Landmarks Will Finally Act on 95 Backlogged NYC Sites

Come February 23 of this year, the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) will finally decide on the fate of 95 buildings and sites across the city that have sat in the agency's backlog for over 50 years now. That list includes The Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, The Pepsi Cola Sign in Queens, the 6 Ploughman's Bush Building in the Bronx, Union Square Park in Manhattan, and the Sailor's Snug Harbor Historic District on Staten Island —just to name one from every borough.

There will be three ways in which the commission deals with the list. The items could be prioritized for designation. They could be removed from the calendar with a chance to apply again in the future. And finally they could be removed from the list entirely.

Last summer, the LPC decided to take action on sites that had been on the agency backlog since before 2010. More than 85 percent of the items had been sitting there for over 20 years, according to the LPC.

As a result of this decision, the agency organized several public hearings for each of the backlogged items, broken down by boroughs. The agency fielded over 300 speakers, and accepted thousands of pages of written testimony during that period.

"Last summer the Commission embarked on an initiative to, in less than 18 months, address a backlog that was created over a 50-year period," Meenakshi Srinivasan, the Chair of the LPC said in a press release.. "After a very successful, transparent and efficient hearing process, the agency has spent months analyzing all of the testimony submitted by the public and conducting further research on all 95 items."

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LPC Backlog Initiative [LPC]
· All the Landmarks Preservation Commission Coverage [Curbed]