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20 April 2015
A PRESERVATION
AGENDA
ON
LANDMARKING’S
50TH
ANNIVERSARY
Dear friend,
Yesterday was the 50th anniversary
of the signing of New York City’s landmarks law. The lead up
to this incredibly important occasion has been marked by months of
celebrations by the Landmarks50 coalition, of
which GVSHP is a part, and the indispensable role the landmarks law has
played in enriching our city was noted by a New York Times
editorial.
But make no mistake: the cause of preservation is
more threatened now than perhaps at any time since the enactment of the
landmarks law. As we enter the second half century of landmarks
preservation in New York City, we would like to take a look at some key
items on our current preservation agenda,
and the many challenges we face today.
 1. Saving
Our Contextual Zoning. The City is currently proposing
to gut neighborhood zoning
protections by
lifting height limits across the board in contextual zones by as much as
20-31%. This would allow for a greatly increased scale of
development not just in our contextual zones, where these height limits
are mandatory, but in non-contextual zones as well, where they are
incentivized but not required by the zoning. The administration claims
their package of changes will result in higher quality and more
affordable housing, but neither result seems likely. With its approval,
the loss of light, air, sky, and neighborhood scale and character,
however, will be guaranteed.
·
Want
to help? Write Mayor de Blasio and the City Planning Commission.
 2. Extend
Landmark Protections. While a large chunk of
the Village, East Village, and NoHo enjoy landmark protections, some
pretty significant areas of our neighborhood do not. These are
among the oldest and most historically significant sections of the city,
but our opponents argue that we have more than our fair share of
landmarks protections already. GVSHP is actively pushing to get the
third and final
phase of our proposed South Village Historic District designated, and we are working with allies and neighbors to
promulgate and advance proposals for landmark designations in worthy but
undesignated areas of the East Village and along the University
Place, Broadway,
and 14th Street corridors.
·
Want
to help? Write
Mayor de Blasio and other city officials urging
them to landmark the remainder of the South Village.
3. Prevent Air Rights Abuse By The
Hudson Waterfront. In 2013 the State
Legislature quickly passed legislation
enabling the transfer of air rights from the Hudson River
Park to allow increased development inland on blocks adjacent to the
park. The legislation allows over 1.5 million square feet of
“development rights” to move from the park to inland areas
— the equivalent of six and half Trump SoHo’s. It
appears the first place this will likely occur is Pier 40 (at West
Houston Street), with development rights transferred to the St.
John’s Building site across West Street. There air rights
could allow construction of a massive building or buildings on the
three-block long site, if approved by the City, the Borough President,
and the City Council. GVSHP has been pushing for
restrictions on
the use of those air rights and alternatives to increasing the size of
allowable new development inland as means for funding the Hudson River
Park, which is the rationale for selling the air rights. City and
state officials are currently discussing the contours of a plan for a
Pier 40/St. John’s air rights swap, but any sort of formal proposal
seems to still be some time off.
 4. Repel REBNY’s Attacks on Landmarking and Preservation.
The Real Estate Board of New York has consistently attacked landmarking and other preservation measures, saying
they do everything from strangle economic development to turn
neighborhoods into playgrounds for the rich. In this campaign they
have found a surprisingly sympathetic ear in the current Mayoral
administration and City Council. We need to debunk the myths REBNY
has promulgated about preservation and change the climate in city government
to understand the economic and social importance of protecting our
city’s historic resources. Toward that end, GVSHP has
issued reports
showing REBNY’s hypocrisy on
the affordable housing issue, and published op-eds demonstrating that efforts to preserve historic
buildings, affordability, and socio-economic diversity can go
hand-in-hand. We’ve staged press
conferences outside the REBNY headquarters and held panel
discussions with
leaders in government, academia, and affordable housing production to
rebut the REBNY myths, and we are working in coalition with not only
preservation but social justice, parks, library, good government, and
affordable housing groups to take back our city’s decision-making
process from real estate interests and ensure that the voices of local
communities are heard.
·
Want
to help? Share
GVSHP’s report showing REBNY’s real record in relation to
affordable housing with friends, neighbors, and elected officials.
 5. Saving
Small Businesses. Local, independent businesses are
under pressure like never before. Rapidly rising rents and the
spread of chain stores are just two of the factors making it harder for
them to stay in business in our neighorhoods,
and we have lost some of our favorites over the last few years. To help
stem the tide, GVSHP is supporting the
Small Business Jobs Survival Act (SBJSA), a bill in the New York City Council which would give
businesses the opportunity to negotiate through arbitration lease
renewals when landlords refuse to offer them. GVSHP has also
embarked upon a “Business of
the Month”
program to highlight and celebrate local small businesses, call attention
to their unique qualities or their current plight (or both), and
encourage the public to support them.
·
Want
to help? Support the SBJSA and nominate
a business of the month.
 6. Stop the NYU Expansion Plan.
In 2012, over vociferous community objections, the City Council, the City
Planning Commission, and then-Manhattan Borough President Scott
Stringer approved
NYU’s massive twenty-year expansion plan, giving away
public land, stripping neighborhood zoning protections and open-space
preservation requirements, and overturning urban renewal deed
restrictions in order to allow the university to build over two million
square feet of above- and below-ground space, including a massive
building on Mercer Street between Bleecker and
Houston which would be the largest ever constructed in Greenwich
Village. GVSHP and our allies took the City to court, and won at the
State Supreme Court level, where Justice Donna Mills agreed
with our contention that the City illegally gave away public parkland to
NYU. NYU and the City appealed and got the decision overturned. We
have appealed that decision, and are now before the
highest court in New York State, which will hear the case this
summer. The future not only of our neighborhood but of many other
neighborhoods across the city lies in the court’s hands, as the
case potentially carries tremendous precedence in terms of how public
land must be treated and protected.
·
Want
to help? Sit tight! As the hearing
proceeds, we will let the public know if there are ways they can get
involved.
 7. Saving
Stonewall and Recognizing LGBT Landmarks. The Stonewall
Inn on Christopher Street is globally recognized as the birthplace of the
modern gay rights movement. President Obama has cited it in civil
rights speeches; New York State has listed it on its Register of Historic
Places; and the Federal government has declared it a National Historic
Landmark. But none of these protect the site from demolition or
insensitive alteration, which can only be done by New York City landmark
designation. Yet in spite of repeated
requests by GVSHP and
many others, the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission has stubbornly
refused to take steps to recognize or protect the Stonewall Inn, or other
sites of significance to the LGBT civil rights movement, such as Julius’
Bar (the city’s oldest
gay bar and site of the first planned civil disobedience for gay rights)
and the Gay Activists Alliance Firehouse in SoHo. The LPC has
already allowed other extremely important LGBT history sites, such
as 186 Spring
Street, to be demolished. And
while Stonewall, Julius’ and the GAA Firehouse are in designated
historic districts, the LGBT history of the buildings are not cited as
part of their significance, which means they could be altered or
demolished if their architecture alone is not found significant enough to
warrant their preservation. GVSHP has called upon the LPC to amend
its designation reports to reflect this incredibly important layer of
these buildings’ histories, or to consider them for individual
landmark designation, recognizing their special contributions to our
nation’s civil rights history.
·
Want
to help? Urge the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
to protect LGBT history sites.
And of course, you can always contribute
to GVSHP. Thank you for your support – together, we can
make the next fifty years of landmarks preservation in New York even more
successful than the first fifty.
Sincerely,
Andrew
Berman
Executive
Director
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