To the Residents of Marion,
My family has resided in Marion continuously for over 150 years, and the village has great significance for us. I support the Historic District Commission’s proposal for new guidelines to protect Marion as I believe that the beauty and value of our town is now under threat.
We are witnessing a change in the fabric of Marion, in slow motion; the signs are there. One of the letters published in your paper on this topic (3/20/25) noted that “there is increasing pressure to demolish smaller, historically valuable houses or to purchase vacant lots or non-historical properties and maximize the profit potential without consideration the overall effect will have on the immediate neighborhood.” This is the root of the problem, and the transformation is underway. It creeps in slowly. If we do nothing it will accelerate.
We are therefore in dire need of a stronger zoning system that will protect our village, its historic architecture and its value. Just because the town has remained much the same for two hundred years does not mean that it will continue to do so. We must all think bigger: if structures are demolished or McMansions go up next to your house or business (and there is already evidence of this “maximization of profit”), this will in fact decrease the value of the property you own, and in the long run make Marion a less desirable town to live in.
New rules are not bad things. And in any case, the changes proposed for future construction are minor. The proposal by the Historic District Study Committee is fair and considered, and what I call “Historic Lite”, compared to many other Massachusetts towns. It is not an onerous burden to have an extra layer of supervision before a building is torn down or largely altered, and I do not believe this would place an undue burden on property owners. One reaction to the proposed Historic District in your pages (3/20/25) suggested that the plan to designate the district would add layers of complexity and delay and that we have existed perfectly well without a commission so far. I disagree, times are changing and adding an extra layer of oversight or experiencing a minor delay is far from onerous, in fact it will protect our investment and is a small sacrifice we should make in the name of a greater good.
I believe that we must all, as a community, endorse this alteration in the town rules as a collective good and as a vote for maintaining the value of our property and the integrity of the village. It is a vote for the future of Marion.
Sydney Weinberg
The views expressed in the “Letters to the Editor” column are not necessarily those of The Wanderer, its staff or advertisers. The Wanderer will gladly accept any and all correspondence relating to timely and pertinent issues in the great Marion, Mattapoisett and Rochester area, provided they include the author’s name, address and phone number for verification. We cannot publish anonymous, unsigned or unconfirmed submissions. The Wanderer reserves the right to edit, condense and otherwise alter submissions for purposes of clarity and/or spacing considerations. The Wanderer may choose to not run letters that thank businesses, and The Wanderer has the right to edit letters to omit business names. The Wanderer also reserves the right to deny publication of any submitted correspondence. All letters must be typed and submitted directly to: news@wanderer.com.