I attended another spirited Lisburn Neighborhood Plan development meeting last evening in the Barn at LACP. Facilitated by planner Thomas Comitta, the meeting focused on takeaways from the first meeting in January, and worked to boil them down to actionable proposals which can be brought back to the group in May for consideration.
The plan - as I understand it - is for the May meeting to be the final neighborhood group meeting before LAT staff drafts a plan to be considered by the BOC for approval. There's still a long way to go in the process, though, so if you haven't made it to either of the first two meetings, you will still have an opportunity to have your voice heard.
From what I have heard so far, residents of the Village of Lisburn have passionate pride of place. They love their small town atmosphere, their scenic stretch of the Yellow Breeches Creek, and their ties to local institutions like the Lisburn Fire Department and one another.
Most of all, they want to preserve and protect what they have, both in terms of their historic streetscape as well as the safety of their neighbors as they move about the village. Traffic speed is a major, major concern, and mitigating it may loom large in the final plan proposal.
One concept discussed at length last evening was nominating Lisburn as a historic district, but not encumbering residents with onerous historic district zoning. The brouhaha surrounding Carlisle's Historic Architectural Review Board was mentioned more than once as what folks don't want to see happen.
Personally, I have a little experience with HARBs, both positive and negative.
While growing up in Berks County, I helped the community gather data about my hometown in preparation for placing Oley Township on the National Register of Historic Places. That project, and the ensuing recognition, remains a source of local pride long after the Oley Township Historic District was designated in 1983.
Years later, my father attempted to build an addition to his small business located on the main street. By that time, a HARB had been created, and the flaming hoops of regulations and fees he had to jump through totally soured him on the project.
Later still, while living in Gettysburg, our landlord attempted to replace windows in our home, only to have the work stopped by a zoning officer alerted by a HARB member living across the street. The contractors put the old windows back, and my daughter had exposed insulation around the windows in her room for months while we fought and won approval to proceed with the window replacement.
When a historic district builds pride and focuses attention on the great parts of an area, it's a beautiful thing. When a historic district becomes a cudgel wielded by tyrants who seek - in the extreme - to mandate what color you may paint your front door and how many mullions you must have in your windows, it's big government run amok.
According to Mr. Comitta last evening, it is possible to have the former without the latter. To the extent that I can help make that happen, I'm on board.
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