A City In Amber

Imagine you want to build new apartments in Somerville. Your property is zoned for it, you have the financing lined up, you have the plans laid out, you’re ready to go. But first, you need to demolish the structure that’s currently in place, and you’ll need to get past the Historic Preservation Commission to do it.

The Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) is a seven-member* body tasked with helping maintain the historic nature of the city’s historic properties. They do that in two ways. First, they govern modifications made to any of the 413 lots with a individual local, state, or national historic designations. Second, they have the power to delay demolition of any building greater than 75 years old.

Here’s the problem: they overreach in both cases.

Most people agree that historic buildings are worth protecting. Somerville is an old city with rich history from the first residential telephone to a round house to the creation of Fluff. We have already designated almost 3% to be historical, which is certainly high, but somewhat understandable. But then we allowed HPC is incredibly strict on allowable modifications.

If you own one of those properties, you’ll need permission from them before you can replace a wooden gutter or window, remove a chimney, or install a heat pump instead of an oil-fueled boiler. That permission isn’t guaranteed, and you may need to hire a lawyer, architect, and historic window glazing consultant to even apply. In practice, HPC is very strict on trying to maintain an exact historical match.

It’s one thing to make it inconvenient and expensive to maintain a historic property, but their decisions often block upgrades for sustainability and accessibility, or push people out of Somerville by making it impossible to adapt a building to the life of its current residents.

Not everything old is historically significant, but the city’s Demolition Review Ordinance treats everything built more than 75 years ago as if it were. According to public assessment data, that’s 93% of the city’s buildings. Almost any new construction project faces the HPC. Not only that, but our definition of “demolition” covers a lot of remodeling as well. If you want to expand your home, add an accessory dwelling unit, or just cover the asbestos siding on your 1950 cottage, you need permission from the HPC.

Technically, this is not a veto point, but if the HPC finds that your building is “preferably preserved,” they can order an 18-month delay — not including the months it took to apply for permission and have the delay imposed. That length of delay is not a pause for greater consideration, but a shadow veto. Having watched HPC meetings, they consider factors such as:

The combination of wide purview, long and non-appealable delay, and unreasonable discretion leads inevitably to fewer homes at higher prices.

Somerville should impose more limits on the power of the HPC.

For truly historic buildings, protections should still allow modifications that enhance environmental sustainability and accessibility. HPC should act to preserve history, not fuel oil, dangerous staircases, or drafty windows.

For other buildings, demolition review should apply only to buildings greater than 150 years old. It should follow clear and objective standards, and it should find that buildings are “preferably preserved” only in genuinely exceptional circumstances that may warrant a Local Historic District. Finally, demolition delay should be no more than six months.

The HPC is just one example of a delay by design built into our construction systems. Each one needs to be passed for a homes to be built. Therefore, by carefully limiting exposure to more egregious ones we can help get housing built cheaper and faster.

* HPC is currently understaffed, with only 6 members and 0 alternates. If you want to get involved, visit Be Somerville. Your voice can make a difference!