A GROUP IN KEENE WANTS TO CREATE AN HISTORIC DISTRICT FOR THE CITY'S DOWNTOWN.
BUT NOT EVERYONE IS SURE THE DISTRICT IS A GOOD IDEA.
THE KEENE SENTINEL'S DAN GEARINO REPORTS.
The wood-paneled conference room at the Keene Public Library is an odd setting for a horror show.
The dozen people around the table see the first image on a small computer screen.
It’s a photograph of the Laurence Colony House, a mansion built near downtown Keene in the 1870s.
Then, the second image -- the horror: The screen switches to a photograph of what’s now on the Colony House site –
It’s a Dunkin Donuts and a D’Angelo Sandwich Shop.
The narrator of this show is Rhett Lamb, Keene’s planning director.
He was speaking to the city’s Heritage Commission.
QUOTE (Lamb): “The theme here is protecting the irreplaceable. We all know the Colony House had its transition to Dunkin donuts and D’Angelos. That has a lot of shock value – it’s something people might not be familiar with.”
It’s images like this that the commission will use over the next few months.
The group will be making the case to residents and the City Council that Keene needs a local historic district.
The plan would usher in new zoning rules limiting the types of new buildings allowed downtown.
It would also encourage property owners to maintain historic buildings.
Setting up the historic district may not be easy.
The commission will be up against fears that such
a district would limit property rights.
Or that the district would hamstring businesses.
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One skeptic is Paul Cooper. He owns a block of 19th Century buildings on Main Street.
QUOTE (Cooper): Well conceptually, I think I’m all about anything that would help Keene preserve its turn of the century, charming look. What concerns me is that the devil always lives in the details. And anything that’s going to impose another layer of bureaucracy over what our buildings can look like, I’ll want to take a look at before I say yes or no.
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Another skeptic is City Council member Nancy Wilkinson.
QUOTE (Wilkinson): The private sector knows what it needs to do to make it successful. Government regulation really works against that.
Also, Wilkinson doesn’t want to discourage variety in downtown buildings.
QUOTE (Wilkinson): I would just be afraid that whatever we’re trying to preserve isn’t so homogeneous because they have survived that we will no longer be able to allow for creativity and different-ness to come forward.
She notes that downtown is dotted with historic buildings that have survived without any preservation rules.
The city celebrated its 250th birthday this
summer, and several buildings go back even further.
But, commission members like David Proper say it’s dumb luck that so many buildings have survived. And, too many buildings have been lost.
QUOTE (Proper): We’re not trying to freeze everything into one particular period. We're trying to make people in the community appreciate what we appreciate and help us to keep the best of what we have.
Keene’s mayor, Mike Blastos, has another reason for supporting the historic district: he thinks it’s good for business.
He points to Portsmouth as an example. That city uses its local historic district as a magnet for tourists and small businesses.
And he thinks the same can happen in Keene.
QUOTE: The nicer it looks, the more attractive it is, the more people are going to come to Keene and see what Keene is all about.
