Council rebuffs request to alter designation report. On July 19, 2006, the City Council approved the Weehawken Street Historic District and the Greenwich Village Historic District Extension, which together extended the Landmarks Law’s protections to an additional 59 buildings in the West Village. Landmarks had unanimously designated both districts on May 2, 2006. 3 CityLand 78 (June 15, 2006).

At the public hearing before the Council’s Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Siting & Maritime Uses, the resident and owner of 689 Washington Street, a house constructed in 1980 that emulates the neo-Georgian facades of surrounding historic homes, requested that her property be carved out of the district’s proposed boundaries. Alternatively, the owner asked that the designation report denote its modern construction date in order to allow Landmarks or other land use agencies some leeway in approving alterations.

75-block rezoning protects low density in some areas, but increases density in others. On July 19, 2006, the City Council approved City Planning’s rezoning proposal for portions of Pelham Parkway and Indian Village, two northeastern Bronx communities characterized by low density residential development. The proposal will reduce the permitted density of development on 67 blocks and increase the permitted density of residential construction on eight blocks along Williamsbridge Road and Pelham Parkway South. 3 CityLand 91 (July 15, 2006).

At the July 17, 2006 hearing before Council’s Subcommittee on Zoning & Franchises, City Planning’s Purnima Kapur, director of the Bronx office, spoke about the controversial up-zoning to an R5D district along Williamsbridge Road. The rezoning would allow all types of residential development, but restrict the scale of development by setting a 40-foot height limit and restrictive parking requirements. Subcommittee Chair Tony Avella criticized Kapur for showing a diagram of potential development in the R5D zone that he believed rested on “assumptions” rather than realistic development schemes and called the diagram “unprofessional given the controversy that exists.”

A vote of 39 to 10 of the full City Council approved the controversial nomination of the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s newest member, Margery H. Perlmutter, a land use attorney with Bryan Cave LLP. Preservationists viewed Perlmutter’s nomination as antithetical to the mission of Landmarks since her law practice, particularly her appearances before BSA, the Planning Commission and Landmarks itself, required Perlmutter to register with the City as a lobbyist. Proponents viewed this experience and Perlmutter’s background as a licensed architect and former co-chair of Manhattan Community Board 8’s Landmarks Committee as an invaluable package.

To take the post, the Conflicts of Interest Board advised Perlmutter that she should recuse herself on permits involving Bryan Cave and her husband’s architecture firm, Arte New York. Perlmutter, who will sit on Landmarks until June 2008 finishing Vicky Match Suna’s term, discussed her background, the confirmation and the utility she may bring to Landmarks.

BSA’s reliance on a single-use feasibility study deemed insufficient. In 2003, BSA granted a variance to 160 Imlay Street Real Estate LLC to convert a vacant, 220,000-square-foot Red Hook industrial building into 150 luxury residential condominiums with ground floor retail. When members of the Red Hook- Gowanus Chamber of Commerce filed an article 78 petition challenging the variance, the City asked the court to dismiss the proceeding since the Chamber failed to add Imlay as a party. After the issue was appealed up to the Court of Appeals and sent back to the trial court, Justice Yvonne Lewis settled the issue by ruling in April 2006 that the case could continue without Imlay. 2 CityLand 76 (June 15, 2005); 3 CityLand 64 (May 15, 2006).

On June 2, 2006, Justice Lewis vacated the variance, finding that BSA based its decision on insufficient evidence with respect to one finding. The court ruled that variance applicants must submit studies of several as-of-right uses showing whether or not a permitted use will yield a reasonable economic return. Since the record showed that Imlay submitted only one analysis of a single manufacturing use, the court found BSA’s decision to be arbitrary and capricious in relation to the feasibility finding and sent it back to BSA. The court rejected the Chamber’s remaining arguments, finding that Imlay met the four other findings needed for a variance. The court also found no merit to the Chamber’s allegation that Imlay’s $100,000 donation to the Bloomberg administration’s Olympic bid influenced BSA’s vote.

Families near Pelham Bay landfill claim infants’ cancers caused by chemicals at dump. Sanitation closed its 81-acre landfill in Pelham Bay, Bronx in 1979 following 16 years of operations and increasing complaints over odors and a yellow mist emanating from the site. In 1983, the state declared the dump an inactive hazardous waste site prompting the City to sue 15 corporations in 1985, alleging that the corporations illegally dumped hazardous chemicals. Later that year, Sanitation signed a consent decree with the state, admitting that the groundwater was contaminated and that it had allowed illegal dumping. The City was later awarded several million in clean-up costs.

Bronx residents began to complain to the City of a link between the landfill and local residents’ cancer. The concerns generated two City studies; both found no increased incidences of cancer in adjacent Bronx neighborhoods when compared to the rest of the city.

Despite these findings, 23 families sued the City, alleging that diagnoses of acute lymphoid leukemia, Hodgkin’s and other cancers were linked to the landfill. The families submitted an expert’s study that found the levels of acute lymphoid leukemia to be 3.4 times higher in children living closest to the landfill, and toxicologists’ reports listing the human carcinogens found at the landfill and potential routes of exposure.

Photoplays theater built in 1914. The Claremont Theater building, located at 3320-3328 Broadway in Harlem, Manhattan, is one of the oldest structures in New York City constructed specifically for showing motion pictures, originally called “photoplays.” The 1914 theater was designed in the neo-Renaissance style and faced in white terra cotta and white glazed brick by architect Gaetano Ajello, best-known for his apartment buildings on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The building has an unusual arrangement with three distinct fronts, including an elaborately decorated clipped corner facade that served as the auditorium’s original entrance. In 1915, the theater’s entrance was prominently featured in a short film produced by Thomas Edison. Noting its well-preserved exterior and importance to the city’s cultural history, Landmarks unanimously voted to designate the Claremont on June 6, 2006.

Landmarks also unanimously approved the designation of the Mark W. Allen house in New West Brighton, Staten Island on June 13, 2006. The house, one of only a few remaining craftsman-style homes, was built in 1920-21 for Mark W. Allen, a prominent Staten Island politician. Landmarks noted that the house retains a high degree of original fabric. 3 CityLand 4 (May 15, 2006).