The expansive property at 209 West Chestnut Hill Avenue, known as the Greylock Mansion, is once again being targeted for massive overdevelopment, constituting a threat felt and perceived by many within the near and wide Chestnut Hill community.

Inexplicably, this is taking place despite the fact that between the years 2001-2004 both the land and architecture of Greylock were placed under carefully constructed and permanent, protective easements, restricting what can be done with the property and its surrounding environment.

Our own Chestnut Hill Conservancy is the steward of these legally binding Greylock easements, and it will be their business ultimately to enforce them. Meanwhile, it is also among their legal responsibilities to require the property owner to perform certain maintenance operations, inspections, and repairs to ensure the property retains its original appearance and physical viability.

Some minds, both lawyerly and otherwise, view the Greylock preservation easements as needing “correction.” They are encouraged by the fact that some small allowance exists for certain preservation trade-offs. These are meant to be both minimal and positive, yet through this narrow opening, developers would like to drive their fleet of construction trucks.

If the developer’s proposal violates the easements and the Chestnut Hill Conservancy does not intend to amend the easements to accommodate the developer’s plan, then the entire Zoning Board of Adjustment and Chestnut Hill Community Association process is a waste of the developer's time and that of the Community Association and the neighbors. 

In that the architect for the developer’s proposal has been listed on the Chestnut Hill Conservancy website as a board member until fairly recently, one might infer that there have been informal or indirect communications between the Conservancy and the developer over this time. Accordingly, it seems rather strained that the Conservancy is not taking a position.

I suggest a less dense plan that minimizes the impact of multiple homes with their accompanying traffic and that respects this magnificent property, which many regard as a most proper grand entry to Chestnut Hill.

As residents we owe it both to those who built our National Historic District and to those who will inherit it; in short, to truly conserve with a capital “C”,  and not gratuitously give way to commonplace.

Ulrich Hiesinger

Chestnut Hill