It's all too common on the East End for a buyer to snap up an old historic house just for the land. Then the thing gets demolished and a shiny new home rises in its place. But in an attempt to buck this trend, the Village of East Hampton has just passed a new law "designed to preserve historic timber frame homes by giving homeowners who agree to preserve those buildings a bonus to any other house they build on the same property." The bonus would be up to 35% of the square footage of the houses that were saved.
Village officials hope this new plan will spare about two dozen buildings that were built between 1700 and 1850 from the wrecking ball. Or people could just continue to ignore zoning laws and build as big as they want anyways.
· East Hampton OKs historic home preservation law [Newsday]
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