Town Landmarks Board Offers Presentations

The Southampton Town Landmarks & Historic Districts Board will be giving presentations across the town titled “The State of Historic Preservation in Southampton.”

This is a massive public education outreach effort intended to clear up misconceptions about the designation of historic districts and landmarks and even perhaps inspire some residents to begin designation applications.

Anne Surchin, an architect, author and former president of the AIA Peconic chapter, recently wrote an article published in attempting to dispel some of the most common myths floating around regarding historic preservation practices in general. These and other myths will be discussed in the presentation, as well as related issues including incentives to designate, the cost of maintaining historic structures, what defines an historic structure from merely an old building, and how much of the town’s historic fabric is actually unprotected from demolition. (The images attached to this post are examples of unprotected historic structures.)

Along with the urgent desire to rectify misconceptions, another intention of the presentation is to inspire participation in amending the existing outdated landmarks legislation, a process which was begun by Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst back in October 2010. The next draft of this legislation, which has really come a long way thanks to valuable input and brainstorming by various groups and individuals, is scheduled for a public hearing April 12 at 1 p.m. Local protection of important architecture is only as strong as the will of our local government and residents. Knowing this, I would suggest that if this legislation does not pass on or shortly after April 12, the people have — or have not — spoken, leaving very little reason remaining for the existence of the LHDB.

I certainly hope that won’t be the case but have no idea what to expect. Southampton is perhaps one of the most important areas in the country right now in need of landmarks and historic districts and better landmarks legislation. Since 2001 the LHDB has been unable to fulfill its primary purpose of recommending the designation of historic sites due to the requirement of 100 percent owner consent  and a public convinced that landmark designation is a bad idea while the rest of Long Island, and many areas of the country, eliminated this requirement years ago. In Suffolk County, only Southampton and Smithtown do not have historic districts, while Southold, tied with Southampton as the oldest settlement, and which still requires owner consent, boasts having the most landmarks of any eastern Long Island town.

The LHDB has scheduled seven presentations so far with the first occurring at in Southampton at 5:30 p.m. The LHDB is trying to engage every hamlet and enclave of the town possible, leaving no one able to say they were left out. If your community organization or association would like to host this 30-minute presentation, contact me through this post and I would be happy to schedule one with you.