All Required Steps Were DONE for The Pink House to Be Restored in 2020

This is how The Pink House should look on it's 100th Birthday in 2025. Color rendering by Rob Leanna

For much of the last 8 years, Support The Pink House (STPH) had been steered to keep mum on the details of our plan for the preservation and restoration of The Pink House, as well as the agreement the US Fish and Wildlife (FWS) entered into with STPH for land exchange. FWS and various stakeholders often declined our requests to jointly inform the public of our agreement. While not 100% comfortable with that, we complied for the good of the project, and focused on getting it done. 

On November 1, Matt Hillman, Refuge Manager for the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, announced their plan to remove the house, saying all options had been exhausted- a shock considering how close STPH was to fulfilling our mission to save and restore the iconic Pink House under our perpetual Preservation Restriction on behalf of the tens of thousands who love the house and want to see it saved. 

This was how we learned that FWS intended not fulfill their part of the agreement. That said, we can now share what the public deserved to know: The Pink House is fully ready to be traded. Support The Pink House Inc. completed all the steps necessary by August 2022, the month FWS set for us to close on the land swap. 
 
Here is a list of those steps, funded by donors, including The Pink House Board: 
 
ACCOMPLISHMENTS in 2021:

• Yellow Book Appraisal - a costly and intensive appraisal used by Fish & Wildlife to determine value of a property
• Survey and Wetland Mapping
• Collaboration with Fish & Wildlife re: public relations plans
• Assisted FWS with boundary line agreements with abutter Bob Colby, needed on all sides of FWS/PH area parcels
• Created an ANR (Division of Land) Agreement 
• Met with Newbury Zoning Board of Appeals 3 times. Obtained a unanimous vote to approve variance separating The Pink House from the surrounding marshland that currently exists with the pink house property.  
• Submitted Form B application to Mass Historical Commission (MHC). Explored TPH’s historic and cultural significance on the state level.
• Submitted our Preservation Restriction to the Newbury Historical Commission and Newbury’s Town Counsel for review.

 
ACCOMPLISHMENTS in 2022:

• Newbury Planning Board voted unanimously to approve the ANR, thus creating TPH’s own 1.069 acre lot. 
• Meeting with FWS Realty, STPH Board and our attorney to discuss final procedures. FWS Realty presents a swap date for July/August 2022. 
• Pink House walk through with FW Refuge Manager Matt Hillman, PH Restoration Partner, his architect, and engineer.
• PH Restoration Partner creates exterior architectural elevation plans to submit with the Preservation Restriction, as requested by Newbury Town Counsel. 
• Restoration Partner completed interior architectural plans
• Newbury Historical Commission voted unanimously to hold and enforce The Pink House Preservation Restriction
• Preservation Restriction sent to Michael Steinitz at Mass Historical Commission at his request to expedite review to meet the deadline FWS set to trade.
• Mass Historical Commission (MHC) declares TPH as “included in the Inventory of Historic and Archaeological Assets of the Commonwealth and is significant for its architecture, associations and/or archaeology, and qualified for the protections of a perpetual preservation restriction.”
• Obtained DEP#, passed NEESP/MESA review. 
• Met twice with Conservation Commission + site visit. Unanimous vote for The Pink House restoration plan. 
• Mass Historical Commission completed review and confirmed the Perpetual Preservation Restriction is approved but for seeing the FWS proposed deed. Once received, MHC committed to a 3 day turn around. We are still waiting for FWS to share the requested proposed deed. 
• Both The Newbury Select Board and Historical Commission met, voted to accept the Preservation Restriction, and stand ready to expedite. 

 
Concurrently, the FWS Realty identified desirable land in their system, got it approved for trade, and informed STPH on July 6, 2022 that the swap land was ready. But by August 2022, the month we were to close, that land fell through. 
 
STPH pursued meetings with FWS, which didn't happen until November 2022, to learn their plan to continue looking for new trade land.  They asked for time. To date, this has proved unsuccessful, and we have learned in areas that the FWS Realty Division paused their search as of March 2023.

THERE IS STILL HOPE! PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR HOW YOU CAN HELP SAVE THE PINK HOUSE & PRESERVE IT FOR POSTERITY!