At our well-attended July meeting, the house at 76 Sharon Street and the carriage house at 20 Otis Street were both determined to be Preferably Preserved. Thanks to the neighbors of both properties for joining the meeting to share their concerns. Hopefully, as plans progress, we can address these concerns with developers.

Whenever a building is found to be “preferably preserved” an 18-month delay of demolition is imposed, to give the applicant time to consider sale, renovation, reuse, relocation and other alternatives to demolition. However, the demolition delay may be lifted before the 18-month period, if a plan is developed that addresses the concerns of the public and the commission. The applicant is always invited to return to the Commission’s upcoming public meetings to present plans and alternatives and to discuss the preservation concerns that their neighbors and the commission have; often the applicant works directly with a subcommittee that can help them develop appropriate plans.

We also voted to lift the demo delay at 69 Jerome Street, in West Medford, where the developer created plans that preserved much of the historic character of the home. This property was found to be Preferably Preserved earlier in the year.

We reviewed the submission of an application for a demolition permit from 80 Canal Street, a property that was severely damaged by fire. Because this property is on the National Register of Historic Places, it is automatically considered to be of historical significance. This means that our vote on whether it’s preferably preserved will take place next month.

In addition, properties at 10 Newcomb Street, 85 Fern Road, 2-4 Capen Street and 50 Winthrop Street were determined to be NOT historically significant. Both the Capen Street and Winthrop are properties owned by Tufts, and their plans are to renovate these into small-scale student housing that retains the appearance of residential property.