As proposed, Intro. 775 mandates for the consideration of historic districts the Landmarks Preservation Commission has:
• 12 months from a vote to calendar to hold a public hearing
• 12 months from the public hearing to vote to designate
or the district cannot be acted upon for five years.
While the City Council’s own dataset shows that only 20% of historic districts have exceeded the thresholds proposed by Intro. 775 since 1998, a look back to the creation of the Landmarks Law 50 years ago demonstrates that more than one third (38%) of all districts would not have made it through the proposed timeline. Particularly troubling is the breadth and diversity of the historic districts which would have been rejected – or, at best, deferred for five years.
Under Intro. 775, the following historic districts could not have been designated when originally proposed:
- Bedford-Stuyvesant /Expanded Stuyvesant Heights
- Bertine Block
- Boerum Hill
- Carnegie Hill
- Carnegie Hill Expansion
- Carroll Gardens
- Central Park West – 76th Street
- Central Ridgewood
- Chelsea
- Clay Avenue
- Clinton Hill
- Cobble Hill Extension
- Crown Heights North Phase III
- Fieldston
- Fiske Terrace/Midwood Park
- Gramercy Park
- Gramercy Park Extension
- Grand Concourse
- Greenpoint
- Greenwich Village
- Hamilton Heights
- Henderson Place
- Hunters Point
- Jackson Heights
- Ladies’ Mile
- MacDougal-Sullivan Gardens
- Morris Avenue
- Morris High School
- Mott Haven
- Mott Haven East
- Mount Morris Park
- Park Slope
- Ridgewood South
- Riverdale
- Riverside Drive-West 80th- 81st Street
- Riverside Drive-West 105th Street
- Riverside Drive-West End
- Riverside Drive-West End Extension I
- Riverside Drive-West End II
- SoHo-Cast Iron
- South Street Seaport Extension
- St. Mark’s
- St. Mark’s Extension
- Stuyvesant Heights
- Tribeca East
- Tribeca North
- Tribeca South
- Tribeca South Extension
- Tribeca West
- Tudor City
- Upper East Side
- Upper West Side/Central Park West West 71st Street
- West End – Collegiate Extension
Further analysis suggests that larger, more expansive historic districts take the longest for the LPC to consider for designation as they require more community education, architectural research and consensus-building. These 53 historic districts encompass more than 17,900 buildings, approximately 54% of the total number of buildings currently protected by the Landmarks Law.
If Intro. 775 had been in effect since 1965, half of New York City’s landmark properties would not be protected and New York City would be infinitely poorer for it.
CONTACT YOUR COUNCIL MEMBER ABOUT INTRO. 775: http://council.nyc.gov/html/members/members.shtml
TESTIFY ON WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9th AT 11:00 A.M.