The 119 water street application has been denied!!!
Application Denied!!
Feb 27, 2023 the Warren Planning Board heard the developer's final presentation, heard the excellent testimony of the Warren Preservation Society's lawyer and historic preservation expert, and listened to the passionate comments from the community against the project late into the evening, and at 10:30PM made the 4 to 3 decision to DENY the application!
They recognized the need to preserve the historic character of Water Street and the unique sense of place that it has, and its value as a resource to the town. They saw that the town comprehensive plan has long warned about the loss of historic buildings in the district, and showed how warren is addressing the need for affordable housing with other projects.
Thank you!!
Thank you to the planning board for their decision, but most of all THANK YOU! - the people who gave your donations, time and support by spreading awareness of the project and by being there tonight! We would not have had a lawyer and expert witness present without the financial support of everyone who donated, nor had the impact we made on the board without showing up to support our town and it's historic district!
On behalf of the @WarrenPreservationSociety, the @WarrenHeritageFoundation, @massasoit_historical, and everyone here at Save Water Street, sincere thanks to you for your interest and support!
The Fight Continues...
Now is a time to celebrate! But, this fight may not be over if Mr. Teodoro decides to appeal the decision to the state, so please CONTINUE TO SHARE about the 119 Water Street project and spread the word about our win to save part of the Historic Waterfront District in Warren!
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The Problem
The owner of Waterdog Kitchen and Bar, Daniel Teodoro, has applied for a permit to demolish two historic buildings adjacent to his restaurant at 125 Water Street.
The development would remove the late 19th-century buildings at 119 and 113 Water Street and replace them with a modern, out-of-scale apartment building that is inappropriate to the visual and historical character of the Warren Waterfront Historic District.
Warren town ordinance requires the applicant to meet 1 of 3 conditions to justify demolishing a building, none of which have been met:
- Building is a public safety hazard. No public hazard exists.
- Saving building is a financial hardship to owner. No hardship has been shown.
- Saving building is not in the community’s interest. Warren has long recognized the value of it's historic district as an asset in the community.
Reading the Warren Comprehensive Plan (see "Town Image"), it is clear that it recognizes the unique historic character of the town as an asset that must be protected:
"Warren knows its heritage but consistently undersells itself. Overall, the Town reads as an old seaside town that has lost its original purpose and subsequently allowed change to fragment and tarnish its image. Many positive features remain in place, but less appealing uses and images separate these elements. The tattered, fragmented character of parts of the Town needs but a little work to present an improved image. The problem is largely a collective lack of awareness that must be replaced by a new sense of pride of place. This pride can be regained by working more aggressively to retain the Town's history as manifested in prominent older buildings and outlying farmlands so integral to the history and quality of life in Warren. [...] In addition to benefiting local quality of life, capitalizing on town image can reap rewards by attracting businesses and tourism. In 'selling' itself, Warren must be careful to retain its true character; attracting regional visitors is most likely to be successful if the Town highlights its own unique coastal character."
Donate to Help
Warren Preservation Society, Warren Heritage Foundation and Massasoit Historical Association have joined in retaining legal counsel to fight the demolition plan.
Please donate today to help fight the demolition. All donations go directly to Warren Preservation Society for payment of legal fees.
The proposed apartment building
- Requires 12 zoning variances (each diamond on the left of the diagram is a variance
- Is out of scale for the Historic District
- Adds 12 units, only 3 of which are “affordable”
- Takes away all Waterdog parking spaces
- Adds to Water Street parking congestion
- Runs counter to Warren’s Comprehensive Plan (see "Historic and Cultural Resources")
- Does not protect Water Street’s historic streetscape
- Does not belong in our Historic District
- Sets a bad precedent for future development
If we allow the demolition of these historic buildings, Warren's unique character will be replaced with the type of generic apartment building that that could be found in any town or state.
If you want to dig into more details about the project, please visit the Warren Town Planning Board website for the project application.
History of 113 and 119 Water Street
Recognized in National Register of Historic Places
Both 113 and 119 Water Street are listed in the National Register of Historic Places for the Warren Waterfront Historic District, where the district is described as "a dense, small-scale urban area of almost 500 buildings on the west bank of the Warren River, [which] demonstrates significance in the areas of architecture, commerce, community planning and development, education, industry, maritime history, and social history. Architecturally, the district includes important examples of a broad variety of American architectural forms from the early eighteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries."
113 Water Street - Description in the Register
House (ca 1865): A 2 ½-story house with stone foundation. Set gable end toward the street and well back from the street, this rectangular-plan building has irregular fenestration, a 1-story enclosed porch on the south elevation, and one off-center chimney. It may be an earlier house moved to this site.
119 Water Street - Description in the Register
Commercial/Residential Building (ca 1900): A 2 ½-story, end-gable-roof building with an original 3-bay storefront with show windows flanking recessed center entrance and the entrance to the upper stories at the north end of the façade and symmetrical semi-octagonal oriel windows on the 2nd story.
119 Water Street - An Exemplary Building
While describing the variety of historically important architectural forms in Warren, the register specifically mentions 119 Water Street: "The other residential form found in Warren in significant numbers around the turn of the twentieth century (and many of them in remarkably little-altered condition) are the combined commercial-residential buildings. Most of these are domestic in mien, but with a storefront on the first story, usually flanked at one side by a separate entrance for the residence upstairs. Among the more compelling of these are examples at 36-38 Market (ca 1925) and 546 Main Street (ca 1935), but the densest concentration is found along Water Street, with fine examples at numbers 119 (ca 1900), 49-59 (ca 1939) as now configured and 43-45 (1946)."