Preservationists Seek Changes to Landmarks Commission

A group of preservationists are gathering signatures for a lawsuit to compel Mayor Bloomberg to reappoint or replace the eight or nine commissioners of the Landmarks Preservation Commission whose terms have lapsed.

Saying the issue of was one of ensuring the commission's independence, the acting secretary of the Citizens Emergency Committee To Preserve Preservation, Whitney North Seymour Jr., said the suit was a way of utilizing the "third branch of government to get the first branch to do its job."

Commissioners are appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the City Council.

The Landmarks Commission said it does not respond to requests for comment about lawsuits that have not materialized. "The Landmarks Preservation Commission is operating at full strength with 10 highly qualified, dedicated and talented Commissioners who give hundreds of hours of their time each year for no compensation other than the reward of preserving the character and history of our City," said a spokeswoman for the commission, Elisabeth de Bourbon. "Appointments and reappointments are ongoing with any government body, and we are no exception."

The commissioners continue to serve although their terms have technically expired, but the expiration gives the mayor the power to remove them and replace them if he chooses to exercise his power over a decision by the commission.

City Council Member Tony Avella, a member of the Citizens Emergency Committee To Preserve Preservation, attended a meeting earlier this month where the potential lawsuit was discussed. Others seated in the room included State Senator William Perkins as well as aides to public officials such as State Senator Thomas Duane, Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal and Assemblyman Richard Gottfried.

Leaders of some of the most prominent landmarks groups such as the Municipal Art Society, the Historic Districts Council, and Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation are not on the committee. The New York Landmarks Conservancy president, Peg Breen, who is not a member of the committee and did not attend the meeting, said she was aware of the effort: "They are reflecting some widespread concerns within the preservation community. I don't know if suing is a way to accomplish this," she said. She said the problem of failing to make timely appointments to the commission predated the Bloomberg administration.

At the meeting earlier this month of the Emergency Committee, around 100 people shared ideas for overhauling the landmarks process in the city. "Preservation in New York is in a state of crisis," said an architect and acting chair of the committee, William Davis Jr., a former landmarks commissioner. Preservation historian Anthony Wood said since 1994 the Landmarks Preservation Commission had been on a "downward trajectory." He said, "It is time for a different approach. It is time to go public."

The campaign is also hoping that legislation will be introduced to require each request for landmarks evaluation go before the full commission at a public meeting where the commission would have to decide whether or not to calendar it, i.e. consider it in detail at a public meeting.

Steering committee members wore red carnations in their lapels. Mr. Seymour recalled what he described as one of the most effective lobbying jobs ever: a group of women from Oyster Bay, who years ago opposed construction of a bridge, put red carnations on his lapel and others and said, "Like this flower, the beauty of a neighborhood is fragile."

The committee's acting treasurer, Kate Wood, gave a financial update on the committee, and voluntary donations (the committee has no dues) were collected. Ms. Wood is also executive director of Landmark West!, which in May 2005 filed a lawsuit in connection with the building at 2 Columbus Circle. This grew out of concern that the Commission had failed to conduct a public hearing over whether to designate that modernist structure, called by some the "lollipop" building, as a landmark.

One goal of the Citizens Emergency Committee to Preserve Preservation is to increase staff and funding of the Landmarks Commission. At the meeting, Jack Taylor, a preservationist active over issues relating to Union Square, raised the question of whether it would help if commissioners were salaried rather than serving without pay.

Mr. Avella, a Democrat who represents Queens, told The New York Sun, "We need development" but there was also need to preserve historic buildings. The question was, he said, "Can you adopt a set of procedures that can do both?"

In testimony in April before the City Council Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Siting and Maritime Uses, the chairman of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, Robert Tierney, said "the Landmarks Commission does an extraordinary job in fulfilling its mission of designating and regulating the City's landmarks and historic districts. The Commission is considered to be a model for other preservation agencies across the country."