Local Historic District Hears Dispute Over Use Of Right-Of-Way On North Prospect

Report On The Meetings Of The Local Historic District Commission, March 24, 2023 and April 24, 2023

These meetings were held over Zoom and were recorded. The March 24 meeting can be viewed here.

Present
Nancy Ratner (Chair), Karin Winter, Greta Wilcox, Nicole Miller (Real Estate representative), and Steve Bloom. Absent: Bruce Coldham (Architect)

Staff: Nate Malloy (Senior Planner)

New Owner Wants To Construct Fence To Control Parking
A long time Bed and Breakfast business at 77-79 North Prospect Street was sold in December of 2022 to new owners, North Prospect St. LLC, whose tax bills are mailed to 15 Summit Lane, Roslyn Heights, Long Island. The duplex is currently leased to two groups of four unrelated individuals. North Prospect Street LLC applied to the Local Historic District Commission (LHDC) to determine the appropriateness in a local historic district of a stockade fence along the east property line abutting a “land-locked” single family home belonging to Curt Shumway, which has no frontage. Shumway attended the hearing. No representative of the owner was present at the March 24 meeting. Hence the hearing was continued to April 24.

Shumway pointed out to the Commission that there is a problem, namely, the existence of a legal paved Right of Way (ROW) going south from Hallock Street behind the four houses on the east side of North Prospect Street (see photo below). A second legal right of way on a portion of the 77-79 North Prospect lot allows emergency access to the Shumway property. The proposed stockade fence would block this emergency access.

Questions from the commissioners ensued. Nicole Miller, the realtor on the LHDC, asked whether any trees will be cut down during construction. She was reminded by staff liaison Nate Malloy that vegetation is exempt from the commission’s purview. Karin Winter suggested that this is an important decision that required a site visit by the commissioners. She asked whether LHDC really wanted stockade fences throughout the historic downtown, which is on the National Registry and the Massachusetts registry of historic resources. She said the fences would constitute “visual impairments,” and Greta Wilcox agreed.

There is also the issue of whether such a fence would be legal on a common driveway, and how much of it would be visible from the street. Shumway again stressed that such a fence would deny emergency fire department vehicles access to his house. He said he would continue his discussions with the owner.

The same commissioners were present for the continuation of this hearing on April 24, as was the new owner of the duplex, Karen Ching. She asked the commission to withdraw her application to allow her to learn more about the right of ways that she hadn’t known about previously. She didn’t like that the tenants of the Shumway house parked on her grass to the east of the paved ROW. Her issue is that residents having the right to “pass and re-pass” should not include their parking, even though the parking has been a continuing use over many years. The commission approved withdrawal of the application to allow the abutters to resolve the issue.

Extension of Lincoln-Sunset Historic District
The meeting continued with a discussion of extending the Lincoln/Sunset historic district from Cowles Lane to McClellan Street, as preservation of this block is the most threatened. It was learned that parking lots are not part of the jurisdiction of the commission. Town Manager Paul Bockelman also requested the commission consider a third local historic district around the East Street Common. This was the original town center before the current downtown was developed. It was made a National Historic District 50 years ago, Amherst’s second one after the Emily Dickinson Historic District further west on Main Street.

Elizabeth Sharpe, former member of the Historical Commission, Director of Historic Northampton since 2016, and former Director of Education at the Smithsonian Museum of American History, as well as author of books on Amherst History, was appointed to the LHDC at the April 24 Town Council meeting, and will bring much-needed expertise to commission discussions.

The meeting concluded with commission members and staff arranging a meeting with Shumway to discuss ways for him to make enough profit to make development in the local historic district worthwhile, but also satisfying the need for “appropriateness” of his vision to the historic district. The LHDC will also ask Sharpe to lead a tour for the commissioners of the early structures comprising the East Amherst Historic District. North Amherst residents are still interested in protecting and extending its historic district after ceding its study to the Lincoln/Sunset neighborhood which they deem more threatened.

Again, it was emphasized that one of the best actions the town could take toward preservation of whatever historic character has not been destroyed is to develop design standards through a public process for building consensus. With the retirement of Bruce Coldham from the commission on June 30, the required architect position will be vacant. A candidate with architectural credentials is being sought.