Voters approve re-zoning of Brewer-Young mansion

Feb. 1, 2018 | Payton North
payton@thereminder.com

The Brewer-Young mansion at 734 Longmeadow St. was subject of the Jan. 25 Longmeadow Town meeting. Ultimately, the town voted in favor of re-zoning the mansion in order to allow the developers to refurbish the property and turn the inside into professional office space while maintaining its historical character.
Reminder Publications submitted photo.

LONGMEADOW –  After a four-month process, the Longmeadow Historic Preservation Partners, comprised of Dr. Andrew Lam, Chris Orszulak and Henry Clement, have received the green-light following a two-thirds majority affirmative vote from town residents in favor of the group re-zoning the Brewer-Young Mansion property at 734 Longmeadow St. from residential to professional.

On Jan. 25 the Longmeadow High School was filled with roughly 1,500 town residents, ready to vote for what they believed would be in the best interest of the town.  

Leading up to Town Meeting, the Longmeadow Historic Preservation Partners have hosted several open houses at the Brewer-Young mansion to allow residents to witness the dilapidated structure for themselves.  Additionally, the group spoke at various Select Board meetings as well as the Planning Board’s public forum on Jan. 17.  

At the start of Town Meeting Don Holland, chair of the Planning Board, told residents the Planning Board had voted to endorse the citizen petition to re-zone the property on which the Brewer- Young Mansion sits from residential to professional following their Jan. 17 public forum.

“The Planning Board held multiple meetings at which both proponents and opponents to the change in the rezoning spoke. We had scores of people send us emails or letters, both for and against. Then the Planning Board held a public hearing earlier this month, at which approximately 80 people spoke. Again, either for or against,” Holland said.

Following Holland, Margaret Cohn, chair of the Historic Commission offered a report to those in attendance.  The Historic Commission plans and implements programs for the identification, preservation, protection and evaluation of historic places in Longmeadow.  Town Moderator Rebecca Townsend noted that the Historic Commission is advisory.

“The Longmeadow Preservation partners have presented us with a reasonable plan to preserve and repurpose the Brewer-Young mansion both inside and outside.  We find no nefarious plot here to furtively build a dollar store or a drive-through hot dog stand.  The stated plan appears straight-forward with as little change as possible to the exterior and the interior of the building, making the anticipated office space a very unique, exclusive setting for a high-end tenant,” Cohn said.

Cohn continued, stating the Historic Commission encouraged the town to support the zoning change.

Residents voted by majority to change the form of voting from hand-counting to a ballot vote in an effort to keep an accurate count due to the size of the crowd.

Following the form of voting change vote, Orszulak and Lam were welcomed to the microphone to offer a presentation and background on themselves.  The presentation is one that they’ve offered in prior meetings, including the Jan. 17 Planning Board hearing.  To read about their presentation, go to https://www.thereminder.com/localnews/longmeadow/planning-board-votes-to-endorse-young-property-re-/.

“The reason I became passionate about the Brewer-Young mansion is primarily because I was tired of it looking like an eyesore for our town.  I pass the property every day to and from work, we were reminded daily of its degradation,” Orszulak said.

He then shared that three years ago he approached Lam, as he is the primary abutter of the Brewer-Young mansion property, but Lam was against the re-zone.

“He was strongly against it being anything but a residence, and I could tell how deeply he cared about preserving the mansion in the best way possible. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone more dedicated to preserving Longmeadow’s history,” Orszulak said of Lam.

In July 2017 when the mansion property was put back on the market Orszulak re-approached Lam, and Lam agreed to join him, recognizing that the only way for the mansion to survive was if it was self-sustaining.

At the close of the partner’s presentation, the opposition, Save the Green, came to the microphone to share their side.  Henry Cropsey and Tim Somers offered their thoughts.

“The Young home is in a residential zone, and we prefer a residential solution.  We look to preserve the character of Longmeadow, and we’re strongly opposed to commercial expansion on Longmeadow Street,” Cropsey said.

“A yes vote does not save the mansion, as the signs around town suggest. This was made clear at the Planning Board at last week’s public hearing. Planning Board members repeatedly reminded citizens that a zone change applies to the land, it does not protect the building,” Somers added.

Cropsey and Somers continued to state that they disagree with Town Counsel’s opinion that the re-zoning would not be considered spot zoning is incorrect and was based on faulty information.

“This vote has much larger implications than this single property, this vote is apart of a plan to commercialize Longmeadow Street through the imposition of an overlay district, one house at a time.  What is this overlay district? This is the district that is referred to by other people speaking tonight by reference to the economic development section of the towns 2004 long-range plan. This plan identifies 37 homes on Longmeadow Street, 20 of which are located on the green, which can be converted to commercial use,” Cropsey said. “If this house can be re-zoned for business use, then any home can be re-zoned for business use.”

At the close of the groups’ discussion, the floor was opened for resident comments.  A total of 13 residents spoke either for or against the re-zoning before the comments were closed.  

Following the tally of the ballots, Townsend shared that there was a total of 1,238 votes, with 857 votes in favor of the re-zoning of the Brewer-Young mansion from residential to professional, and 381 residents opposed.  Therefore, the motion passed with a two-thirds majority affirmative vote.  At the close of the meeting, there was a resounding applause.

When Reminder Publications spoke with Lam following Town Meeting, he commented that they want to get started on restoring the mansion promptly.

“Our plan is to first focus on repairing the mansion’s exterior, subcontractors will start coming this week to evaluate and bid on paint, trim and roof work.  If weather permits, these repairs might start before springtime.  We also will begin to clear dead trees and overgrown bushes around the property,” Lam shared.

Additionally, Lam said the partners are beginning to respond to potential tenant inquiries.

“Already we have fielded several calls, and we also remain open to new inquiries, but ultimately we plan to be patient in order to find the best possible long-term partners for the property,” he said. “We don’t expect to have tenants occupying the building for at least a year due to the extensive amount of restoration work that needs to occur.”

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