Thomaston Village Board of Trustees returned to their discussion about village landmark preservation code Monday night. 

Following previous board meetings in which a bill was drafted to amend the village’s code for landmark preservation, Mayor Steven Weinberg said the Landmark Preservation Commission had received a request highlighting the landmark designation of The Korean United Methodist Church of NY located at 715 Northern Blvd. 

Although no comments on the designation of the church as a landmark were discussed, board members did express their stances on the newly drafted bill, which sets to put specificities on what a resident has to do to propose a landmark designation to the commission. 

“ Is there really a need to make the revisions to the landmark law that were suggested…when I look  at these proposed revisions, they are very restrictive”, said Trustee Nancy Sherman. “ They’re onerous restrictions in my opinion”. 

Sherman went on to say the Landmark Commission should be composed of landmark historians and architects to better understand what resources are available to research these properties.

“The average layperson can’t possibly do all of this information and present it to the board,” Sherman said. “It basically defeats the purpose of the landmark commission.” 

She went on to say: “My feeling is if we’re going to make revisions to the landmark law that we need to look through the entirety, we have to look at the purpose of the law not to make it onerous on somebody to make a suggestion that a property needs to be” designated.

Deputy Mayor Burton Weston said the initial idea of the bill was to help balance the work that a landmark commission is required to undertake when somebody recommends that a particular building or particular site be landmarked.

“For somebody to say ‘Gee, that’s a nice building that looks nice, we should preserve it’ without identifying what the historical significance is…there is a balancing that I think we need to achieve”, said Weston. 

“ The suggestion came from the commission itself that there should be some information that’s presented that the situation may be avoided where someone writes a letter and then they [the commission] have to undertake a complete investigation”, said Weinberg. 

No proposal was up for a vote at Monday night’s meeting, the board will once again continue their discussion of landmark preservation in upcoming meetings. 

The Thomaston Board of Trustees is scheduled to convene again April 8.