The Landmarks Preservation Commission will meet Monday to provide information to homeowners about the proposed Morningside Heights Historic District, Harlem + Bespoke reported. The meeting is one of several initial steps in possibly getting the district set up, based on community feedback. The meeting will also determine the size of the district, which, at its widest point, runs along Riverside Drive between 106th and 119th streets, according to the current proposal. But those boundaries could be extended if there is enough interest. The request for the designation of Morningside Heights as a historic district started in 1996, but it seems like these plans might finally be progressing, since the LPC has been making their rounds this year, recently extending historic neighborhoods in Brooklyn, the West Village and the Upper West Side. [Harlem + Bespoke]

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The red lines denote the current Park Slope Historic District boundaries, while the black lines show the boundaries under the proposed expansion plan

The Park Slope Historic District could broaden to include thousands more buildings, pending a preliminary hearing between the Landmarks Preservation Commission and neighborhood expansion advocates Feb. 23. The broadening of the district would be implemented incrementally, eventually encompassing structures in the area bounded by Flatbush Avenue, Prospect Park West, 15th Street and Fifth Avenue, according to the New York Post. Elizabeth de Bourbon, a spokesperson for the commission, said that the agency is suggesting an incremental approach because the proposed plan involves the inclusion of 4,000 new buildings, a vast undertaking that would otherwise tap all of the commission’s resources. “The reason we’re looking at an extension in phases… is that we’ll be able to move forward with districts elsewhere in the city,” de Bourbon said. “Otherwise, we’d have to devote almost all of our resources to this neighborhood. We have to weigh this extension against all of our other priorities.”

In Carroll Gardens, preservationists seeking landmark status for a greater portion of the neighborhood are being met with opposition from residents and merchants who want to retain the right to determine their properties’ appearances. Guidelines stipulated by the neighborhood’s current two-block historic district are also expensive, they say. The Landmarks Preservation Commission requires that designs of windows, staircases and front gates in the historic district evoke a late 19th century feel, and opponents say some property owners — especially the area’s elderly Italian immigrant population — won’t be able to front the cost of replacements if the district is expanded. Still, those who are in favor of landmarking say it is a necessary step for Carroll Gardens, which is already mired in a battle about overdevelopment. The city changed its zoning rules in October to limit the size of new buildings to five stories in most of the neighborhood, and preservationists say those changes alone won’t be enough to protect the character of a district that originally became popular for its brownstones. [NYDN]

The Park Slope Civic Council is looking to triple the size of the Park
Slope historic district, already the largest historic district in the
borough. The proposed expansion would cover nearly all of the Park
Slope neighborhood, which is bound by Prospect Park West, Flatbush
Avenue, Fifth Avenue and 15th Street. The New York Methodist Hospital
was not included in the historic district proposal because the hospital
opposes landmark designation due to the possible need for future
development. Living in a historic district requires property owners to
obtain special permits from the Landmarks Preservation Commission if
they want to alter building facades.
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