GRAMERCY — A preservationist group wants the city to make an example of whoever sent a set of false letters to the Landmarks Preservation Commission in support of renovations to Friends Seminary.
The Historic Districts Council sent a letter dated April 14 to Mayor Bill de Blasio and other city officials saying it was concerned about allegations of fraud on behalf of the $41,000-per-year private school, which is under scrutiny from the Department of Investigation over the emails.
“The public input can be fraught enough without people misrepresenting themselves in front of public agencies,” wrote Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the HDC. “HDC expresses its strong support for [DOI’s] vigilant investigation and hope that their research might deter others from attempting similar false identifications.”
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Friends Seminary began work in March on its three-year, $67 million renovations, which will add height to several of the buildings that make up its East 16th Street campus and connect three townhouses that are part of the school.
Because the school is in the Stuyvesant Square Historic District, it was required to get approval from LPC to move forward, which it successfully did last May despite opposition from neighbors.
HDC joined the campaign against the renovations, lobbying against LPC approval. But Bankoff said that was not what motivated the letter.
“People should be able to express differences of opinion, but we really feel this issue goes beyond the school’s project,” he told DNAinfo New York. “We feel this was a really clear example of someone interfering with the public process.”
The DOI launched a probe into the school’s LPC application after it became aware of eight emails by people claiming to live on East 16th Street who supported the school's project, according to Councilwoman Rosie Mendez.
In fact, none of the letter writers were neighbors of the school, and at least five of them appear to work in some capacity for Luigi Caiola, a wealthy real-estate heir, Broadway producer, and parent of Friends Seminary students.
The school has denied that it had any knowledge of the emails when they were printed out on paper bearing Friends Seminary’s logo and sent to LPC in a packet with other letters. According to a Friends Seminary spokesman, the school found out about the fraudulent letters in January and immediately notified the city.
"We respect the integrity of the process, and the school wants to make clear that it did not and would never ask anyone to misrepresent themselves in connection with this project or otherwise," said school spokesman John Galayda. "The school was unaware of any inaccuracies in the letters when they were submitted to the LPC and, furthermore, notified the City immediately as soon as this issue was brought to our attention."
A representative of the Mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the Historic Districts Council letter.
