To the editor:

I am quite puzzled by the historic district designation process. In a typical democratic decision process, it is the responsibility of the proponents to get an idea approved. However, in the historic district designation process, it is assumed that all residents want to live in a historic district and it is the responsibility of the opponents to get the designation denied. Because the nomination and designation process is so undemocratic, I must assume that the historic review board will be just as subjective, capricious and undemocratic in its efforts to “protect” a designated district.

If this process were more open and democratic, I might be in favor of it. I am not against historic district designations, but I am vehemently against the process and the premise upon which it is based: that everyone, of course, wants to live in a historic district.

Kent Van Hoesen,

Lawrence