Lawrence, MA Historic Preservation: Historic-Cultural Monuments (2026)

Chapter 15.37 of the Revised Ordinances, the Demolition Delay Ordinance, exists to "designate, preserve, protect, enhance and perpetuate those structures and sites within the city that reflect outstanding elements of the city's cultural, artistic, social, economic, political, architectural, historic and other heritage." It reaches any "significant building," defined under section 15.37.020 to include structures built 75 or more years before the permit application, buildings listed or pending on the National or State Registers of Historic Places, buildings on the Massachusetts Historical Commission's inventory, or buildings "importantly associated with... the broad cultural economic, social, or political history of the city."

Under section 15.37.030, the building commissioner must forward any demolition permit application for a significant building to the Lawrence Historical Commission within ten days of filing. The commission then has 40 days to hold an open meeting and decide whether the structure is historically significant, with the applicant notified in writing at least seven days beforehand. If the commission finds significance, the applicant must submit nine copies of a demolition/removal plan within 30 days, the commission holds a public hearing within 50 days of receiving that plan (notice published at the applicant's expense, abutters notified at least seven days ahead), and a written decision follows within 60 days of the plan's receipt or no later than 21 days after the hearing. A finding that the building should be "preferably preserved" blocks the demolition permit for nine months from that determination unless the commission finds no realistic chance of preservation or that the owner made a bona fide, unsuccessful effort to sell to a preservation-minded buyer.

Section 15.37.040 allows an emergency demolition permit only where the building commissioner, after inspecting with the fire chief, board of survey and the Historical Commission chairman (or designee), determines the structure poses an immediate threat to public health or safety.