AMHERST — Robert Frost’s possible association with a barn on Lincoln Avenue, and the century-old structure’s subsequent demolition to make way for a new dwelling in 2012, served as the impetus to create a local historic district to provide a level of protection for homes in the neighborhood.
While the North Prospect-Lincoln-Sunset Local Historic District proposal coming before Town Meeting this month may not have saved the barn the famed poet possibly used, the barn probably would have stood a better chance, according to Steve Bloom, chairman of the district study committee.
“This is a neighborhood that wants and deserves to be an LHD,” Bloom said.
The Select Board Wednesday agreed unanimously to recommend approval of the district, the second in town following the Dickinson Local Historic District, even though it will mean adding 195 properties, located between downtown Amherst and the University of Massachusetts campus, to the oversight of an existing review commission.
Bloom said the aim is to continue preserving a neighborhood that has remained intact and acts as a buffer between the campus and the commercial area, including the cultural district that features the Jones Library, the Amherst History Museum and the Amherst Cinema.
The neighborhood is a unique and interwoven mix of large, three-story residences and much smaller-scale homes, Bloom said. “This isn’t just about grand houses, we’re trying to protect the history,” Bloom said.
Maurianne Adams, a member of the study committee, said the development of the neighborhood was unusual in that it featured homes that allowed for interaction, in the 19th century, between black and white residents and people of varying social classes.
The district, Adams said, balances preservation of the visible remaining history built into the architecture of the neighborhood with the pressures from new development.
“We see this as an asset for Amherst,” Adams said.
If approved, property owners would have to go before the review commission for any changes to their properties that have an impact on the streetscape, just as the 39 property owners in the existing district, approved in 2012, currently do.
Though no design guidelines are yet in place, Bloom said the district will ensure that projects that don’t fit with surrounding properties are not allowed.
Select Board member Jim Wald said local historic districts are not forcing people to make their properties historically accurate, but rather preventing future intrusions that are jarring and disruptive and spoil the neighborhood.
Wald said he anticipates that the commission will use common sense to decide what is appropriate, but won’t prevent developments, such as adding solar panels or installing new siding and windows.
Even though she is supporting the creation of the district, Select Board member Connie Kruger said she is concerned about its size, and adding regulatory control over so many properties.
While the Select Board and Amherst Historical Commission are endorsing the creation, the Planning Board is divided, 6-3.
Planning Board member Rob Crowner said residents who live in the neighborhoods convinced the majority of the board they want the new oversight.
“Our support, I think, is an attempt to welcome all parts of the town center as important and needing care and attention by the town,” Crowner said.
Crowner was joined in support by Chairman Stephen Schreiber and members Michael Birtwistle, Maria Chao, Pari Riahi and Greg Stutsman.
The minority of the board, Christine Gray-Mullen, Jack Jemsek and Richard Roznoy, though, argue that this is a less central to the town’s history than the neighborhoods near the Emily Dickinson Museum, and could affect private property rights.
“When a board applies subjective criteria to determine whether a particular property complies with standards established by a majority of neighbors, owners rights in their property may be vulnerable,” they wrote.