Something new may be coming to Concord next year: Neighborhood Conservation Districts. At the prompting of interested neighborhoods around town, the Concord Planning Board and Historical Commission will be holding a joint public information meeting this fall to examine the pros and cons of such a bylaw (date to be announced).
Though in effect in Cambridge for nearly 20 years, NDC's are still fairly new for the rest of Massachusetts. The Town of Amesbury has recently adopted them, and Brookline is bringing an NCD article to their upcoming Town Meeting.
NCD's help residents preserve the characteristics of their neighborhood that they find the most important to their quality of life and enjoyment of where they live. If a bylaw permitting the formation of NCD's in Concord were passed by Town Meeting, many neighborhoods in Concord could be eligible to participate if they choose to.
Neighbors jointly decide the specifics of their district, including its boundaries, what types of changes they want to have examined by the Town's Neighborhood Conservation Commission, and what they want to leave up to individual homeowners' discretion. In this way, an NCD can help guide the way neighborhoods change in the future.
NCDs can:
Prevent unwanted demolition
Prevent building of a new house or addition totally out of keeping with the neighborhood
Prevent the loss of large trees
Guide change to the exterior of a structure (but only if seen from a public way)
Prevent losing the way of life many enjoy in more modest neighborhoods
Give neighbors a say in how they want their neighborhood to change over time
NCDs do NOT:
Prevent all change
Prevent demolition that makes sense
Prevent all expansion of current houses
Have anything to do with the interior of a house or to the exterior not visible from a public way
Prevent building of new houses in keeping with the neighborhood
Tell you what color you can paint your house!
An NCD is not imposed upon a neighborhood by outsiders -- it can be formed only by interested neighbors working together to create a neighborhood study and consensus among their fellows. Town Meeting would hear each individual neighborhood's reasons to form a district, and judge their level of consensus before voting it into existence...or not.
If you are interested in seeing a Neighborhood Conservation District bylaw template written by the Massachusetts Historical Commission, go to www.ConcordMA.com/NCD.
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