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A bill in the state legislature aimed at giving distressed towns and cities more freedom to revitalize decaying historic buildings has been watered down significantly.

The Hartford Courant reports the bill, which originally applied to the poorest quartile of all communities in the state, now only exempts four towns – Ansonia, Putnam, Mansfield and Windham – from the state’s historic preservation law in certain respects, and its future remains uncertain.

Proponents say the state’s preservation laws make it prohibitively expensive to redevelop many of the blighted, old buildings common in the hearts of the state’s post-industrial communities.