Historic Distric Commission Minutes

Town of Winchest
    Historic District Commission

Meeting Minutes

Monday, August 22, 2011

Attendance:  Mike Haman (Chairman), Harvey Sieran, Gene Park, Kim N. Gordon (Secretary & Planning Board), Sherman Tedford (Board of Selectman Ex Officio), Julia Ferrari (Vice Chairman & Alternate), & Alternate Mary DePina-Weeks.  Public:  Russell Rapoza & Ted Whippie.

Meeting opened at 6:55 pm.

First order of business:  Review of meeting minutes of 7/15/11.  K. Gordon made a motion to accept the minutes as complete.  G. Park seconded.  Discussion. 1 abstained, 4 in favor.

Second order of business:  Mr. Mike’s exterior repairs.  9 Keene Road, Map 26, Lot 54 Alliance Energy LLC property owner (36 East Industrial Road).  Contractor, Russell Rapoza from Mansfield, MA, representing Alliance Energy came before the board with the apology that the Land Use office had informed him that he did not need any permits to install the vinyl siding on the building.  He was issued an order to quit working after he began to come before the HDC. 

S. Tedford made motion to accept the application as complete. H. Sieran seconded. All in favor.

Before and after pictures were submitted to the board.  Only two and a quarter sides of the building are noted to be constructed with TX.  The backside will remain the same.  It is noted that it is easier to clean graffiti. 

S. Tedford moved to approve the continued construction.  H. Sieran seconds.  Discussion:  J. Ferrari notes that with buildings that are not contributing members of the historic value to the historic district should not be held to a stricter standard.  Mr. Mike’s would be one such building.  All in favor.

Third order of business: 99 Main Street, United Church construction. M. Haman recuses himself to present the updates to the construction.  J. Ferrari is acting alternate.  The proposals that the contractor would like to change are as follows:

1.      Proposed chimney on the addition be changed from brick to steel metalbestos.

2.      Remove the brick chimney and concert block on the inside chimney left in place.

3.      Vinyl white clapboard to match the existing.

4.      White Azac corner board with vinyl siding

5.      Baseboard white cladding along the top of brick façade to regular vinyl siding.

G. Park made motion to accept the proposals with the following conditions: 

1.      Condition if the façade can not be a brick chimney over the metalbestos, then the exposed portion must be a brick chimney

2.      Approve white vinyl siding, but no vinyl corner boards. The corner boards should be wide board (6” or more).

3.      No vinyl Mop/base board

4.      Approve keeping the two existing chimneys

H. Sieran seconds the motion. Discussion.  Amendment accept.  All in favor.  

Forth order of business:  Guidelines for the consideration of Demolition.  The original version has been locked on the secretary’s computer.  So, the Northville version was presented.  Discussion with board was decided that it is best to get the Winchester version forwarded to everyone before the next meeting to discuss.

Fifth order of business:  71 Main Street.  An appeal was submitted by Attorney Silas Little on behalf of the Zaremba Group (General Dollar), representing Margaret Sharra.  The documents were reviewed and a discussion about the upcoming Zoning Board of Adjustments meeting scheduled for Thursday, September 1, 2011.  It was noted that M. Sharra will be represented by an attorney, and it is questioned whether it would be wise to have the HDC board also legally represented by the town’s attorney.  S. Tedford stated that the last hearing cost $1,200 in legal fees and there was no money left in the board’s budget.  He was questioned whether all legal fees came from the general fund and not out of the budgets of committees – he did not know.  H. Sieran will check into the board’s budget, since part of the budget was for the HDC signs.  J. Ferrari noted that the majority of this cost was incurred by the confusion with the town administrative office regarding whether the board was allowed to hold public hearings and forwarding/faxing documents to the attorney representing Zaremba Group.  There was discussion as to whether this cost should be incurred by the applicant or the board.

M. Haman requests that the board be present to defend the board’s decision.  S. Tedford notes that it is not up to the board to defend and it is now in the hands of the ZBA. 

K. Gordon updated the board on the house on Back Ashuelot Road (formerly owned by Virginia Fenrich) and the unapproved upgrade to the Railroad Station.  J. Ferrari has postponed discussion on the signs due to the question of the committee’s budget.  She will be donating the typography and H. Sieran will be checking into the sign maker of other signs made in town. 

Guest, Ted Whippie, requested that the board post their future agendas on the town website. 

Items for discussion at the next meeting are signs for the historic district, a proposal for 2-18 Main Street upgrades, grants, and the proposed regulations.  The next meeting date is scheduled for the regularly schedule date of Monday, September 26 at 7 pm. M. Haman moves to adjourn. K Gordon seconds.  All in favor.  Meeting adjourned at 8:22 pm. 

Minutes approved on:

Minutes respectfully submitted by:

Kim N. Gordon, HDC Secretary

Michael Haman, HDC Chairman

Winchester Historic House Still Debated

Front Page Sentinel News

WINCHESTER — Developers hoping to bring a branch of a national chain of discount stores to Main Street aren’t giving up without a fight.
Winchester’s historic district commission last month denied an application by Zaremba Group of Cleveland to demolish the 200-year-old house at 71 Main St. and replace it with a new Dollar General store.
The house is located in the historic district and, under the town’s 1997 historic district ordinance, permission from the commission is required before it can be torn down.
But now the developer has appealed to the town’s zoning board to overturn the commission’s ruling. The zoning board will review the petition at its meeting next week.
Acting on the assessment of a historic preservation consultant hired by the board at the applicant’s expense, the commission denied the application. While the house on its own does not have enough historic value to make it a candidate for historic preservation, the commission decided, it adds value to the Main Street historic district as a whole.
Combined with three neighboring buildings of the same period, the house is part of a continuous, historic streetscape and demolition would hurt the “historic, cultural and architectural values of the district,” Michael Haman, chairman of the historic district commission, wrote in the panel’s decision.
Zaremba Group’s attorney, Silas Little 3rd of Peterborough, calls on the zoning board to dismiss this idea in the company’s letter of appeal.
“A comparison to pictures of the Town taken in the late 19th century and published in the 2011 town report shows the complete degradation and diminution of the properties in the vicinity of this property so as to remove any historic character. ... The architectural ‘style’ is an agglomeration of disrepair, 20th century facelift and 20th century new construction,” Little wrote.
The petition also invokes the legal rights of property owners.
“To require the property not to be developed to contribute to the general ambiance of the district introduces a public purpose which constitutes a taking. ... The Historic District Commission’s imposition of a restriction on this property to benefit a general public purpose is unconstitutional,” Little wrote.
The house was built around 1810 and was the home and office space of doctors who served Winchester residents from 1812 to 1848, according to Lynne Emerson Monroe of Kensington, the historical preservationist hired to consult with the commission.
The building itself is not a candidate for official designation on the National Register of Historic Places, but it makes a “substantial contribution” to the Winchester Historic District, Monroe wrote in her report on the building.
If the district as a whole were added to the national register, the owner of the house would be able to take advantage of tax credits to refurbish it as a business, Monroe said in an interview last month. She also said she believes the district is a strong candidate for the designation.
Margaret A. Sharra and James S. Shannon, both of Winchester, and their brother, Michael P. Shannon of Connecticut, own the house and its 4-acre lot. Sharra is a member of the town planning board and serves as an administrative assistant to the planning and zoning boards.
The owners have said that they have been trying to sell the building for some time, but some members of the historic commission questioned why they had not seen it listed for sale. The commission also noted, in its written decision, that the owners had left board members with the impression that they hadn’t looked for other ways to use the building, which factored into the commission’s denial of a demolition permit.
u The zoning board will take up the application for appeal on Thursday, Sept. 1, at 7 p.m. in Winchester Town Hall. If the application is complete, the board will move directly into a public hearing on the matter

Another Letter To The Editor ( Keene Sentinel )

We've received the following letter which was submitted to the Opinions section of the Keene Sentinel


 Cooked Deal

I just heard that Margarette Shara is suing the town to let her put in a Dollar store on her property in the center of town. She is suing the town and wasting their tax dollars after they voted against it. What does that say about her concern for the citizens of Winchester? But wait there is more dubious things to consider. Sherm Tedford is also pushing for this to go through, rumor has it that he was heard yelling at a town employee after the vote on this issue, telling the person that he was supposed to have voted for them? Now consider this, you have Shara and Tedford, two of the towns top officials pushing this through the system any way they can. Then you have the towns lawyer, who these people have helped get very wealthy over the years going to court to defend the town in a case that two high ranking officials want him to lose...Do you see where this is going? I hope that the towns lawyer is honest and ethical enough to recuse himself from this case, realizing the conflict of interest and I hope that the other selectmen and those on the Historical society who voted against this, demand that they be the ones who chooses the law firm to fight against this cooked deal.

K.W.
Winchester
 

Sharra thumbs nose at HDC appeals to ZBA

Once again the true colors of Margaret Sharra come to the surface. The woman who wrote the rules, who knew full well when she bought the property that her get rich quick scheme was against regulations and who had the benefit of a full open hearing, has filed an appeal to the ZBA in an attempt to over turn the decision of the HDC to stop her and her cohorts, Zaremba Group, LLC  from tearing down an historical building. This should be quite a one sided hearing seeing as how Sharra is the quote "Assistant-Secretary" of the ZBA, the owner of record of the property in question and as we all know Sherm Tedford was all for letting her do her thing and is one of the very selectmen who appointed this board. Wanna bet how this decision is going to go? Looks like once again, Sharra will be the reason the town goes to court over this proposal.

TOWN OF WINCHESTER

ZONING BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT

NOTICE OF APPLICATION

&

PUBLIC HEARING

09-01-11

The Winchester ZBA will be meeting on 09-01-11 at 7:00pm on the Main Floor of Town Hall building, 1 Richmond Road, for the following;

The board will review for acceptance an application for an Appeal from an Administrative Decision. The application, submitted by Zeremba Group, LLC is for property located at 71 Main Street, Winchester map 26, lot 17 owned by Margaret Sharra and her two brothers. The appeal is alleging an error of the Historic District Commission regarding the denial of an application for demolition of the historical house and the building a new commercial ( Dollar Store ) building.

If the board finds the application to be complete, the board will move to into a a public hearing on the matter. If a decision is not reached, the hearing will continue at the next meeting without further notice. The application is available for review at Town Hall ( in Margaret's office no less ) during regular business hours.

Written up and posted in today's Sentinel by Joan Morel, our Town Administrator.

From The Principal of Winchester School

to enlarge the print for easy reading point to the page and click your mouse

Board Is Out Of Line

Below is a letter to the editor sent in by a member of the Planning Board who has witnessed first hand how several other members have pushed their own agendas and have viciously and illegally attacked another member of the board simply because she pointed out they erred. This is what happens when you have people on a public board who feel they are right no matter what they do or say and will do anything to cover their own butts, including pointing fingers at someone else ...

Enough is Enough.

When three officials of the planning board in Winchester get together to try to remove another elected member of the planning board, someone has to speak up.

Here’s what we know. Kim Gorden gave an affidavit, because she thought it was the correct thing to do. Now these three members set up a situation so they could win the vote asking the selectmen to remove her.

What they forget to tell anyone is that they broke the law when they did it. (673:11 Designation of Alternate Members)

One of the individuals receives a pretty good paycheck from the town and has been on the planning board for 15 years.

Don’t worry folks, they have an answer: “I didn’t know.”

I think they did. How much could this cost the town? I don’t know.

Now the question is: Will they hide behind “I didn’t know” or will they man up and take responsibility?

If the past is any answer they will hide.

I hope someone else will look at this mess.

What do you think?

BRIAN MOSER

Planning Board Member

Where's Waldo

What happened to the BOS Wednesday night? No meeting,  no "official" explanation, other than they had nothing on the agenda, hmmm, really?
No town business to attend to, no citizen concerns or anything?
Really ?
Winchester runs that well and everyone is happy with the job that they are doing with our tax dollars? 
We all know the answer to that! Sounds fishy.

They just weren't ducking State Rep Dan Carr were they, not wanting to hear him in regards to our Code Enforcement Officer failing to act on a written complaint he made weeks ago? A complaint concerning the Mitchell Sand & Gravel operation and how they are not in compliance with their permit to excavate? He even included picture showing clear violations and still nothing got done. What about Citizen Concern papers filed at Town hall in regards to other matters?  You mean to tell us that there was no reason for them to meet as they are required to do weekly? Perhaps if they feel that there is nothing to occupy their time or that the citizens of Winchester should just shut up and stop complaining because they don't want to hear it is OK, then we would strongly suggest you vote these pompous asses out of office and elect people who don't shirk their duties and shy away from their responsibilities.
 

Planning Board Notice of Meeting 8-1-11

Town of Winchester
Planning Board
Notice of Meeting
8-01-11


The Winchester Planning Board will be meeting on 8-01-11 at 7:00pm on the Main Floor of the Town Hall, 1 Richmond Road for the following:

   
The board will review the updates of the 2012 ICC (International Code Council) code book collection in its entirety, including Property Maintenance, and excluding one & two family sprinkler system requirements. The board will also review the NFPA (National Fire Protection) code book collection with dates of 2008-2012 and the NEC (National Electric Code) code book dated 2011.

The books are available for review in the Land Use Office during regular business hours.


1. The board will review an application for a renewal of an earth excavation permit submitted by Winchester Sand & Gravel (WSG) and if accepted will move into a public hearing on the matter. For this application the board will be meeting at 6:30pm at WSG gravel pit off Richmond Road for a site visit.

2.  The Highway Superintendent will be in to discuss Old Spofford Road with the board.

3. The board will hold a hearing on the updates to the International Building Codes, National Fire Prevention and the National Electric Code.

4. The board will review the minutes of 7-18-11 for approval.

5. Update on the asphalt plant.

6. Any other business.