10/27/18

LEGISLATION TO IMPROVE LANDMARK PUBLIC HEARING PROCESS

CALL FOR SUPPORT

On August 17, 2005, Council Member Bill Perkins, Deputy Majority Leader of the New York City Council, will introduce the “Landmarks Hearing” bill to improve the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) process for scheduling public designation hearings on individual buildings and historic districts.

The “Landmarks Hearing” bill is a direct outgrowth of extensive testimony provided to the City Council by preservationists at three oversight hearings on the administrative procedures of the LPC, which took place on October 20 and November 29, 2004, and May 16, 2005.[*] These hearings were held in response to widespread concerns that, as our city commemorates forty years of strong landmarks activism since the passage of the historic 1965 Landmarks Law, in recent years the LPC has fallen behind in its mission to protect the buildings and neighborhoods that matter most to New Yorkers.

The “Landmarks Hearing” bill would empower communities to obtain public landmark designation hearings and enhance the transparency of the LPC’s decision-making process in the following ways:

  • Enable the City Council to vote in favor of a public designation hearing for a proposed landmark or historic district and require the LPC to calendar and hold a hearing within 60 days; and
  • Require the LPC to calendar buildings that have been determined eligible for the State Register of Historic Places.

These critical improvements to the Landmarks Law would mean that buildings that earn broad community support for preservation and/or meet historic eligibility criteria for the State Register would no longer fall through the cracks or be ignored by the LPC without explanation to the public. Importantly, the LPC would not be required to designate the properties. Rather, the bill would ensure that these sites receive fair, open, democratic hearings before the eleven-member body of experts set up to protect our city’s most precious historical, architectural and cultural heritage, the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

We urge you to support the “Landmarks Hearing” bill and a more responsive landmark hearing process.

[*]Responding to testimony given at the three oversight hearings, Council Member Perkins will also issue a report entitled “Forty Years of New York City Landmarks Preservation: An Opportunity to Review, Reflect and Reform.” Copies will be made available at the stated Council meeting on August 17, 2005, and electronically.