By Leslie Albrecht
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — A plan to create a historic district that could include more than 700 buildings along West End Avenue has drawn criticism from the real estate industry.
The proposed historic district, which would run from West 70th Street to West 109th Street along West End Avenue and Riverside Drive, cleared an important hurdle last week when the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to hold hearings on the district.
That's a key step in the approval process for such districts. The West End Preservation Society, the group pushing for the historic district, said it was "delighted" by the LPC vote.
But the Real Estate Board of New York, the state's largest real estate trade association, issued a statement criticizing the LPC. The real estate group argued the historic district would "impede development, which is vital for our city’s physical and economic growth," REBNY President Steven Spinola said in the statement.
The REBNY said the Upper West Side was already home to nine historic districts and several landmarked buildings, and that the proposed West End Avenue historic district would make "virtually the entire neighborhood" a historic district.
Too many historic districts would lead to "the loss of needed new housing and commercial development, job creation and tax revenue for basic services and the innovative architecture that has helped to make New York a truly global city," Spinola said.
Creating the historic district would make it more difficult to change the outside of buildings in the neighborhood.
But the West End Preservation Society's spokeswoman Josette Amato said that wouldn't mean a halt to development.
"What we're looking to do is preserve the character of the area," Amato said. "That may mean you'll have to rethink your design if you want to develop a building. You may have to think not just in terms of what you want, but how it will affect the entire neighborhood."
The Landmarks Preservation Commission is expected to start holding hearings on the proposed West End Avenue historic district in early 2011, Amato said.
