Built Environment 3.1: Preserve Historic Resources

First and foremost for keeping the authentic, unique character of Martha's Vineyard is preserving historic buildings and other historic resources from destruction or inappropriate alteration.

Most of the Island’s historic buildings are concentrated in historic town centers, traditional neighborhoods, and along historic roads. The map on the next page identifies two types of older area which, together, include a significant proportion of the pre-1946 buildings, though they only comprise 5% of the land:

·       Historic Areas: These areas have high concentrations of buildings over a hundred years old, whether or not they are now officially designated as historic districts, including the town centers of Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Tisbury, West Tisbury, and Menemsha.

·       Traditional Neighborhoods: These areas, outside the Historic Areas, have high concentrations of buildings built before the end of World War II, and/or where the urban pattern was set before the War.

The final version of the Plan will also identify Scenic Roads, the main roads of the Island, all of which pre-date World War II and are significant for a combination of historic, natural, and visual reasons.

There are about 2,000 buildings more than 100 years old on the Vineyard, and another 1,500 built up to the end of World War II. Of these, about 930 are located in the Island’s six designated Historic Districts (which cover 502 acres), four of which are on the National Register of Historic Places. Another 1900 are concentrated in Historic Areas (about 2,000 acres for the Island) and Traditional Neighborhoods (about 500 acres).

A decade ago, historic building surveys for parts of all six Island towns. Some of the surveys updated earlier, incomplete survey forms but, while not an exhaustive inventory, more than 150 structures and places were recommended for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places or Districts. Additional properties were recommended for further study. At the same time, similar archeological surveys were conducted in all towns but Tisbury.

As development pressure increases in the future, the Island’s historic buildings and other resources will be increasingly threatened by demolition, disfigurement, and inappropriate new construction that undermine the character of historic buildings, streetscapes, scenic roads, traditional villages, and other historic areas.

Objective B2: Protect historic resources – such as culturally significant buildings, streetscapes, and areas – and ensure that new development is compatible.

To improve protection of historic resources, we should identify and preserve the significant features of historic areas, streetscapes, public spaces, structures, uses, artifacts, and other resources. We should also ensure that new additions to historic structures and new infill buildings in historic areas harmonize with the defining characteristics of the existing buildings and areas. It is generally preferable to protect historic resources on an area basis, since this allows for an integrated approach to zoning and design review, and yields a cohesive environment that is to everyone’s benefit.

Strategy B2-1: Identify historic resources and area defining characteristics, and prepare guidelines. The first step in protecting historic resources is to take the existing inventories of buildings and archeology, and complete them to include all significant resources. For Historic   Areas, these should indicate which buildings are the most significant and should be carefully preserved intact, which buildings are of moderate importance with more flexibility about changes or additions that don’t affect the character-defining features, and which buildings are of little value and could be altered or replaced. Guidelines should be prepared to identify the defining characteristics of each area, such as: alignment of buildings, relation to street, distance between buildings, presence of fences, volume, density, scale, materials, roof shape, solid-to-void relationship windows and doors, etc., without being overly proscriptive about style. Simple diagrams could help explain relationships. In some areas, characteristics are quite consistent and it is more important that new buildings respect these features; in other areas, there is more variation, offering more flexibility for new buildings.

·  Strategy B2-2: Enlarge historic districts to protect all historic areas and traditional neighborhoods. We should enlarge historic districts and create new ones to protect the large parts of the Historic Areas and Traditional Neighborhoods identified in this plan that have no protection. This would provide for review of proposals to demolish or modify buildings. Though there might be some resistance to historic designation; however this is most effective way to protect the quality of people’s streetscape and neighborhood, and to protect their property values. For Traditional Neighborhoods, this could involve creating Neighborhood Conservation Districts, which provide more flexibility in project review.

·  Strategy B2-3: Revise zoning in historic areas and traditional neighborhoods to conform to historic patterns. Often zoning is not aligned to historic patterns. If too permissive, this can lead to the demolition of historic buildings because an owner can build a much larger building on the property, and it also allows for excessively large new buildings that don’t fit into their its historic context, especially with respect to building massing and setbacks. If too restrictive, they may require much larger lot sizes or setbacks than other buildings on a street. For example, in the historic areas of Edgartown and Oak Bluffs, the minimum lot size was changed to be larger than the historic pattern, leading to bigger houses that don’t fit into the neighborhood (and are less affordable). So a fundamental principle for historic areas and traditional neighborhoods is to ensure that zoning regulations closely match the existing pattern, with respect to density, setback, and height. This could include reverting back to historic lot sizes, allowing smaller houses on smaller lots (possibly linked to a requirement that units be used only for year-round, owner-occupied housing and/or affordable housing and provided that wastewater, traffic, noise, and privacy issues have been dealt with). To allow successful historic preservation projects, zoning could provide for exemptions from some regulations such as easing parking requirements and use restrictions, allowing greater lot coverage and floor area, and allowing guest houses.

·  Strategy B2-4: Improve the operation of historic districts. The most effective Historic District Commissions publish clear guidelines for preservation and harmonious new construction that help owners and architects design appropriate projects, and serve as a basis for a Commission’s review of applications (see Strategy B2-1). Historic District Commissions could also individually or collectively provide education (e.g. publications, courses, websites) and technical assistance to property owners, architects, and builders to help them make appropriate choices. Island Historic District Commissions could meet regularly to share experiences and learn about best practices on and off the Island (e.g. appropriate window types, how to deal with solar panels, use of plastic trim).

·  Strategy B2-5: Designate individual structures outside historic districts. The 2570 buildings, as well as other structures, archeological sites, located outside historic areas also need protection. This requires designating them, and requiring that proposals to alter or demolish them are reviewed by planning boards or historic district commissions. Since Massachusetts law does not provide for designation of individual structures, this should be done by using the MVC Act’s provision for Districts of Critical Planning Concern.

·  Strategy B2-6: Make greater use of federal historic tax credits and other incentives: We should list more historic buildings and areas on the National Register of Historic Places to make them eligible for Federal Historic Tax Credits, informing owners of the availability of these credits at time of purchase or when inquiries about building permits are made. There has been extraordinary success in using revolving funds for preservation, such as buying façade easements from willing owners, leaving them freedom to do what they want in the parts not visible from the public way.

Strategy B2-7: Set up an advocacy organization promoting historic preservation and the quality of the built environment. There are several organizations that advocate for the Island’s natural environment, but none for the built environment, which is somewhat surprising given the richness of the Vineyard’s historic buildings and neighborhoods, and the general importance of building design to the Island’s character. The Preservation Trust’s mandate is to manage the historic properties it owns rather than advocate; the Martha's Vineyard Museum manages its collection and is a historic society rather than a preservation organization. An Island-wide advocacy organization could work to promote preservation of historic buildings and neighborhoods, cultural landscapes, archeology, and good quality building design. It could be made up of architects, historians, and interested citizens.