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Date: 5/17/2022
AMHERST – Amherst Media will be permitted to continue its original plan for building a new hub after agreeing to drop its lawsuit against the Amherst Local Historic District Commission (LHDC). The case never made it to trial after Amherst Media’s attorney, Michael Pill, submitted an original complaint on April 24, 2020.
According to the original complaint and a pretrial memo from Feb. 3, 2022, Amherst Media purchased two lots at the corner of Main St. and Gray St., in front of the Amherst Women’s Club. They submitted an application for a Certificate of Appropriateness on July 19, 2019, and the LHDC hosted seven public hearing sessions over the next six months. The certificate was eventually awarded but greatly altered the design of the building on Feb. 22, 2020. Pill said that the new certificate made the building smaller and increased the cost while making significant changes to the exterior.
“They ran us around in circles for about six months doing and re-doing plans,” Pill said. “It turns out both their local bylaw and state law says if you don’t make a decision in 60 days, then it’s a pass. In other words, they can build whatever they want. There was a neighbor who didn’t want it built who appealed it and raised that issue and that was the first time everybody discovered it. So we said, ‘Hey, forget your Certificate of Appropriateness that reduced the size and greatly increased the cost of our building, just give us a clean sheet and we’ll build what we originally intended to build which is perfectly fine anyway.’”
According to Pill, the case is now “basically over” after the commission agreed to begin the timer for the original building plan if Amherst Media drops the lawsuit. Amherst Media is now focused on finding a temporary home as the building construction is anticipated to take two years. LHDC’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The pre-trial memo also notes frustration with the Amherst Planning Department for delaying the process by making demands that exceeded the LHDC’s authority under the Local Historic District Bylaw.
“During the public hearing process a commission member tried to impose on Amherst Media his own design for an underground structure with an earthen roof covered in grass,” Pill said in the memo.
The original complaint says Amherst Media’s core mission is serving as a nonprofit, public access information, communication and technology center for Amherst.
“It runs television channels that provide public access, present educational programs, and broadcasts public meetings including among others the Amherst Select Board, Finance Committee, Planning Board and its Zoning Committee, and School Committee,” he said. “It also maintains, on a nonprofit basis, an archive of online videos, conducts workshops for the community on video and other technology, and broadcasts public service announcements.”
Amherst’s Town Council discussed possible temporary locations for Amherst Media during its meeting on April 25. President of Amherst Media’s Board of Directors Artie McCollum told the council that a two-year search has yielded no results and they will be forced out of their current building on June 30, 2022.
Town Manager Paul Bockelman said he had reviewed four possible locations but found logistical or financial issues that rendered all of them unfit. An agreement with one of the universities was discussed as another option.