Holyoke City Council February 21, 2012 Meeting Supporting Responsible Downtown Economic and Community Development at Lyman

Terrace WHEREAS, The Holyoke Housing Authority seeks demolition and disposition of Lyman Terrace, one of the earliest public housing projects in the country; and WHEREAS, Lyman Terrace, built in 1938-1939, comprises 167 units in eighteen buildings with exteriors of brick and copper on tree-lined streets in the heart of downtown. It also features a community center, a community garden, and a Boys and Girls Club; and WHEREAS, Holyokes overall population remained stable over the last decade, Ward 1 (where Lyman Terrace is located) has continued to experience significant losses; the city should now be working towards population retention and growth, not further loss; and WHEREAS, the demolition of Lyman Terrace would be a destruction of downtown Holyokes architectural heritage, visual sense of place, working class history and affordable housing at a time when Holyokes revitalization depends on preserving, rehabilitating, and capitalizing on our historic architecture and infrastructure; and WHEREAS, the demolition of any city buildings should be premised on a structural evaluation, review and forensic analysis for commercial, industrial and residential structures as well as a full and comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of renovation/rehabilitation in comparission to demolition; and WHEREAS, the City Council has not seen or been made aware of any such analyses for the Lyman Terrace project; and WHEREAS, the reported presence of social problems such as crime, drugs, violence, or prostitution in the area of Lyman Terrace are artifacts of concentrated poverty that is completely independent of the buildings architectural design and condition and do not merit reasons for demolition; and WHEREAS, if improving the living conditions of the current residents of Lyman Terrace is the purpose for requesting Urban Renewal funds from the United States Office for Housing and Urban Development (HUD), then a comprehensive relocation plan that is based on a thorough understanding of the current residents needs and demands should be included in the funding request; and WHEREAS, such a relocation plan is absent from the current environmental review (study) that purports to have looked at the projects effects on people and community and determined that the project will have no significant impact. NOW, BE IT RESOLVED, that the City Council formally go on record in opposition to the demolition of Lyman Terrace; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the City Council submit a written letter to the Office for Community Development, before the March 7 deadline, citing its opposition to the claim that the

project will have no significant impact on the human environment; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that in an effort to increase transparency, the City Council invite the Mayor, Holyoke Housing Authority, Office of Community Development, Holyoke Historic Commission, and Holyoke Redevelopment Authority to discuss the matter further with the council.