MARBLEHEAD— The Green Marblehead Implementation Committee discussed the Marblehead Sustainable Heritage Project.
Members of the committee attended a field trip around historic parts of Salem and the historic districts in Marblehead. The purpose of the trip was to observe how communities are handling sustainable projects in historic areas.
Some of the topics discussed were solar panels, EV chargers, heat pumps, electric and gas meters, and historic preservation concerning aesthetics.
“Electric and gas meters were a really big topic as well as rain gutters as additional examples of modern infrastructure that we have placed onto historic structures that might not look historic per se but are integral to the way we live our lives today and are an important part of the building’s overall usefulness and functionality,” Green Marblehead staff support Logan Casey said.
The committee discussed what a community should preserve versus how to adapt to the new green energy projects citizens are interested in.
Casey said, “It was an interesting conversation about the comparison of preservation practices between Marblehead’s Old and Historic Districts Commission (OHDC) and Salem’s Historic District.”
Elaine Leahy from Sustainable Marblehead was only able to attend the Marblehead portion of the field trip but said, “It was great to see so many really nice integrations of the newer technology that seemed to fit really well with the infrastructure that’s there. I look forward to the next step of talking to the Historic District and collaborating with them to see what everyone thinks.”
Casey compared EV charging stations between Marblehead and Salem and said the state has a goal to transition citizens to electric vehicles.
“Ideally, I’d like to see EV chargers allowed but with the same aesthetic care we put toward heat pumps and HVAC systems currently,” he said.
While the Old and Historic Districts Commission members were invited, no one attended the field trip. The hope was that the field trip would create a physical grounding for everybody to get an idea of what Green Marblehead is going to produce for guidelines.
The next steps will be to have three joint meetings with Green Marblehead and OHDC beginning in September to address the sustainable heritage project’s progress, identify challenges, and gather feedback on the project development.
Casey said, “Lindsay Randall from MAPC, Metropolitan Area Planning Council, would be producing content for both to react to as a group.”
The goal of the project is to create a report and a series of recommendations on how Marblehead can improve its guidelines through a mutual agreement. Then create and present jointly a warrant of green energy improvements and lock them into a bylaw.
Casey noted that these recommendations would be the balance of historic preservation and the wants and needs of the community to do more green energy improvements.
Eileen Mathieu from Sustainable Marblehead said, “If we come into that meeting saying from the Green Marblehead Implementation Committee’s point of view, our big concern is we have the state mandate coming and we know there are a lot of structures governed by OHDC and yet we have this need to get all houses in Marblehead off fossil fuels.
“We need to come in advocating for our Net Zero plan we’ve worked on,” she said.
A decision was reached by the committee that the best next step is to have a separate meeting with Charles Hibbard, Chair of the OHDC, before the joint meetings.
Thatcher Kezer said, “The point is to engage and learn.”
Kezer suggested that Casey and a committee member have an initial discussion and then report back to the committee.
“We need to work out the conflict between historic preservation and advancing energy efficiencies,” Kezer said.
Mathieu and Casey agreed to meet with Hibbard and return to the committee with results of the conversation to determine where to go from there.
