Councilor Nash support5/2/22, 6:06 PM City of Northampton Mail - please share with CPC
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Sarah LaValley <slavalley@northamptonma.gov>
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Jim Nash <jimnashcitycouncil@gmail.com>Mon, Apr 18, 2022 at 6:36 PM
To: Sarah LaValley <slavalley@northamptonma.gov>
Dear Community Preservation Committee,
Let me begin by thanking you for all your hard work and your commitment to our city. Thanks to your
thoughtful work with our CPA dollars, we annually bring positive change to our community.
As a city councilor, I am taking a somewhat unusual step to write to you about a matter before your
committee. The idea of possibly designating CPA funds in this matter has been a challenge for me and I
expect a challenge for you as well. I am referring to the request by O’Connell Development Group (ODG)
for CPA funds under Historic Preservation to preserve the St. John Cantius Church building.
I am wary of the idea of using our CPA funds to preserve private property where the property has limited
public access or benefit. Were the ODG proposal for affordable housing, an arts center, or even a mini-mall
or restaurant, there would be opportunity for public access and interaction with the preserved property,
making this a much easier decision. However, the current ODG proposal is to convert the structure to
private housing, allowing only the residents and their guests access to the building. This raises the question
of whether we should distribute public money to a private party. This question has weighed heavily on me
as I worry about us opening a door to a host of similar requests from private parties. Yet after careful
consideration, I am in support of the O’Connell Development Group CPA request.
An award here would go to preserve an iconic, historic structure. Churches are very often soaring, inspiring
structures and they are also amongst the most difficult to repurpose. Frankly, churches are best repurposed
as churches. However, with the number of faith communities waning, the need for large spaces to
congregate is diminishing and the demand for large and often inefficient interior space is down, hence
demolition of church structures often becomes the most cost effective way forward. We are currently seeing
this play out with ODG’s application for demotion before the Central Business Architecture Committee. A
CPA award to ODG would help to preserve one of the most difficult types of structures to repurpose, an
historic church.
A critical aspect of my support is that the ODG request is to address decades of neglect and deferred
maintenance by the former property owner. The failure to perform even minimal upkeep on the envelope of
the building has resulted in structural damage. This neglect was not the choice of the current property
owner as they inherited this problem and they are now left with the difficult task of weighing ways to
5/2/22, 6:06 PM City of Northampton Mail - please share with CPC
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preserve the historic structure. Therefore, I support a CPA award to ODG to help address the inherited
neglect so that the building can be preserved.
Thank you for considering my thoughts.
Sincerely,
Jim Nash