Daily News slams city for landmarking so many buildings

One of the city’s major editorial voices has taken a hard stand against the landmarking of so many buildings, which adds layers of regulations for developers.

The New York Daily News, in an editorial published today, argues that the Landmarks Preservation Commission has hindered development by barring owners from razing or renovating their of historically or architecturally important buildings.

“Some ‘landmarks’ are so unworthy of protection, they give the designation a bad name,” the editorial stated. “But they are beloved in their immediate environs as both a bulwark against change and, more important, as a force that limits supply and thus drives up real-estate values. Rents go up as well to the detriment, eventually, of affordable housing.”

Nearly a third of all properties in Manhattan are protected by regulations – 50 are parking lots and 48 are empty lots, according to a Real Estate Board of New York report cited by the Daily News. Seven of 10 sites in Greenwich Village and the Upper West Side can’t be developed because of landmarking, data show.

And the craze, the Daily News said, extends to the other boroughs as well. Historic districts have grown throughout the city from 64 at the start of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s term in 2002 to 107, the report said. [NYDN] – Mark Maurer