[MassHistPres] What are the responsibilities of being a PRA holder?

[Sarah White]

Will -

What Tracy said. The City of Somerville has a good number of Preservation Restrictions (PR) that we hold on CPA-Historic Preservation grant-funded projects within city boundaries. Either Planning, Preservation, & Zoning (PPZ) staff or our Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) reviews proposed future work affecting portions of a building covered under the PR.

Given that these CPA funds are granted by the City of Chelsea for the benefit of the Chelsea public,  Chelsea itself needs to hold the PR (for example, through its Historical Commission. The PR needs to be recorded at the Registry of Deeds as well.

Monitoring these properties is not a hard lift for us given that either PPZ or CPA staff or members of our Historic Preservation Commission are always out in the community in some fashion.

I recommend putting an easy application process in place that requires the owner of a PR covered property to submit an application for review for compliance with PR terms whenever they want to undertake a future project on the building.


[cid:f8b702b5-b785-4c32-aed2-0281340b03bf]

Sarah White, MDS-HP

Senior Planner

Planning, Preservation, & Zoning Division (PPZ)

Office of Strategic Planning & Community Development

City of Somerville

93 Highland Avenue | Somerville, MA 02143

Email: swhite at somervillema.gov<mailto:slewis at somervillema.gov>

Book time with Sarah White: 15 minutes meeting <https://outlook.office365.com/bookwithme/user/3a4fb36256d145778873d88367b2fd10@somervillema.gov/meetingtype/VG4JPxyRWU2OjEYLZO-jLQ2?anonymous&ismsaljsauthenabled&ep=mCardFromTile>

________________________________
From: MassHistPres <masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu> on behalf of Tracy Marquis via MassHistPres <masshistpres at cs.umb.edu>
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2025 9:35 AM
To: Cecio, William <wcecio at chelseama.gov>; MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu <MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu>
Subject: Re: [MassHistPres] What are the responsibilities of being a PRA holder?


Will,

In my experience with PRA’s…

  1.  The responsibilities are dependent on what is written into the PRA
  2.  For CPC funded projects, the town typically holds the PRA, and the HDC/HC, as the appropriately qualified entity with the town, by default oversees it.



In terms of the requirements/duties, they generally fall within scope of duties of the historical commission anyway.  The building owner needs to get approval from the PRA holder prior to proceeding with certain types of work on the building (outlined in the PRA).  This typically excludes maintenance.

I’m curious to hear what other responses you get here.

Good luck

Tracy



From: MassHistPres <masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu> On Behalf Of Cecio, William via MassHistPres
Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2025 2:54 PM
To: MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu
Subject: [MassHistPres] What are the responsibilities of being a PRA holder?



Hey everyone,



I'm hoping some of you might be able to shed some light on what the responsibilities are for being a holder of a Preservation Restriction Agreement (PRA). Are the responsibilities dependent on what gets written into the PRA? Are there standard responsibilities and if so, how much work does that entail?



Some context: A historic temple in the City of Chelsea came before the Historical Commission a while back to see if we would be willing to become the holder of a PRA as they were applying for CPA funds to draft it. It seems this might open up more funding opportunities for them. We supported the idea but declined to become the holder as we were hesitant about our capacity to effectively carry out the monitoring and enforcement of the PRA. The property owners ultimately received CPA funding and are in the process of finishing up the PRA. They have reached back out to the Commission with the same question. It seems they view the Historical Commission as the only entity that could be the holder of the PRA and haven't had any luck with other organizations. While we support the temple and the idea of creating a PRA, we are very hesitant about taking something on that we just won't be able to effectively carry out.



Appreciate any insight or help folks can provide. Thank you!!



Best,

Will Cecio

City of Chelsea



--

William Cecio | Planner and Land Use Administrator | he/him

Department of Permitting and Land Use Planning

Chelsea City Hall

500 Broadway, Room 106 | Chelsea, MA 02150

Phone: 617-466-4186


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