AMHERST – Though business leaders support the idea of protecting historic homes and neighborhoods, they are critical of the size of a proposed new local historic district, and the possible inclusion of commercially zoned areas ripe for redevelopment.
In advance of the first public hearing on the district being examined by the North Prospect-Lincoln-Sunset Local Historic District Study Committee, to be held Thursday, representatives from both the Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce and the Amherst Business Improvement District are casting doubt on the proposal.
Amherst BID Executive Director Sarah la Cour said Tuesday that having the boundaries of the district extend as far east as the North Pleasant Street properties on the western edge of Kendrick Park would limit potential for development.
“The issue with North Pleasant Street is that’s our prime area for redevelopment,” la Cour said. “We don’t have anywhere else to go.”
The study committee has identified that area as the Curragh, or the place in a community where Irish settlers lived close to the Catholic church.
In fact, an office building project in that area, proposed by local developers Barry Roberts of Amherst and J. Curtis Shumway of South Hadley for properties at 236 North Pleasant St. and 12 Hallock St., already cannot move forward until 2017 because the Historical Commission imposed a demolition delay in January after determining they were significant structures that contribute to the historic landscape.
With a district in place, a committee would have oversight for any changes to the exterior appearance of buildings, similar to the Dickinson Local Historic District featuring 39 properties on Main, Triangle and Lessey streets.
“We have no problems with the concept of a Local Historic District, but that particular area, as far as we’re concerned, hasn’t been identified for its significance and integrity,” la Cour said.
Jerry Guidera, interim executive director of the Amherst Area Chamber, characterizedthe current proposal as anti-development.
“It’s not a preservation effort, its a protectionist tool,” Guidera said.
Guidera served as chairman of the previous study committee that led to the establishment of the Dickinson district, which mostly followed the boundaries of a national register district. The Lincoln-Sunset proposal is going beyond the district on the national register to include main corridors fertile for development.
But Steven Bloom, chairman of the study committee, said preliminary boundaries remain under discussion and that businesses were not blindsided.
“This process has been open and ongoing now since December 2014 so no one has any right to say they’ve been ambushed or surprised,” Bloom said.
La Cour and Guidera, along with Roberts and Shumway, attended a study committee meeting Monday to provide feedback in advance of the hearing.
Shumway said in an email that he could support a local historic district for some properties, but not for one as broad as the study committee is examining. New real estate should be allowed to replace existing buildings on some properties, he said.
“More regulation in areas where there is a specific want for new development only makes things more costly and difficult,” Shumway said.
Bloom sent a letter to Roberts Monday in response to the concerns.
“The study committee’s intentions were not and are not to discourage or inhibit development, but to provide a mechanism to retain the historical character of Amherst and not have the town turn into a generic anyplace else,” Bloom wrote.
In addition to the worries about impeding development, Guidera said with more than 200 properties in the proposed district, the committee reviewing projects would be overburdened.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
