[MassHistPres] Zoning issue: "construction control" on a historical society building project

[Nina Reyes]

Hi all,

The Colrain Historical Society zoning has recently been locally designated as “commercial,” which puts our group under "construction control" (i.e., any changes require a drawing and the stamp of an architect or an engineer). This makes every single tiny thing the organization has to do prohibitively expensive. To install an ADA-compliant washroom, which we’re doing right now, required $9,000 for the architect alone. Our coffers simply can’t afford that kind of expense.

I’ve surveyed area historical societies, and none of them are apparently under similar strictures. Has anyone else  encountered this? 

If any of you who are local historical societies who would be willing ASAP to support our effort to get out from under "construction control" by simply stating the zoning of your own group in a letter to us, our group would deeply appreciate the support. We anticipate going to the local Zoning Board of Appeals relatively soon. Arriving with a sheaf of two- or three-sentence statements from other historical societies would definitely bolster our argument that our zoning designation is out of line with the norm.

You can email me your statement directly at nireyes29 at gmail.com <mailto:nireyes29 at gmail.com> and I’ll print it, or send a hard copy to Colrain Historical Society, PO Box 45, Colrain, MA 01340. If you have questions, I can be reached at 651/283-9497. (Yep, I’m a transplant, and can’t change my cell number because my kids have known it all their lives.)

Thanks so much.


Nina Reyes
Volunteer for the Colrain Historical Society in Colrain, MA
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.cs.umb.edu/pipermail/masshistpres/attachments/20250822/eae9888f/attachment.html>