Excerpt from The Star Democrat:
Another ordinance discussed Monday night would take two county-owned properties on the fringe of the town’s historic district out of the historic district.
According to town attorney Sharon Van Emburgh, Talbot County made a request to remove 130 and 142 N. Harrison St. from the historic district. The building at 142 N. Harrison St. is the old headquarters for the Talbot County Board of Elections.
“They (Talbot County) have been trying to sell this piece of property for a while and they’ve met resistance from future developers because it’s in the historic district,” Van Emburgh said. “These structures are not historic structures, but they are within the district so the district provisions apply to it, and so those standards are certainly more rigorous than a normal development standard would be.”
Easton Mayor Bob Willey said there have been two serious offers to redevelop that parcel of land, and the offers included redeveloping the Brewers Lane parking lot. Willey called developing in the historic district “kind of onerous,” and said any further development on that property would require approval by the town government.
“You’ll probably see a proposal coming in, not soon, but in the next few months, that will involve a process of a structure on this property and then also including a development on the Brewers Lane parking lot, which could be a parking facility,” Willey said.
Van Emburgh said both Easton’s Historic District Commission and Planning Commission recommended taking the two properties out of the historic district.
Public hearings on the solar panel and historic district ordinances are scheduled for the town council’s next meeting on Monday, Jan. 4.
