How the ENA deals with the historic district

Since 2016, when the neighborhood was told (not asked) about becoming a historic district, the Eastmoreland Neighborhood Association has followed a basic strategy… say as little as possible about the historic district.  They don’t want questions being raised, and their answers being questioned.

Due to the quirky rules of having their HD nomination approved, the ENA only needs to have 50.1% (the majority) of the neighborhood to not oppose it.  They don’t need to convince anyone to be in favor of the historic district, they just need most homeowners not be upset enough to send in a letter of  objection. 

The way to do this is to minimize information and discussion about the historic district.  In the seven years since the ENA has been actively working on the historic district, there have been only two neighborhood presentations (not meetings) about the historic district, and none at all in recent years.  These were tightly orchestrated with little opportunity for neighbor comments and questions.

Neighbors asking on social media about the HD get directed to speak with the ENA privately via phone or email, thereby avoiding drawing attention to the HD issue.  It’s also easier to make questionable assurances ("you'll be able to do anything you want") when knowledgeable onlookers are not present to correct them.  

Neighbors who raise questions or doggedly seek answers have been labeled as disruptive or unneighborly,  and even been removed from social media such the ENA’s Facebook page, which should be a neighborhood resource.

In an effort to gain support for the HD, the ENA has increasingly been making statements which are outright false, such as “your rights as a homeowner to make changes to your house will not change” (from a letter sent August 2021).  In the absence of public meetings, the neighborhood has no way to correct these statements.

The ENA could easily produce a webinar to allow neighborhood questions and comments on the historic district.  A webinar was done for the ENA annual meeting in June 2021, but again, this runs counter to the strategy to say as little as possible and suppress neighborhood awareness of the historic district.

The new ENA president himself said it best in a recent email, “we have spent very little on communications on the Historic District”.