My observation over the years is that here in New Haven “local historic districts” are merely real-estate gimmicks, used to artificially inflate property values and thereby gentrify areas. There is no systematic mechanism for enforcing district regulations (e.g. annually inspecting all properties therein to ensure that owners have not made unauthorized alternations), so unauthorized alterations abound. Additionally, the photo database of properties “as they were” at the time a district was created and that therefore would be used if such inspections actually WERE taking place is utterly inadequate (e.g. buildings often obscured by trees in photos). Finally, New Haven’s Historic District Commission routinely approves alterations that do not comply with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards http://www.nps.gov/tps/standards.htm This is partly because the Commission itself over the years often has been comprised of people who have no qualifications whatsoever to be making such permanent, often destructive decisions re requests for a “certificate of appropriateness”.
Now, Via Google Maps, do a “virtual tour” of Benefit Street, Providence, RI and compare that with the mess New Haven has made of its “local historic districts”.
Thus no one should be surprised by the addition of LED street lamps on Quinnipiac Ave. This is a difficult concept for many New Haveners to comprehend, but when you have a town that is run entirely by one political Machine, then the only “vision” is that of the Machine. So I predict those LED lamps are there to stay. The one bright light in all of this (bad pun intended) is that 50 years from now those LEDs will be considered “historic”.