After a marathon 3.5 hour meeting last night the Amherst Zoning Board of Appeals decided the bulldozing of a barn in the backyard of 290 Lincoln Avenue was not "arbitrary or capricious," and was indeed within the scope of the Zoning Bylaw.
On September 4 The Amherst Historical Commission declined to issue a one-year demolition delay for the barn because commissioners did not deem it historically significant, even though it was rumored by a real estate agent to have once been used as a writer's loft by Robert Frost, Amherst's second most famous poet.
Building Commissioner Rob Morra issued a demolition permit and the owner quickly carried out the deed. Neighbors then filed an appeal with the Town Clerk and the ZBA heard the appeal over two meetings. Even though the barn was history.
"Rumored" to have been a Frost hangout and thus untouchable. Wow. The Emily Dickinson house, sure. But come on. Where do we draw the line with historical preservation restrictions? If, as rumored, 15,000 years ago a mastodon relieved itself in what is now our front yard, does that mark our property as an endangered species habitat?
ReplyDelete"If, as rumored, 15,000 years ago a mastodon relieved itself in what is now our front yard, does that mark our property as an endangered species habitat?"
ReplyDeleteDoesn't count. Around here you have to have some significant cultural or literary importance and then if it was thought you peed on the side of a barn, it would be marks as untouchable even after it was torn down.