Date: Fri 15-Mar-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

historic-district-state-

Full Text:

State Historical Commission Backs Historic District Plan

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

The State Historical Commission gave its unanimous support this week to

Newtown's proposal to create a scaled-down version of the proposed historic

district in the borough.

"We're ecstatic," Kathy Jamison, chairman of the Historic District Study

Committee, said immediately after the committee presented its report to the

state commission and received its blessing.

A contingent of more than a dozen Newtown supporters of the historic district

proposal attended the meeting of the State Historical Commission in the South

Congregational Church in Hartford on Wednesday morning.

"The commission basically gave us their resounding support and commended us

for our efforts," said Jim Gaston, a member of the Borough Board of Burgesses

who lives on Main Street and is a member of the Historic District Study

Committee.

Five of the eight commission members were present for the presentation made by

J. Paul Loether, an architectural historian and National Register specialist

for the commission, and by Mrs Jamison, Mr Gaston and Borough Warden Joan

Crick.

"The key to the new proposal was the designation of Main Street as a historic

roadway which serves as a link for continuity between the properties," Mr

Leother said. "It was unusual in the sense that a local district hasn't been

formed that way before, but historic roadway designations themselves are not

unusual."

There are other ways to form a district but this would be "the most direct and

the least expensive," Mr Leother said.

Having made five unsuccessful attempts since 1969 to create a historic

district, the borough recently decided to back a plan which would include only

those property owners who wished to participate.

"The Historic District Study Committee has bent over backwards to respect the

feelings of those property owners who do not want to participate," Mr Loether

said. "My guess is that people will want to join once they see how well it

goes."

Of the 89 properties in the original plan, 55 are in the scaled-down version.

Forty-two of these are classified as residences, although some also contain

offices. The others are public and commercial properties, two churches and the

Meeting House.

The study committee proposed boundaries that would be essentially the same as

the original proposal: From No 16-18 South Main near Lovells Lane north to 82

Main Street at Johnnycake Lane; along West Street No 11 at Castle Hill Road;

along Currituck to No 10 and on Church Hill Road to No 5. Since the Ram

Pasture and the former Lovell's Garage property aren't included in the

proposed district, the State Historical Commission said the borough might want

to consider classifying the property at 16-18 South Main as a historic

building outside the district. There isn't a good visual and physical link

between that property and the rest of the district, the commission explained.

"It's up to the committee and the borough to decide whether to implement any

recommendations," Mr Loether said. "In any case, the state commission gave its

unanimous approval to the plan as proposed."

Mrs Jamison said the committee has letters of support from the Borough Board

of Burgesses, the Borough Zoning Commission, First Selectman Bob Cascella, and

from Mae Schmidle, who is chairperson of the Newtown Historical Society's

architectural survey committee. The Historic District Study Committee is

slated to present the proposal at a meeting of the Planning & Zoning

Commission next week.

"The next step will be a public hearing, which has been tentatively set for

April 4," Mrs Jamison said.

After the hearing, ballots will be sent to property owners who have indicated

they want to be in the district. The property owners have 15 days to respond.

The owners of 34 properties which were in the original plan decided not to

participate in the scaled down version. Many were among those who voted

against the proposal when it failed, by 2« votes, to get the two-thirds

majority required in the last referendum. Others, including Stan Verry, the

former Historic District Study Committee chairman, and Linda Shepard, the

former committee secretary, withdrew their properties, saying a district which

does not include all of the properties is not the same as the original concept

which they supported.

Mrs Jamison said she thought it was very interesting that 12 of the 42

residences still proposed for the historic district were built in this

century, 16 were built in the 1800s and 14 were built, at least in part, in

the 1700s.

"The historic district will tell the story of the growth and development of

Newtown. As part of the neighborhood, all houses are worth including whether

they are very old or, like mine, built in the 1940's," she said.

The contingent who went to Hartford Wednesday included Mrs Jamison, her

daughter, Caroline; Jim and Stephanie Gaston, their children, Jimmy and Tara;

Chris, Jane and Maggie Luongo, Joan Crick, Betsy Kenyon, and Renee McManus and

her son, Jack.