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COURIER L 14 IFE, MAY 17–23, 2019 M BR B G
Pleading for
preservation
Sunset Park residents beg LPC to
designate four historic districts
BY JULIANNE MCSHANE
Call it history in the making.
The city Landmarks Preservation
Commission must designate four historic
districts in Sunset Park in order
to protect the area from future development
that could forever alter its
character, a local pol and a slew of his
constituents claimed at a May 7 public
hearing hosted by the landmarks
agency.
“It’s not just to preserve the fabric of
the neighborhood, it’s also to preserve
the future of Sunset Park,” said Councilman
Carlos Menchaca (D–Sunset
Park).
Menchaca and nearly two dozen
Sunset Parkers testifi ed in favor of the
designations at the May 7 hearing at
the commission’s headquarters on the
distant isle of Manhattan. The hearing
marked the last step of the formal designation
process before the commission
takes its vote on the designations
at an as-yet-unscheduled public meeting,
which city law mandates must take
place within two years of a vote to calendar
any proposed enclaves, according
to spokeswoman Zodet Negron.
The move to designate the historic
districts would forever preserve the
more than 500 buildings that are located
in the proposed districts, which
include:
• 44th Street between Fifth and Seventh
avenues;
• 46th, 47th, and 48th streets between
Fifth and Sixth avenues, plus the Sixth
Avenue–facing blocks between 47th
and 49th streets;
• 50th Street between Fourth and
Fifth avenues;
• and 54th, 55th, 56th, 57th, 58th, and
59th streets between Fourth and Fifth
avenues.
The areas contain a mix of wood,
stone, and brick structures, as well as
row houses built between the late 19th
and early 20th centuries, which represent
the neighborhood’s “primary
periods of development and building
typologies,” according to Kate Lemos
McHale, the agency’s director of research.
Commission members announced
their decision to calendar the proposal
— the fi rst formal step in the designation
process — in January, years
after local preservationists from the
so-called Sunset Park Landmarks
Committee fi rst pushed the landmarks
agency to evaluate 22 neighborhood
blocks for the designation back in
A LANDMARK IS FOREVER: The move to
designate the historic area would forever
preserve the more than 500 buildings that
are located in the proposed four districts.
File photo by Lynn Massimo
March 2014.
That request led agency staffers to
conduct their own survey of the neighborhood
— currently home to only fi ve
individual landmarks — which resulted
in commission members identifying
the four areas they may soon designate
as offi cial historic districts.
One of the locals who helped lead
the effort to push the landmarks
agency to consider the designations
said at the hearing that the widespread
support for the measure among the 11-
member commission proved that the
body of preservationists sees the risk
of the current and future impacts of
development and gentrifi cation on the
area.
“The LPC recognizes the threat
Sunset Park is under,” said Lynn Massimo.
“The LPC sees, as we do, how the
architectural changes are taking away
the sense of place.”
The proposal has the majority of
locals’ support — the agency received
53 emails and two letters in support of
designating the districts ahead of the
hearing and only three letters in opposition,
according to commission chair
Sarah Carroll, who added that the local
Community Board 7 also voted in support
of the measure.
And Massimo said that more than
3,000 locals signed petitions and more
than 400 wrote letters of support in favor
of the designations.
A handful of locals who testifi ed, including
Massimo, said the landmarks
agency should consider expanding the
boundaries of some of the districts to
Continued on page 20
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