CIVIC CENTER — A bill going before the City Council this week could streamline bureaucracy in local government or cause New York City to lose some of its historic architecture without reason — depending on who you ask about it.
The legislation being considered Wednesday would set up deadlines for decisions made by Landmarks Preservation Commission for the first time in its 50 year history, the bill's co-sponsor Brooklyn Councilmember David Greenfield told the New York Times.
The commission currently has a backlog of two historic districts and about 100 buildings under consideration, 85 percent of which has languished for decades, according to the commission.
The LPC decides which buildings and neighborhoods in New York City have significant historical value and is charged with protecting those landmarks from aggressive alteration. Any attempt to change so much as a window in a landmarked building or historic district must get the commission's permission.
Under the proposed bill, public hearings for individual buildings would have to be scheduled within 180 days of the LPC agreeing to consider the site for protection. The LPC would then be required to make a decision within 180 days of the hearing.
Public hearings for potential historic districts would have to be scheduled within a year and a decision made within a year of the hearing.
The proposal has preservationists like Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council, up in arms.
Bankoff told the Times that some 18,000 buildings — more than half of the city's 33,742 landmarks — took more than two years to be approved. Even seemingly obvious landmarks such as Grand Central Terminal and the Empire State, Woolworth and Seagram buildings took more than a year to be get official landmark protection.
But even more galling to the preservationists is the bill's requirement that the backlogged items be heard within 18 months of the bill being made into law. Any item not heard within those 18 months would be removed from the LPC's consideration for at least five years.
The city attempted to do this quietly in December 2014, at an LPC meeting without any public review, but pulled the plan in the wake of public outcry.
The bill set to be discussed at Wednesday's Land Use Committee meeting at City Hall, starting at 11 a.m., is already creating problems with one member alleging that Greenfield and the bill's other co-sponsor, Queens Councilmember Peter Koo, intentionally bypassed his subcommittee so that he could not register his opposition, as Crain's reported.
The LPC has already scheduled four special hearings for Oct. 8, Oct. 22, Nov. 5 and Nov. 12. The agenda for each meeting is broken down first by borough, then by community district, with five to 12 items grouped together. Anyone can come and speak for up to three minutes per group of items.
Agendas, with the breakdown of which items will be heard at each meeting, are available here.
The commission plans to hold more public meetings in early 2016, during which it will designate some items as priorities, giving until Dec. 2016 to make a decision on them.
