all significant structures in Amherst is the highest priority of both staff and the Historical Commission.   Funds are available to hire a consultant to do the research. Unfortunately however, these funds cannot be available until July 1, 2023. The hope is for some of these issues to be resolved before CRC meets again in early May on its referral to the Town Council for a vote. (As a general bylaw, a super-majority vote is not needed.)

 In other business, demolition of a garage of unknown age at 285 Main Street was allowed and consideration of demolition of 37 North Pleasant Street was continued to their next meeting on May 18. An agreement has been reached with the Pioneer Planning Commission to prepare an Amherst Preservation Plan with the consultant to meet with the Commission at their June meeting. On the agenda for May 18 is approval of the removal on the Kinsey Garden from the Jones Library site to the Kestral Trust home on Bay Road. This garden is considered part of the Jones preserved landscape.