AMHERST – Residents who live in a proposed local historic district near town center appear mostly supportive of the concept of having additional review for any external changes to buildings and structures near their homes.
At a Lincoln-Sunset Local Historic District Study Committee public hearing Thursday night at Town Hall, which drew about 25 residents, several advocated for adoption of the proposal.
Winnifred Manning of 61 Fearing St. said she is pleased her neighborhood and the east side of Tan Brook are included so inappropriate developments can be prevented.
“I do worry about things that I hear like how easy it would be to just declare the east side of Tan Brook out of the district for zoning purposes,” Manning said.
Even though having the district would not prevent conversion of owner-occupied homes to student rentals, Elissa Rubinstein, of 38 Fearing St., said it would be an opportunity to protect properties from the continuing encroachment of off-campus undergraduate housing.
But she added that this mix of longtime residents, families and students creates a dynamic setting. “I think we have something very precious because we have students and full-time residents,” Rubinstein said.
The endorsements at the hearing mirror the results of a survey responses from 57 of 218 property owners. These show sufficient support that an application can be made to the Massachusetts Historical Commission to allow the proposal to move forward, said Senior Planner Nathaniel Malloy.
Town Meeting would then have to approve the district by a two-thirds vote. “The best guess is this would go to Town Meeting in spring ‘17,” Malloy said.
Amherst established its first district, the Dickinson Local Historic District, in 2012. That features 39 properties where any work that changes a property’s exterior, and is in view of the public way, is subject to review by a volunteer commission.
Commission chairman Thomas Ehrgood said 17 of the 39 properties have so far come forward with projects, for an average of about five per year.
Based on the size of the new district, this commission would have to handle about 24 reviews per year, which would be labor intensive, Ehrgood said. “I see a resource problem here,” Ehrgood said.
Chairman Steven Bloom said the size and boundaries of the district could change. “These boundaries are not set in stone,” Bloom said.
Study committee member William Gillen, who works professionally as an architect, said the benefit of the district is allowing developers to get advice about what types of projects would work in the district.
“So here’s a wonderful opportunity, for me the architect, working for the developer, to get a clue about what would be acceptable,” Gillen said.
While the homes are of different styles and eras, study committee member Maurianne Adams said the boundaries are based on the cultural story, where there was once an interaction between people in a mixed-class, mixed-race neighborhood “that is really cheek-to-jowl with the grand old houses that came later. That, to us, seemed a really interesting point.”
Historical Commission member Laura Lovett said there is value in protecting an integrated neighborhood that has been decimated in other cities and towns by suburbanization.
Bloom said it is uncertain how onerous any reviews would be, acknowledging that developers would face one more hoop to jump through if adopted.
“That’s a small cost to pay to be in a neighborhood that is preserved,” Bloom said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
