New Historic Designation for Crown Heights Would Worry Some Residents

The Landmark Preservation Commission will today consider adding Crown Heights to the list of landmarked city neighborhoods, a list that includes much of the Upper East and West Sides, Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Greenwich Village, and TriBeCa.Crown Heights has a more troubled reputation than those neighborhoods, dating back to the riot there in 1993 that included the stabbing death of Yankel Rosenbaum.The proposed Crown Heights North historic district, which roughly includes the area around Dean Street between Bedford and Kingston Avenues. The proposed district contains more than 470 buildings — the largest historic district the commission has proposed in more than decade.A local homeowner who helped to spearhead the Crown Heights preservation effort, Deborah Young, said that a surge of development is threatening the neighborhood’s character. A few years ago, Ms. Young and a group of neighbors “dusted off” a 1978 architectural study produced by the Landmarks Commission of Brooklyn neighborhoods. While many of the other neighborhoods were preserved, Crown Heights was not, for reasons Ms. Young said she does not know.“We believe we are just as worthy as Park Slope, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and Stuyvesant Heights,” Ms. Young said.The chairman of the Landmarks Commission, Robert Tierney, said the decision to seek designation is not directly tied to development pressure, but to the area’s unique character. A report by the commission cites the area’s concentration of low-rise brownstones and freestanding mansions, rendered in a mix of several architectural styles from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.Mr. Tierney said that a designation would ensure that future demolition, renovations, and new construction would be guided by the commission. The proposal requires approval by the Landmarks Commission, the Planning Commission and the City Council.“We don’t prevent change, we manage change and make sure it is appropriate. There can still be growth,” Mr. Tierney said.The Landmarks Commission has been subject to criticism that it has focused preservation efforts on Manhattan. Currently, there are 53 landmark historic districts in Manhattan, 16 in Brooklyn, 9 in the Bronx, six in Queens and three on Staten Island. But preservationists say that Mr. Tierney has looked increasingly at the outer boroughs.A spokeswoman for the Landmarks Commission, Elisabeth de Bourbon, said that under Mr. Tierney’s tenure, the commission has designated twice as many individual landmarked buildings in the outer boroughs than it has in Manhattan. This year the commission won the designation of the Fieldston neighborhood, part of the Riverdale section of the Bronx.The president of Brooklyn, Marty Markowitz, who used to represent Crown Heights as a state senator, will testify in support of the proposal today.“It is certainly a gem,” Mr. Markowitz said. “They have right to be proud of their neighborhood. They worked very hard, challenged crime, drugs and crack.”In the footprint of the proposed district, residents are debating the merits of the landmarking proposal.A homeowner, Earl Beecham, said that he supports designation, but he worries that some of the neighborhood’s older residents, who are on fixed incomes, will oppose the plan because of the extra costs and time-consuming regulations that associated with making renovations in a historic district.“I had just better get some renovation done before it happens,” Mr. Beecham said.A homeowner on Dean Street whose grandmother moved to the brownstone in 1952, Mark Winston Griffith, said that he is ambivalent about the proposal. He said he was proud that the neighborhood was being singled out for preservation after a history of battling crime.“I’m in favor of preventing speculators coming in and tearing stuff down and building something out of character,” Mr. Griffith said. “My fear is that it will create a NIMBY attitude.”

New Historic Designation for Crown Heights Would Worry Some Residents

New Historic Designation for Crown Heights Would Worry Some Residents

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