179 Northampton Road, Amherst
UPDATE: The commission voted not to implement a one year demo delay but asked the Design Review Board to look over plans for new construction. Zoning Board will also decide a Special Permit to allow the new home to be two family vs the current one family zoning.
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The Amherst Historical Commission will discuss a possible one-year demolition delay (their maximum authority) for this haunted house located on busy Rt 9, just opposite Amherst College luxurious Pratt Field.
The owner, Peter Wilson, aka Wilson Properties Group, LLC, will not be in attendance tonight as he was never officially notified about the meeting.
In Amherst it is standard practice for the Historical Commission to peruse any demolition permit before allowing the wrecking ball to swing. In September the commission failed to implement a delay on a 100+ year old barn on Lincoln Avenue (possibly connected to poet Robert Frost), thus clearing the way for a housing speculator to construct another rental unit in an area accelerating towards student rental domination.
If the Historical Commission failed to delay the destruction of the Lincoln Avenue barn, which was in comparatively good repair, they should not take long deciding to let this scary house fall.
5 comments:
Do you know what happened at the Historic Commission meeting re: 179 Northampton Road?
I have heard that that structure even in its best days left something to be desired... and it is an eyesore and hazard to its neighborhood as is.
The commission voted not to implement a one year demo delay but asked the Design Review Board to look over plans for new construction.
Zoning Board will also decide a Special Permit to allow the new home to be two family vs the current one family zoning.
The owner wants to create a new two-family with 4 bedrooms in each unit. Sounds like more student rental housing to me. There is already so much (too much) on that part of Route 9 and nearby.
From the photo (location of exterior doors)-it looks like the home was originally a two family.
ZBA hearing for the request for a "two-family" is tonight. Amherst doesn't need more dense student housing (up to 8 unrelated tenants) at that location. Across the street (Blue Hills Rd), there is already a student rental that was found to have an illegal basement bedroom and some of the "one-family" houses along Route 9 look like they've been converted into more units as well, also without permission.
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