Community Consensus: Why LPC Really, Really Needs to See It

The Historic District Committee in Park Slope thought it would be landmarked by now. After all, the committee placed its request for evaluation with the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) more than a decade ago, in 2000.

Its members had already put in hundreds of hours of work, taken thousands of photos, built a new set of web pages, published articles in the Civic News, and met with city officials and landmarking experts.

So what was the problem?

“We didn’t get any of these in 2000,” said LPC Executive Director Kate Daly, waving a sample postcard used to gather community signatures. Daley was addressing the audience gathered at a Historic District Committee meeting. The audience wanted to know if, at least after a decade of waiting, it could be considered a priority.

“We didn’t hear a neighborhood clamoring for historic district protection. There are neighborhoods all over the city who are clamoring, and they’re all in line ahead of you.”

According to Claudette Brady, co-founder of Bedford Corners Joint Block Associations, a housing preservation organization in Bed-Stuy, Park Slope is the perfect example of what happens when there is not sufficient community consensus.

1993 was the last time LPC looked seriously at Bedford-Stuyvesant for historic designation. At that time, a fair amount of signatures were gathered, and evaluation was nearly complete for the Stuyvesant Heights expansion.

But LPC didn’t see enough community consensus to convince them that the Bed-Stuy residents wanted the designation. So, like Park Slope, the whole deal was cut short right before the finish line.

Even today, as the efforts to landmark have been revived in Bed-Stuy, LPC is not seeing a lot of emails or letters coming from the community, and “LPC really, really needs to see that,” said Brady.

“It was a long time ago, but the scar is still there. They already know the territory, and I think they really want to start coming here. But there is some apprehension, as far as community support.”

The current movement to landmark in Bed-Stuy is spearheaded by 3 different coalitions: The Community Board 3 Landmarks Committee, The Bedford Corners Joint Block Association and the Stuyvesant East Preservation Action League.

The four districts proposed for landmarking are: Bedford Corners, The Stuyvesant Heights Extension, Stuyvesant East, and Stuyvesant North, encompassing more than 60 blocks.

During the summer of 2010 the coalition started a door-to-door petition campaign where its members spoke directly to approximately 300 homeowners. Stuyvesant East held two community forums in the spring of 2010 and the community board has held several forums over the past two years.

“Without community support, the LPC is not going to do this,” said Peri Defino, a committee member of the Stuyvesant Heights Extension. “If they don’t see community support, they walk away. So people cannot be complacent and figure somebody else is going to do this.”

Defino raised the most common myths that make people slow to move, such as the fear that your taxes will go up or that you will be forced to spend money on architectural changes to the interior and exterior of your property.

“That’s not going to happen,” said Defino. “Your taxes are unaffected. And if you have a purple house before your area is landmarked, you can keep your purple house. You can keep your awnings and whatever style windows you happen to have. When it is landmarked, it’s grandfathered in.”

In fact, Defino pointed out, there are financial incentives, grants, low interest loans and tax credits available for low-income residents of a landmarked neighborhood.

For those residents living within the four proposed districts, The Bedford-Stuyvesant Society for Historic Preservation has a page online where they can sign a petition, send an electronic postcard and download a letter to mail to LPC requesting that their area be considered for historic designation.

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission will host a community meeting on February 16th at Restoration Plaza, 6:00 pm. The meeting is an important event in the process of getting the proposed districts in Bedford-Stuyvesant landmarked, and the goal of the coalition is to have at least 200 postcards emailed by homeowners in the combined districts by that time.

Both Brady and Defino say they are hopeful, optimistic about the next big meeting with LPC.

“LPC is already quite aware of us; we’re already calendared,” said Defino. “We’ve been on their agenda since 1993. They’re just waiting to see the neighborhood support.”

“We seem to be on the front burner, so the time really is now.”

This is the third installment in a 5-part series that looks at the process of land marking, from community organizing, to what to look for in a designation, to how to navigate within the various agencies.