Intro. 775, City Council’s Anti-Landmarks Bill, Revised & Returned
 Last year, GVSHP helped lead the charge against the City Council’s anti-landmarking, pro-demolition Intro. 775, the “Do-or-Die Deadline” bill. We generated thousands of letters to the City Council and turned out hundreds of people to oppose the measure, which would have deemed proposed landmarks and historic districts automatically ineligible for landmark status if the LPC failed to act within a proscribed timeline (one which a large portion of current designated landmarks and historic districts, including the Greenwich Village Historic District, had failed to meet). The bill also prohibited reconsideration of those potential landmarks or historic districts for five years. As a result of fierce opposition, several Councilmembers withdrew their support for the bill, and the bill’s authors, Councilmembers Dave Greenfield and Peter Koo, promised to amend the bill.
They have finally released the revised bill, and it is now speeding towards a final vote. And while some of the worst aspects of the bill have been removed, many remain. The five year prohibition on reconsideration has been removed from the bill, but it still imposes deadlines of one year for considering individual landmarks and two years for historic districts. If the LPC fails to act within that timeframe – because more time is needed, because a well-connected developer or institution has managed to delay the process, or because the proposal is complicated or controversial, and requires more study – the site is automatically not landmarked, after which time a developer can simply get demolition permits which would make landmarking impossible.
If enacted as is, this bill, though less onerous than in its original form, would still have a profoundly negative impact upon preservation in our city.
HOW TO HELP:
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Join us at the City Council Land Use Committee vote scheduled for Tuesday, June 7 starting at 9:30am at City Hall, City Council Committee Room (though no public testimony will be allowed, we will have signs to let City Councilmembers know we oppose the bill)
Next: 06/08/16
Previous: 10/23/15
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