Letter: Critical Information Was Withheld from Amherst Historic Commission

The following letter was sent to the Amherst Historical Commission (AHC) on August 26, 2024.

As you prepare to continue your hearing and deliberations regarding the Jones Library demolition/expansion project on August 28, I want to make you aware of some important information. This relates specifically to your obligation to reassess your previous vote about whether this project meets the Secretary of Interior’s Standards on Rehabilitation of Historic Properties.

Additional Suppression of Information Pertinent to AHC Deliberations
The following timeline of events regarding the project in the fall of 2023 is based on documents received by a record request to the Massachusetts Historic Commission (MHC). Documents that have not been included in your meeting packet are attached to this email.

• May 1 Epsilon submits application to MHC for Historic Tax Credits
• August 18 MHC notifies Jones Library Director Sharry that the application is incomplete
• August 30  MHC receives additional materials from Epsilon
• September 14  AHC opens hearing on demolition and preservation restriction; approves Demolition
• October 13 MHC receives additional materials from Epsilon
• October 19 AHC continues hearing; takes vote stating no violations of the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards on Rehabilitation
• November 22 MHC notifies NEH of concerns and need for Section 106 review (Jones Library Director cc’d)
• December 29 MHC rejects the application due to violations of the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards on Rehabilitation

I want to draw your particular attention to the following:

• The MHC notified Jones Library Director Sharry BEFORE the fall AHC hearings that the application for Historic Tax Credits was found to be incomplete 
  
• Additional materials requested by the MHC were sent AFTER the hearing opened in September and BEFORE the hearing continued in October
  
• None of this information was shared with the AHC.
  
• The Library Director knew the MHC review of the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards on Rehabilitation was in progress at the time of the AHC hearings but did not share this information with the AHC at the hearings in September or October.

Certainly, the AHC would have benefitted from the knowledge that the MHC was in the process of reviewing the application for Historic Tax Credits, including their analysis of the project with respect to the Secretary’s Standards. Had you known that, you could have chosen to await their determination before taking your own vote; you were not afforded that opportunity because this information was knowingly kept from you.

There are ample grounds for the AHC to reconsider its previous decision regarding the project’s (lack of) compliance with the Secretary’s Standards, as required by the Historic Preservation Restriction Agreement that the Jones trustees signed with the town.

Throughout this process, the AHC has been told to hurry up and approve this project. You have had critical information withheld from you and you have been given faulty and heavy handed advice.

At your meeting on August 22, Vice Chair Helmer expressed discomfort about the AHC’s prior decision because of the MHC’s findings expressed in their three letters from November 2023, December 2023, and April 2024. She stated,

“I find it difficult to understand whether we can consider these letters or not in our deliberation as new information, or if we only should be considering the value engineering changes.”

Staff Liaison Nate Malloy steered the AHC away from revisiting its prior decision, noting that he had sought counsel from the town’s Building Commissioner and a Town Attorney on the matter who were reportedly “not convinced that it’s necessarily needed to reopen the hearing just because of that new information”. However, he also made the following statements:

“If this information is enough to open the hearing again then the commission can discuss it” and 

“If we feel strongly enough that for some reason we didn’t have a thorough enough review then we could do it.”

He also noted that the standards were included in the AHC’s packet in 2023 and said,

“If the commission really went through the standards and made their findings, then that’s what it is.” 

However, a review of the video recording of those meetings in September and October reveals that the AHC in fact did not discuss whether the proposed project complies with each of the Secretary’s Standards. Aside from mentioning the standards in the motion, the AHC merely talked about some of the project’s attributes, not about the standards and how the proposed project does or does not meet them. This stands in stark contrast to the MHC’s detailed analysis of the standards as they apply to the project.

A Chance to Fix Things
The evidence indicates that you did not conduct a thorough review in the fall of 2023 and that you should therefore welcome the opportunity to do so now. You are not prohibited from taking this step, and are indeed obligated to do so. 

Throughout this process, the AHC has been told to hurry up and approve this project. You have had critical information withheld from you and you have been given faulty and heavy handed advice. A statement was made at last week’s meeting by a commissioner that is very troubling and suggests that inappropriate pressure is being applied: 

“I know we’re trying to save money, I know we’re trying to maintain value, and, most importantly, to get this project approved for funding.”

Please, look inward and ask yourself if you have fully prepared yourself for all your meetings,if you have thoroughly read, understood,and applied the Standards to this project, and if your votes were truly influenced only by what you are authorized to do in your roles as Amherst Historical Commissioners.

Maria Kopicki

Maria Kopicki is a resident of Amherst’s District 5 and a library patron.