#MiddleburyCT #HistoricProperty #HistoricPropertiesCommission #SaveHistoricMiddlebury
By MARJORIE NEEDHAM
Two members of the Middlebury Board of Selectmen (BoS), Brian Shaban and J. Paul Vance, are requesting resident input before agreeing to appoint members to a committee that will study and make recommendations regarding historic preservation of a Judd Hill Road home. They said membership on the committee should be open to anyone in the community, not just those on the list of names Save Historic Middlebury President Nick presented to the BoS. In response, First Selectwoman Jennifer Mahr issued the following statement.
“Over the last several months, the Board of Selectmen has been considering the formation of a Historic Properties Commission. The first step in moving the process forward is the formation of a study committee to consider a specific property. The owners of Hawkeye Farm, 352 Judd Hill Road, want to be the inaugural property for consideration. First Selectwoman Mahr is seeking Middlebury residents interested in being on the study committee. A degree in history, architecture, or preservation would be especially valuable to the study committee. The process and work of the committee is outlined in CT General Statutes § 7-147q.
Anyone interested in being considered for the study committee should send an email to firstselectman@middleburyct.gov or contact their respective town committees (who will just forward that information to the First Selectwoman’s office). The BOS is conducting law firm interviews at its November 2, 2026, meeting, and will consider the appointment of a study committee at its November 16, 2026, meeting.
“Anyone interested in providing feedback to the Board of Selectman about whether or not the Town of Middlebury should have a Historic Properties Commission (HPC) that is completely voluntary for individual homeowners to participate in can email their opinion to firstselectman@middleburyct.gov or show up and give public comment at the November 16 meeting. The meeting will also be held on Zoom, and public comment can be given virtually.”
Those responding to the first selectwoman’s request may wish to copy their emails to Shaban and Vance at bshaban@middleburyct.gov and jpvance@middleburyct.gov, respectively.
Leading up to the current situation, the report, “Proposal to Establish a Historic Properties Commission (HPC) dated August 8, 2026, was presented at a public meeting August 26, 2026, at Shepardson Auditorium. Stuller then presented it to the Middlebury Board of Selectmen at their September 8, 2026, meeting. Appointing this committee is required if the town wishes to form an HPC. Find the report at shmiddlebury.wordpress.com/laws/.
Stuller anticipated the BoS would approve the study committee at their next meeting, on October 5, but that did not happen. Selectman Brian Shaban said he had a few concerns and needed more time for research. Shaban said he would rather vote at the October 19 meeting (which subsequently was rescheduled to October 26).
Selectman J. Paul Vance said a careful and unbiased review was needed, and a decision shouldn’t be made before a completely objective review was made. He suggested they table the matter, appoint an impartial committee similar to a jury in a court of law to gather facts, review state statutes, seek legal advice and provide the BoS with a written report for review. He said if the BoS approved the report, a public hearing should be held.
He also expressed concerns about tax forgiveness and people buying homes “in a historic district” having to jump through hoops. Mahr responded he had all that information from the September meeting, and while she would schedule a public meeting, it would be redundant to appoint another study committee.
Vance again stated there needed to be an unbiased committee and he didn’t want this shoved down the BoS’s throats. He said he wanted a total investigation for the benefit of every resident.
Mahr said the BoS knows what is good for the town and they are the ones who need to investigate the matter. Vance said he didn’t know the people on the committee or their history or what they represent or what their interest is. Shaban said he would like to open the study committee to residents. (Note: The proposed committee members, Nick Stuller (D), Chris Ambrosio (U), Laurie Burk (U), Sally Romano (D), Kerry Baldwin (D), Bruce Richardson (D), Terry McAuliffe (U) and Kara Collins (R) are all Middlebury residents.)
Mahr motioned to table the matter to the October 19, 2026, meeting. That meeting was canceled, so the matter was on the October 26, 2026, meeting agenda.
At that meeting, Vance and Shaban remained unwilling to move the matter forward. When Mahr made a motion to appoint the committee, neither Vance nor Shaban would second the motion.
Before the motion was made, Mahr first addressed Vance’s October 5 concerns, explaining there would be no historic district. Instead, a homeowner would voluntarily ask for their home to be declared an historic property. She also said only nonprofits get a tax exemption, so there would be no tax exemption for privately owned homes.
Vance said he still wanted a study committee, a report and then a town meeting on the matter. Shaban said lots of people were apprehensive about have an historic properties commission. He did not say why they were apprehensive.
Vance again expressed concern about bias but did not specify the bias or how he believed it would affect the committee or its work. He said he had done a deep dive into the folks suggested for the committee, investigating their backgrounds and history and so on and so forth. He said he thought things were being done backwards and they needed to do them properly. He said the first step was for the BoS to appoint a study committee. He was unwilling to appoint the committee recommended by the group that had worked on the project for nearly two years.
Shaban said there’s a lot of apprehensiveness between the public. “I had a lot of people reach out to me personally that have moved from Litchfield with pretty bad experiences and just concerned,” he said.
Mahr responded by saying the BoS is not forcing the town to have this or sticking in stone who the commissioners are. “We are not creating a historic district that then homeowners are compelled to be in,“ she said. Vance responded, “We know all that.”
Stuller, who was present, tried to interrupt to state Vance was making statements that were factually incorrect. He was stopped because it wasn’t yet time for public comment. Vance responded by saying, “It (the committee) should be appointed by the Board of Selectmen, not just a group of your friends to get together and make it happen.”
Mahr again explained to Vance that the study would be for one particular property.
Stuller asked to make one comment and was allowed to do so, saying in part, “The study committee is not to study the concept of a historic properties commission. That’s not what it’s about. That’s not what I said. That’s not what’s in writing. That’s not the general statutes. The study committee is to study a building, one building, not a district. We don’t want to do a district. It’s our suggestion to study one building, come back and say this building is historic for the following reasons. And here’s the thing: the study committee is not to investigate and opine on whether the town should do a historic properties commission, that’s a different thing. Jen’s right. That’s your decision, but the committee is to do one thing and then the committee is disbanded.”
Shaban then said, “…the charter very clearly states that you should do, before you do the committee, you do the study committee, and if everything prefaced, if everything is going to be prefaced on what the findings are of the study committee. I would feel a lot more comfortable if we reached out to the entire public to see who might be interested in serving on it. Especially if people are going to be very nervous about what comes out of it, it may give it a lot more faith and trust.”
Mahr asked Shaban what people are nervous about saying, “We are not doing a district, so there is no geographic boundary in which everyone in there is blindly signed up for this and they didn’t get any participation. This is a individual homeowner has the opportunity to take advantage of this process if they choose.”
Shaban responded people were nervous because “it’s going to build a precedent based on what happens here moving forward it would set precedent.”
The three continued to disagree on the matter without reaching a compromise.
At one point, Vance offered what he felt was a good example of what he believed was going on using eliminating the police department. He said, “They want to eliminate the police department, and they get together and they put together a report. They bring it in and they put it down and say, ‘All right, Jennifer, let’s eliminate the police department…’ Well, they’re all anti-police people. Now, now we’re just going to eliminate the police department because what they put in front of us. That’s what you’re asking us to do here with the historic properties commission.”
When the disagreement had gone on for 37 minutes, Mahr called the question, made the motion, and Vance and Shaban failed to second the motion.
The Board of Selectmen will meet next on Monday, November 2, at 5 p.m. in the Town Hall Conference Room. Mahr has announced interviews for town counsel are scheduled for the meeting so the matter of appointing a study committee for the Judd Hill Road property will be taken up again at the Monday, November 16, 2026, meeting.
