Thank you to everyone who attended Monday night’s public property owner’s meeting with the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) regarding the new South Village Historic District they are considering.
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South Village Historic District proposed by GVSHP in 2006 and current landmark designations (l.); LPC's draft proposed "phase II" historic district, with critical sites left out noted (r.) |
Some key news from the meeting:
- The district consists of nearly 250 buildings on almost a dozen blocks, or more than 85% of the non-landmarked buildings we proposed for designation (images and info HERE)
- They expect to "calendar" the proposed district very shortly, in May, which is the first official step in the process, and puts in place the first very tentative protections
- They expect to hold a public hearing on the proposed district in June - we'll let you know as soon as the date has been set, as we will need you there to show support!
- The LPC confirmed that the proposed designation will be a new "South Village Historic District," rather than simply an extension of the existing Greenwich Village Historic District, as was done in 2010 with "phase I" of our proposed South Village Historic District - this is good news!
- A vote on the landmark designation is still expected before the end of the year - GVSHP is helping to push this along by providing the LPC with our research and documentation of the history of every one of the buildings proposed for landmarking.
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1840s houses on the north side of Houston Street between MacDougal and Sullivan Streets |
GVSHP and many others at the meeting questioned when the LPC will consider the final phase of the proposed South Village Historic District, the immediately endangered area south of Houston Street (no news here — the LPC has only committed to “survey” the area before the end of the year).
We were also joined by many at the meeting in questioning why the Commission left out key sites like the entire row of 1840s houses on the north side of Houston Street between MacDougal and Sullivan Streets, and the few contextual NYU buildings in the area — Vanderbilt Hall Law School and the NYU Kevorkian Center, which reflect the scale and in many ways the history of the neighborhood (images and info HERE). Without landmark designation, all of these sites could be replaced with large-scale new construction - in the case of Vanderbilt Hall, NYU could actually build a 300 ft. tall tower on the site.
The LPC said they are taking another look at these sites, but will be finalizing their proposed boundaries soon.
HOW TO HELP:
You can find out more about the South Village HERE and support GVSHP’s preservation efforts HERE.
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