House free to a good home: Mansion to be displaced by land sale

Poplar Hill, Aberdeen, Maryland. Photo from the Aberdeen Heritage Trust.

Is an article from yesterday's Baltimore Sun. It's a bit complicated, somehow, I would think that a Section 106 review could be triggered, although the property wouldn't be affected directly by a federal undertaking, but new military facilities at the Aberdeen Proving Ground and increased demand for housing around the base as a result of the U.S. Military's Base Realignment and Closure process are an indirect federal undertaking. (This matters because the site is on the National Register of Historic Places, which protects--to some extent--historic properties from "federal" undertakings.)
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Anyway, the thought this article raises is that rather than demolish forthwith eligible for designation buildings in the City of Washington, couldn't we require a period where the building should have to be offered "free for the taking" I mean moving. Furthermore, as part of zoning approval processes, developers should be required to pay into a fund used to move such buildings, acquire lots, etc.

This building had at least another century's worth of life left in it. (Photo of building by Peter Sefton.)

Instead it was demolished by Ronald Cohen for the aforementioned Square 749 development. It's bad enough that the project is ugly. But it's wasteful too. (Did you know that half the materials in the wastestream are pulverized buildings?)
Demolition of houses on the west side of the 1000 block of 3rd Street NE.

Index Keywords: historic-preservation