After abandoning plan to de-calendar items that were considered in past years but never brought to a vote, now Landmarks will hold a series of public hearings, with votes on designation scheduled shortly thereafter. At the beginning of July 2015, the Landmarks Preservation Commission announced and detailed an initiative to dispose of a backlog of items calendared prior to 2010 which were never voted on. A previous plan to remove the items from its calendar without a public hearing was withdrawn in the face of opposition from preservationists and elected officials. The items consist of 94 potential individual landmarks and one possible historic district extension.
Four special public hearings dedicated to the backlog items will be held on October 8, October 22, November 5, and November 12. Items will be heard in groups. The groups, consisting of up to 12 items, will be clustered by borough and community board. Speakers, in the three minutes of allotted time, will be able to address the group collectively or speak about individual items within the group. In the interest of efficiency, Landmarks asks that those wishing to testify register and submit written statements in advance, to backlog95@lpc.nyc.gov.
Commissioners will make their determination in early 2016. Background materials for each item, as well as condensed fact sheets, are posted on Landmarks’ website.
LPC: LPC Backlog Initiative (July 9, 2015).