Trustees Outline Preservation Task Force Goals

It was late, they could've adjourned, but the Board of Trustees stuck around burning the midnight oil to make finishing touches on their plans for an advisory committee that will lay the groundwork for overhauling the Village's preservation law.

The Law Committee was first presented with the Committee for Historic Preservation's suggestions on how to change Village laws back on January 6.  A long discussion ensued, and the consensus seemed to be that yes, unfortunately Scarsdale was behind the times, in terms of preservation laws.

Since then, the Board of Trustees have made prioritized re-drafting the law,  and they are giving CHP's input careful consideration.  Currently, the only oversight the Committee on Historic Preservation has is in denying demolition rights to homeowners, and even then, those denials must be premised on the notion that the home in question is of particular significance historically or is at least 100 years old.

Some highlights and decisions from last night's meeting: 

1. The role of the advisory council will be charged with providing parameters and guidelines for preservation, presenting research on suggested historic sites, collecting information from and, possibly, answering to the community at large with periodic updates, and, ultimately telling the Board what kind of law the Village must enact. "It is intended to have a broad meaning," said Law Committee Chairman Richard Toder. 
2. The chairman would be appointed by the Board of Trustees. 
3.  It was determined that 7 members would serve on the council due in a large part to the high level of interest Mayor Carolyn Stevens has received from the community. One will be a non-voting, ex-officio member with a voice, the Village Historian (which is currently Eric Rothschild.)
4. The completion time for the duties the task force is charged with will be restricted to six months. There will be the possibility for extensions.

Preservation advocate Andy Bass, who sits on the CHP currently, aired his concerns that the allotted time would not be enough to do the adequate research and reporting to the community. 

"This is an issue that a lot of people in the Village don't understand," he said.  "I think a part of that process has to be informing them of what we're doing along the way. "

 Trustee Dan Hochvert suggested he "consider how many houses might get torn down while the [advisory] committee works to compile its report," he said.

Bass agreed six months would be adequate as long as it could be extended if necessary.

"You can always come back and complain," joked Toder, "and we can reject it out of hand."

The committee briefly discussed the qualities it would be seeking in members of the advisory committee, and what kind of expertise they should have. At least one architect should serve, suggested Mayor Carolyn Stevens. 

The meeting was adjourned into an executive session of the Personnel Committee, which met to discuss the candidates for the advisory task force.

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