North Pleasant Street on west side of Kendrick Park is a big concern
As former Chair of the Dickinson Local Historic District Commission and a petitioner before them (not while Chair) of the most complicated project they reviewed -- a $500,000 renovation of historic Hills House on Main Street -- Jerry Guidera has a unique perspective on how Local Historic Districts work and he deemed his overall experience "onerous".
Historic Hills House on Main Street
Jerry Guidera and Tom Ehrgood present to Linclon Sunset Local Historical District Commission last night
Even Steven Bloom Chair of the Lincoln/Sunset Local Historic District Study Committee freely admitted to the 25 or so people at the public hearing that it would be "Another layer of bureaucracy, another hoop to jump through."
Bill Gillen (right) Steven Bloom (left)
Committee member Bill Gillen, a long-time architect, thought the hearings would be good for developers as it would give them an early insight into what the general public thinks of their project, kind of like acting as a canary in a coal mine.
Although in Amherst, ANY project is opposed by somebody.
About two dozen attended the public hearing
During his original presentation Dickinson Local Historic District Chair Tom Ehrgood ruled out simply adding this new proposed district to his Committee's oversight as they are already overburdened and could not handle a 500% increase in jurisdiction area.
Only seven audience members chose to address the Committee and barely a majority favored forming the new Local Historic District, and not all that passionately.
The Business Improvement District and Chamber of Commerce strongly oppose the inclusion of North Pleasant Street along the west side of Kendrick Park as it is contiguous with the downtown and the last remaining area ripe for development.
After hearing from prominent local developers earlier in the week over that particular concern, Bloom told the crowd the current proposed area "Is not set in stone, it's a trial balloon."
If the Committee decides to move forward with the project it could come before Amherst Town Meeting next year where it would require a hard to achieve two-thirds vote.
9 comments:
Larry, normally your posts don't bury the lead but this did. It took me three reads through this to figure out what was happening. At first it seemed like it was going to be an article about Tom and Jerry.
If Tom & Jerry are worthy enough for a cartoon they're worthy enough for my lead.
Who cares how many layers there are, those in local government have taken over just about everything they can? Let's stop pretending these subsequent steps or debates matter.
Once you bend over, the rest is on you. The trick is not not bend over.
The entire town has their hands on their ankles, there are no idle hands left to make change, everyone is too busy falling into line and earning money to pay their taxes. We have seen it too many times over the last 50 years. The result will be that another member of your family will have to work a few more hours a week and you accepted it all previous times. If you were not going to resist as we taxed mom right out of the home, no one is going to resist this or just about anything else.
Thanks you sir, may I have another aka lather, rinse, repeat.
It's "lede," stupid. Jeez. Some journalist!
I fear this country is heading for a revolution.
So, how much more tax money will all this cost us? I'm sure their is some way this is more important than road repair or something similar.
Who has the guns? I'm with them.
I smell Tax Revolt
What's the saying about the tree of liberty? I smell a watering.....
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