Government briefs: City Council passes new landmarks rules, de Blasio’s “megatower” plan stalls … & more

From the July issue: City Council votes to streamline landmarks process

In response to mounting criticism of the city’s landmarks process, the City Council has passed a bill that imposes deadlines on the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s public review process. The new law, Intro 775-A, will force the commission to vote on landmarking a building or site within a year of its landing on the commission’s to-do list, also known as being “calendared.” The bill’s passage marks a victory for the real estate industry, which argued that the 50-year-old landmarks law was insufficiently transparent and placed too many restrictions on property owners who could not easily renovate calendared properties or demolish them. Preservationists criticized the new rules, saying that the commission would be robbed of flexibility and held to an artificial timeline. Under the new law, the commission will now have 18 months to clear the backlog of calendared sites. [more]