LPC Meeting on 70 Lefferts Place Tomorrow
The LPC’s public hearing on landmark status for 70 Lefferts Place is being held tomorrow, December 12th, at 1 Centre Street in Manhattan on the 9th floor. The section on #70 is scheduled from 11:30 to 12:30, but attendees should be there by 11:00 since the schedule is approximate. As is generally the case in…
The LPC’s public hearing on landmark status for 70 Lefferts Place is being held tomorrow, December 12th, at 1 Centre Street in Manhattan on the 9th floor. The section on #70 is scheduled from 11:30 to 12:30, but attendees should be there by 11:00 since the schedule is approximate. As is generally the case in these matters, the more supporters the better in terms of signalling community support. On a lighter note, we heard that a horror movie was filmed in the house a couple of weekends ago. Did any neighbors see anything fun?
70 Lefferts’ Reprieve Only 40 Days [Brownstoner] GMAP
LPC unanimously approved designating 70 Lefferts Place a NYC individula landmark today. The developer even said, at the public hearing, that he was willing to work within the existing structure to develop condominiums in an adaptive reuse manner. That made it easier for the LPC, I’m sure, but don’t think it was the dispositive factor in their decision. They held that it was architecturally significant, historically significant due to the heritage of owners such as father divine, and in a good state of repair considering its age.
The turnout was large: Lefferts Place Civic Associatoin representatives spoke in favor of designation, CB2 representatives supported the designation, as did Tish James, another gov’t representative whose name I missed, the Clinton Hill Society, and numerous residents of the street and nearby areas, old and new, spoke to the history and significance of the home historically and personally.
The LPC commended the developer’s (Chris Morris) statement that he is willing to work with the community and stated that once his work is finished within the LPC guidelines, he should be held up as an example of a good developer who worked with the desires of the community and with LPC in preserving the heritage of the area while helping to provide more housing.
The Clinton Hill Society representative noted that next quarter the change in zoning of residential blocks such as Lefferts Place, in both Clinton Hill and Fort Greene, from R6 to R6B is on the calendar. This would prevent towers from being built on residential brownstone blocks. The logical correlation (or compromise) to that is that commercial streets such as Fulton and Myrtle could be built more densely (read taller), thereby providing more residential density above businesses on those commercial streets, while preserving the attractive historic residential blocks.
Additionally, next year, the Clinton Hill Society (and Fort Greene Association) will be presenting its application to expand the landmark district to those blocks (such as Lefferts Place and other blocks between Fulton and Atlantic) that were not designated landmarks 20 years. From what I’ve heard, the lack of designation years ago was rather arbitrarily based on the fact that Fulton Street is a commercial street that divided those blocks from the rest of FG/CH. That’s ironic since some of the non-designated blocks have older homes than the designated ones and are almost fully intact.
In any event, now developers are fully aware of the issues, and future plans of the neighborhood and can plan accordingly and prevent unnecessary headaches when looking at opportunities.
All in all, a good deal for Lefferts Place and Clinton Hill. I’m sure Chris Morris is not thrilled, but the goodwill he will generate if he plays this correctly may go a long way not just with this property, but with the other 3 or 4 properties he said he bought (recent NYT article) in neighborhoods in the vicinity of the proposed AY project.
Anonymous 8:23: Look around the area, check out the new condo developments being hurriedly thrown up, and tell us which ones you think are “done tastefully.” The majority of recent condo development in Brooklyn is cheap, quick, ugly and designed to turn the fastest possible buck with no concern for the long-term health of the neighborhood. Lefferts Place is a desirable block in a desirable area, where houses sell for between one and two million, and that’s because it retains a lot of its classic character, and has a high concentration of “good families”. Losing a beautiful historic house for an oversized, overpriced stucco box does nothing but harm to what’s already a healthy and upwardly-mobile neighborhood. It also does nothing for those in need of affordable housing. Its only advantage is to put $$ in the developer’s pocket. I will be at the hearing to support saving this house, and I hope anyone reading this who doesn’t want to see the best parts of Brooklyn stripmined will be there too.
Good families? As opposed to….what? The degenerates who live on the block now? Good grief, the way people think.
and there is no need to try to attract “good families”. The brownstones on this street already sell for 1.5 million or more and it is filled with old and new residents. what is needed is preservation of the street, not destruction of what is part of a district listed in the national register of historic places, but sadly, not on the NYC landmarks registry.
Actually, the problem with knocking it down is that it makes it harder to preserve the entire block via landmarks. One the integrity of the contigous blocks of mansions and brownstones is compromised, it makes it more difficult to get landmarks to protect the entire block. If you can make the meeting, please do attend if this is important to you.
I’d rather see 26 condo units with some “good families” moving into the area than the preservation of this old house. If the condo building is done tastefully, than it would do far more good than harm to the community. In the end, the grand old house might have to be sacrificed in order to further enhanced the overall prospect of this section of Clinton Hill which we all can certainly agree desperately needs a shot in the arm. Lefferts Place, though beautiful, is the forgotten block in Clinton Hill and perhaps the tragedy of having this fine old house demolished will encourage area residents and the LPC to protect the other existing homes on this street. It’s sad but it appears that preservationists are a day late and a dollar short. I seriously doubt that this house can be saved. If not, it’s not the end of the world because whatever gets developed on the site will benefit the community in other ways.
I don’t live in Brooklyn–or even in NY–but have been reading about this house for months on Brownstoner, usually comments from people moaning about its imminent demolition. Am surprised, therefore, not to see lots of comments from people declaring they’ll show up at the hearing.
Let’s hope the Landmarks Commission makes the right decision about this place. The developer who bought it should have known better than to try and tear it down.