About the landmark backlog

Sorry to be late with this. The LPC decided to designate 3 of the 8 items on the backlog list for Queens:

Bowne Street Community Church
Lydia Ann Bell and William Ahles House
Pepsi Cola Sign

However, the following were removed from their calendar:

Old Calvary Cemetery Gatehouse - Van Bramer
First Reformed Church and Sunday School of College Point - Vallone
Proposed Douglaston Historic District Extension - Vallone
Spanish Towers - Dromm
Fairway Apartments - Dromm

Included are the names of the council members who did not support the designations of the dropped items.

Queens properties to get LPC hearing

From the Times Ledger:

Preservationists were outraged in December when the Pepsi-Cola sign in Long Island City and seven other historic sites across the borough were put in jeopardy after the chairwoman of the Landmarks Preservation Committee proposed to remove them from consideration for protection. The blowback was so fierce that Chairwoman Meenakshi Srinivasan reversed course less than a week later and decided not to “de-calendar” them and to consider a new plan to deal with a backlog of nearly a hundred buildings and sites citywide.

The LPC announced last week that its Backlog Initiative would begin addressing the properties with a public comment period and then a special hearing on the 95 properties that were placed on the commission’s calendar decades ago.

Each property, including the Douglaston Historic District, the Old Calvary Gatehouse in Sunnyside, the Bowne Street Community Church in Flushing, the Spanish Towers and the Fairway Apartments in Jackson Heights, the First Reformed Church and Sunday School of College Point and the Ahles House in Bayside will each get a months-long process of public review and hearings.

Throughout the period the public is welcome to submit written statements to backlog95@lpc.nyc.gov. Those statements will be entered into the record and be distributed to the LPC commissioners.

All Queens properties will be addressed at a public hearing on Oct. 8. Speakers will be allowed to testify for three minutes and can register by e-mail at backlog95@lpc.nyc.gov.

The LPC will vote for or against designation of each property in 2016. The commission can also choose to issue a “no-action letter” for some items, which would remove them from consideration but would not disqualify them from landmark designation in the future.

Paul dishes out a giant serving of Vallone-y Baloney

Paul Vallone has put out a press release patting himself on the back for obtaining landmark designation for the Hawthorne Apartments in Bayside, while simultaneously patting himself on the back for the LPC putting the Douglaston Historic District Extension on the decalendaring list.

Paul's warped logic is this:

The Hawthorne Apartments deserved to be landmarked because they are architecturally significant, however, the Douglaston project has to go because the majority of homeowners in the proposed district are opposed to it. After all, "property rights" (aka selling your houses as teardowns) are paramount!

“There are times when land marking is improper as it imposes undue restrictions on the rights of homeowners to renovate, modify or even sell their properties as they wish,” said Council Member Vallone.

There are a few problems here, though:

1) No one has seen the supposed petition by the affected homeowners cited in the release except Vallone, and these houses were included in the original 620 building Douglaston Historic District designated in 1997, but were arbitrarily removed by Mary Beth Betts at the LPC. However, they were promised to go forward at a later date without bias, meaning no property owner support was necessary whatsoever.
2) The owner of the Hawthorne Apartments was also opposed to landmarking, but Vallone supports its designation anyway:

In a common scenario, the principal owner of the property, Esther Levenbrown of Teaneck, N.J., is opposed to the designation. A letter sent to Community Board 11 from her attorney states that many of the units in the apartment complex are either rent-controlled or stabilized and that a designation by the Landmark Preservation Commission could cause costs related to the maintenance of the exterior to double. Marvin Mitzner, the attorney representing Levenbrown, wrote that Hawthorne Court is not particularly distinct among Braunstein’s other projects, many of which still exist in neighborhoods like Forest Hills.

3) Vallone has totally ignored the Ahles House in Bayside and the First Reformed Church in College Point in his release, which are also on the decalendaring list and in his district.

Here is the complete release so you can sort through the many layers of B.S. for yourself.

Vallone LPC Press Release

Since most of the weeklies will just print segments of this press release without further analysis, I thought you might want to know the truth. This is what happens when your council member is backed by REBNY money.

Vallone's release was a bit premature (as well as immature), as the Landmarks Commission did an about face and has withdrawn its proposed decalendaring.

Dromm, Van Bramer, Vallone and Koo stay silent as LPC moves to decalendar properties

From DNA Info:

The Landmarks Preservation Commission plans to remove almost 100 sites and two historic districts from consideration for landmark status without formal public input, despite most being on the agenda for decades, officials say.

It's a move preservationists fear clears the path for the possible destruction of dozens of architecturally, culturally and historically significant buildings in neighborhoods across the five boroughs because it removes the preliminary protection that they were afforded while under consideration.

Being on the LPC's calendar provides the building with a modicum of protection because the Department of Buildings notifies the commission if building or demolition permits for a site with such a designation are requested. The commission then has 40 days to make a decision on a site's landmark status.

Landmarks Preservation Commission to Remove Almost 100 Sites From Consideration

But often, due to political pressure, the buildings remain in limbo on the calendar with the commission never voting, sometimes for decades.

LPC spokeswoman Damaris Olivo said the removal of the sites and historic districts is an attempt to "streamline" the much criticized process.

So let's run down the list of Queens sites that are on the chopping block:

Location: The Ahles House
Neighborhood: Bayside
Council Member: Vallone

The skinny: Tony Avella advocated for this site to be designated as far back as 2002. It was calendared in 2009, but was not designated due to threats by Dan Halloran to veto it at the Council. Paul Vallone has let it languish and as his campaign was heavily funded by REBNY, he's likely to keep his mouth shut and shrug his shoulders when it gets decalendared.

Location: Douglaston Historic District Extension
Neighborhood: Douglaston
Council Member: Vallone

The Douglaston Historic District Extension was also heavily advocated by Tony Avella and calendared in 2008, but Dan Halloran once again gave the nabe the middle finger. And I'll just ditto mark the Paul Vallone stuff from above... """""""

Location: First Reformed Church of College Point
Neighborhood: College Point
Council Member: Vallone

I couldn't find much about this nominee, but I think it's been on the list for quite a while with no action taken by LPC. There really is no reason why it sat on the docket without a decision.

Location: Calvary Cemetery gate
Neighborhood: Blissville
Council Member: Van Bramer

Location: Pepsi Sign
Neighborhood: Hunters Point
Council Member: Van Bramer

The fact that the above two potential landmarks are on the list really makes you scratch your head. Neither stands in the way of development, and the Pepsi Sign in particular is actually used as a marketing tool by developers and real estate people, so you'd think they'd want it landmarked. I guess these 2 aren't in Sunnyside Gardens, so they're just not a big deal to dear old Jimmy. Luckily, neither appears to be going anywhere.

Location: Bowne Street Community Church
Neighborhood: Flushing
Council Member: Koo

Why this isn't designated is interesting, since plans to do so stretch way back to 2003 when then-Council Member John Liu was allegedly pushing for it to prevent its demolition.

Location: Spanish Towers
Neighborhood: Jackson Heights
Council Member: Dromm

Location: Fairway Apartments
Neighborhood: Jackson Heights
Council Member: Dromm

And these apartment buildings are not under threat of demolition, so their non-designation is also weird, but I guess Danny Dromm has more important things to wring his hands about, like horse carriages and Asians protesting homeless shelters.

Perhaps if Dromm, van Bramer, Koo and Vallone voiced their support for landmarking at this hearing, these properties would be designated instead of removed from the list of potential designees. But don't hold your breath, folks. Here's the only letter I have gotten thus far from any elected officials about this: