The Advocate started out this morning with a series on Westport and the Connecticut Post also had a story so I give you clips.
First up Westport:
AdvocateNearly three years ago, the small, wood-shingled farm house at 131 Sturges Highway was about to be torn down, and concerned neighbors rallied to prevent its destruction.
Today, the circa-1800 house still stands, next to a modern addition that mirrors its historic facade.
Once feared to be Westport’s latest teardown, the Abel Bradley House is now among several that the Historic District Commission is recognizing with a Historic Preservation Award.
The awards will be presented today to nine building owners at a 10 a.m. ceremony today in the lobby of Town Hall.
After a coalition of neighbors launched a campaign to save the Bradley House in late 2004 - going so far as to secure a court injunction against the demolition - owner and developer Mark Iuraduri decided a year later to work with Southport architect and preservationist Jack Franzen to incorporate the house into a new structure. It is now close to completion.
“We’re very pleased that they acknowledged this,” Iuraduri said. “We all felt we tried to figure out a nice compromise.”
Iuraduri said the outside of the original house - including an unusual gambrel roof with a bell-shaped curve, the only one of its kind in Westport - remains intact. The layout inside was changed so that the structure can be used as a library and bedroom. The addition will serve as the main part of the house, with the entire structure measuring around 6,000 square feet.
On this one it makes you wonder why similar accommodations can’t be met with 93 East ave. Also in Westport:
Advocate
Owners of historic or culturally significant buildings may soon find it easier to transform a barn into an apartment or home office, under proposed rules that would give them greater flexibility under zoning regulations to reconstruct or restore.A subcommittee of the Planning and Zoning and Historic District commissions recently drafted new regulations that would allow owners to apply for special permits if plans that include historic building preservation call for changes not normally allowed.
Property owners currently apply for zoning variances, which are more difficult to get because residents must show hardship.
The idea is to encourage property owners to preserve historic structures, Planning and Zoning Director Larry Bradley said.
Projects still would have to be reviewed by the Planning and Zoning Commission, but approval “is not out of reach,” Bradley said.
“This gives them some incentive to preserve the structure that might otherwise come down,” he said.
Then we have Fairfield:
The Connecticut Post
A dozen homeowners in the town’s historic Southport neighborhood are getting another shot at protecting their street from new developments.
Town Clerk Betsy Browne said Friday that Spruce Street residents voted 9-3 to join the Southport Historic District, more than the two-thirds majority required.
But the Spruce Street residents’ request still needs approval from the Representative Town Meeting.
The RTM in May rejected their request to join Southport’s historic district because the oldest house on Spruce Street would not have been within the district’s boundaries.
The 80 Spruce St. house was built in 1853 and its owner, Jerry Shea, vehemently objected to being in the historic district.
But after the RTM’s vote in May, Shea’s house was included within the proposed boundaries of the expanded Southport Historic District.
“I think, as a neighborhood, we did our due diligence and we did exactly what the RTM asked for,” said Gaylord Meyer, a 29-year resident of Spruce Street who wants to be in the historic district. “Once again, the neighbors have spoken, and hopefully they will hear us this time.”
“I hope that they will realize if they don’t acknowledge the fact the neighbors have spoken, anybody can come in and tear down these beautiful houses and can put up anything they want. There’s nothing that can stop them,” Meyer said.
