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Home My Public Portal About20190122 - Historical Commission - Meeting Minutes1 Hopkinton Historical Commission Meeting Minutes January 22, 2019 7:00 PM Town Hall, 18 Main Street, Hopkinton MA – Lower Level Members Attending: Beth Watson, Mike Roughan, Nancy Stevenson, John Pavlov, Christine Remby, Eric Sonnett, Nanda Barker-Hook Members Absent: None Associate Member Present: None Associate Member Absent: James Haskins Also attending: Peter and Sue Hellberd, Shawn McGuinness, John Gardner, Kathi Sherry (representative for 76 Main Street builder), Wayne Merrifield, and John Palmer 76 MAIN ST After discussing with MHC and some local historic districts, the best opportunity to save this property is to change Demo Delay bylaw from 6 months to 18 months. If we could not work with the person wanting to tear a bldg down this will give us enough time to create a single historic district. Mike submitted a letter to the owner/builder of the property from the Historic Commission informing him that we put a demo delay on 76 Main St until July 4, 2019. Eric-We should just have a discussion on procedures. This would come to Special Town Meeting in Feb. No bylaw change has ever come to a special town meeting. I have reservations about taking bylaw action. Nanda-Does it make any difference in reference to 76 Main St? Mike-If it were to pass at Town Meeting, it would have to go through an appeal process. Eric: It goes to the Attorney General to pass legal muster. Not appeal. Mike-This covered all preexisting demo delays currently. If town votes we could extend demo delay. Eric-No one knows we are having a special town meeting. We would be doing something when there isn’t time for any public discourse. It would look like we are trying to pull a fast one. Beth-I assumed we were discussing this for May. Mike-I do not want this to appear like it is hurried and unstudied. I have had many conversations with Claire Wright and she feels this is extremely ambitious. I queried MHC. There are many other towns with demo delay laws this length. Eric-Waiting until May to present this would give us time to discuss this with the community. Mike-I am going to advocate that we change the demo delay. Nanda-Let’s say the town votes yes. That is one step in the process to make it an official law. What are these steps and how long will it take to turn this around (before July 2 to help save 76 Main Street)? 2 Mike-We will bring this before the town in May. Willing to accept the recommendation from Ray Miyares. Eric-I haven’t looked at this. Let’s wait for a full quorum. Nanda-The deadline for the warrant closes before our Feb meeting, so we need to vote on this now. Eric-I will make a phone call to find out when the warrant closes for the annual town meeting. (Eric called Norman and was told that the warrant closes Feb 4, before our next meeting.) Nanda-“pending demos”-this will apply to current demo delays in the works. Eric-If don’t have the support of the chair of Board of Selectmen, it will never fly. Do we all feel strongly about the length being 18 mos.? That seems long. Mike-Other towns are doing this. It empowers the town to make a decision for the historical future of the town. Eric-This isn’t the most popular bylaw in town. They will ask how many towns do this. John-What I like about the 18 months is it is long enough to help the cause. Nanda-Public education will be essential for a yes vote. Three, twelve, or eighteen months is a drop of water compared to the length of time the structure has already existed. Sue Hellberd- (presenting a newspaper article) Framingham made a cultural district to protect structures. Nancy-Unfortunately a cultural district cannot protect endangered structures. Only an historical district can do that. Mike-The HHC received a grant to update and expand the towns survey of historic structures, to eventually be used to extend the current historic district. I’d be happy to try to get another grant. We can get in touch with Jen Dougherty, who did the survey expansion. John Palmer-What are the politics on going for a single property vs multiple? Mike-The MHC is very amenable to considering a single property. If as a group we asked for an historic district that ran from 70-87 Main Street, MHC would love the neighbors buying into this. Beth-I have a Masters degree in historical restoration. One structure is easier. John Palmer-I think this is a very scary proposition to just have this go to town mtg. for approval, with no back up plan. Mike-If a developer is willing to save a structure, the other town boards can help go around the laws to allow developer to develop the property AS WELL AS save the structure. Mike-76 Main Street’s developer’s representative is here. Kathi (developers rep) We have looked at other possibilities but it is not financially feasible to save this building. Nanda-The changes refer to the demo delay. We are also discussing creating a single historic district if The Demo Delay extension is not passed. In order to designate it as an historical district, it has to go to town mtg. Mike-In order to support this change, we need to show current properties in danger and also what we have lost. Mike-The new state building code does not define demolition as the original code did. Eric-I make a motion we amend the demo bylaw from a 6 to an 18 month bylaw as 3 amended from town counsel on Jan 17, 2019. Beth seconded the motion. Unanimous approval. John-Should we take a vote on creating 76 Main Street as a single historic district? Mike-Should we have a second article to make 76 Main Street a single historic district? Eric-We will get massacred at town meeting. John-This is the right path if it gets the developer to come to the table. Our objective is to save this house. Nanda-Townspeople might later say, What if they do this to my house?” Mike-We don’t hide the fact that it is in reference to 76 Main Street. Eric-This town is opposed to spot zoning and this is spot zoning. Mike-what if we go to neighbors and get support for the western part of Main Street? Beth-Making a larger Main Street historic district is different from a bylaw change to save 76 Main Street. Christine (to Eric)- What is an example of spot zoning? Eric-I can’t give you another example offhand. It is never done because it is not supported. Nancy-This is not a zoning change. Nanda-If we educate the public, it is up to us to put it out to residents for that decision. Then we move forward afterward. This started with deeming the property historically significant. It is part of a neighborhood. Losing this house would be changing the character of the downtown. Our argument is that 76 Main Street is historically significant and we very much desire its preservation. The builder is trying to tear it down for this 45k sq. ft. building. The issue IS spot zoning. That is what it would take to preserve this building. John-I motion to determine a second motion to town meeting, subsequent to first motion, to make 76 Main Street a separate historical district. Beth seconded the motion. Motion passed 6-1, Eric Sonnett voted against. Christine-Is there a way to present this at the special town meeting? John-We need to educate people. Not enough time. Mike-We need to meet the first week in February, to plan how we will proceed. We need to learn everything we can about 76 Main Street. Members of the public present indicated that they will be at that meeting to help plan how we approach this, and to help out. PINK HOUSE ON HAYDEN ROWE (149 Hayden Rowe) Beth I live at 152 Hayden Rowe. Elaine said this is not a conflict of interest for me. She said I am not considered an abutter, and can vote on this property. Mike made the motion that we put a demo delay on this property. Nancy seconded. Unanimous approval. 4 Eric motioned we close the meeting Christine seconded. Unanimous approval. 9:30 pm Documents used at the meeting: Letter dated 1/3/19 to Paul Mastrioanni from Chair, Hopkinton Historical Commission