Languishing at the LPC

Seven years after preservationists in Park Slope asked the Landmarks Preservation Commission to extend their historic district east and south, they got tired of waiting and went the old fashioned American route: they took the LPC to court. The ruling came down from a State Supreme Court judge this month, reports the NY Times: "The judge called the agency’s inaction 'arbitrary and capricious' and ordered it to start making timely decisions on every designation request. To allow such proposals 'to languish is to defeat the very purpose of the L.P.C. and invite the loss of irreplaceable landmarks,' the judge, Marilyn Shafer, wrote." The Times investigated operations at the agency, concluding that it's "overtaxed," with an "opaque" decision-making process and "spotty" record-keeping, but not for lack of trying. Many people appreciate the work they do, but it's clear they can't keep up with the demand, especially in the rapid-development days. Many requesting landmark status for buildings or neighborhoods reported being "stonewalled." Commissioner Robert B. Tierney pointed out some of the LPC's successes, Sunnyside Gardens, the Lewis Mumford-designed complex in Queens, and the Meatpacking district in Manhattan among them. "In fiscal year 2007, with one of the smallest budgets of any city agency, the commission designated 22 individual structures, 3 historic districts and 3 interiors as landmarks, for a total of 1,158 buildings — the most since 1990." But those properties represent a fraction of the total requests.
An Opaque and Lengthy Road to Landmark Status [NY Times]

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Interesting article. I've always known they were understaffed and underbudgeted, but never really knew the Byzantine workings of the agency. Looking forward to upcoming articles with more information. LPC is important. If it's broke, let's get it fixed.

Posted by: Montrose Morris at November 26, 2008 10:11 AM

It's so unfortunate. I emailed the LPC about my soon-to-be block which is adjacent to the Stuy-Heights historic district. It has been calendared since 1993! They could not name a reason as to why it hasn't come up for vote. I suspect the neighborhood let it go, and the more work a community does on behalf of the LPC, maybe the more chance they have on passing something through.

Posted by: Susan Elkins at November 26, 2008 11:10 AM

I imagine it is clear to anyone who looks closely that a the agency's huge increase in responsibility due to designations, development and service demand has been a typical government 'unfunded mandates' type of story. How could they possibly keep up? Re-organize and triple staff.

Posted by: BK realestate veteran at November 26, 2008 11:30 AM

Very true, Susan. The squeaky wheel does get the grease, in this instance.

It's also very important to get your local politicians active. It takes a determined group of people, preferable in an organization, to keep the pressure on by writing letters, emails, and phone calls.

If the people in that calendared area don't keep up the pressure, especially since there are so many groups vying for designation, don't expect anyone else to. Good luck!!

Posted by: Montrose Morris at November 26, 2008 11:37 AM

NEWSFLASH: It's all politics

They could do more with half the staff.

San Francisco only has three people on its landmarks staff
NYC has eighty. How many more people does it take to ignore residents and drag out the process further?

Posted by: Inigo at November 26, 2008 12:29 PM

Inigo, does SF include research and other staff in their roster? Because landmarking includes not just agreeing a building or an area is worthy. There is a lot of researching involved, not to mention reports, descriptions, neighborhood and building history, etc. The actual architectural description requires one to have a background in architecture, and architectural writing, and each house had to be photographed, and described, including noting where original details or features had been removed, changed or otherwise messed with.

When Crown Heights North Phase 1 was designated, the accompanying report is over 300 pages of very detailed and technical research. It is quite impressive. That took time, not to mention at least a couple of people who spent a year going through records at the DOB, Historical Society, Bklyn Library, and the Brooklyn Eagle morgue. Then they had to put it together and write it all up.

I'm not arguing they can't be better run, but I am saying that their work is not easy, either.

Posted by: Montrose Morris at November 26, 2008 3:04 PM

Montrose, After renovations, the move and eventually meting and getting to know my block association, this is an issue I would not mind pursuing. At that time I will get in touch with the CHNA to find out what you guys did right. At one point they told me that you were a "model group".

Posted by: Susan Elkins at November 26, 2008 4:17 PM

The suit was not brought by anyone from Park Slope. The Times merely cited Park Slope by way of example.

As mentioned in the article, the suit was actually brought by a group called the "Citizens Emergency Committee to Preserve Preservation" whose website is at www.savelpc.org.

Posted by: DavidA at November 26, 2008 5:14 PM

montrosse, at this point the LPC has designation reports written and delivered to their doorstep. all they have to do is proof and edit. You or I could volunteer to do that one day a month. The Brooklyn Heights designation report is three pages long, the Grand Central Terminal report is six pages long -and it made it at the Supreme Court. The delays and stonewalling are just excuses. The LPC is very badly run -and the most galling thing is that they look at preservationists as the "other". More funding for more "surveys" is not the solution, it is just the same old "look busy but do nothing" approach.

Posted by: Inigo at November 26, 2008 7:22 PM

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November 26, 2008

Languishing at the LPC

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