The Historic Preservation Board of Miami Beach voted yesterday to pursue preservation status for 42 Star Island, the mansion belonging to a couple featured on reality television show the “Real Housewives of Miami,” the Miami Herald reported. While that would normally stall the demolition of the neoclassical structure, the Herald said the papers were filed by the board so late that the couple’s planned tear-down will likely go ahead regardless. The board is not expected to take up the matter until April, the paper said, and the couple, Leonard and Lisa Hochstein, have already filed the necessary paperwork to move ahead with a demolition at the site.
Even the Preservation Director for Miami Beach, William Cary, has come out against the board’s vote, noting that the couple filed first, and calling the board’s move “unethical,” per the Herald.
“I think it’s a bad precedent to set,” Cary said. [Miami Herald] –Guelda Voien