- Preservation Alert -

Mayor Bloomberg is proposing to impose fees for permits for the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). For the first time ever, owners would have to pay an extra fee to do the right thing and abide by landmarks law. With this disincentive, we fear that landmarks violations will skyrocket, and our neighborhood character and integrity will be eroded.

Let our city officials know that landmarking preserves neighborhoods, increases investment, promotes tourism, and enhances civic pride. Imposition of landmarks permit fees will discourage owners from following landmarks law, and do great harm to our community. Please tell the Mayor and the Council Speaker that we should be preserving New York City’s history, not eroding our system for protecting landmarks and historic neighborhoods.

Please write to our City officials as soon as possible to urge them not to adopt the proposed permit fees.

SAMPLE LETTERS OPPOSING LANDMARKS PERMIT FEES

Please be sure to forward a copy to GVSHP, at gvhp@gvshp.org, or (fax) 212/475-9582, or 232 East 11^th Street, New York, NY 10007 to help us in this fight.

Hon. Michael Bloomberg Mayor,
City of New York
City Hall
New York, NY 10007

(fax: 212/788-8123; e-mail: www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html)

Dear Mayor Bloomberg:

I am writing to express my strong opposition to your proposal to impose fees for permits from the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). LPC permit fees would have an extremely deleterious impact upon Greenwich Village, Noho, the East Village, and countless other communities throughout New York City. The proposals would seriously diminish our ability to protect the historically, architecturally, and culturally significant buildings which are a cornerstone of New York’s economic and cultural appeal and vitality.

Compliance with landmarks law requires broad voluntary support for its provisions. The imposition of fees for LPC permits will diminish this support and deter property owners from seeking permits. Small residential property owners, who do not qualify for federal tax breaks for owning landmarked property and whose profit margins may be quite modest, will be most impacted by this provision. By creating an additional special burden for maintaining properties of historic, architectural, or cultural importance to the entire city, we send the absolutely wrong message.

Property owners often seek these permits for no reason other than voluntary compliance or fear of penalty. The imposition of penalties is dependent upon the violation being reported by the public and the LPC’s single compliance officer (who covers 22,000 landmarked properties citywide) inspecting the property and serving the violation. With permits costing owners money as well as time, increased non-compliance will jam the currently overtaxed system with violation complaints requiring inspections, taking away from other necessary and urgent work which the Commission should be doing. It would make much more sense to consider increasing penalties for LPC violations as a revenue generator for the agency. Property owners who ignore the law rather than those seeking to follow it should more appropriately bear any new fiscal burden for the agency.

Clearly New York City faces difficult budget decisions right now and must work to preserve essential services for our collective health and well-being. However, the proposed fees will result in minimal immediate savings but could severely compromise landmarking’s effectiveness and undermine a system which has proven to strengthen our city’s fabric on a multitude of levels, including economic (an Independent Budget Office study has shown that, in spite of the restrictions it may place on development, landmarking more often than not results in increased property values). I thus strongly urge you to reconsider these proposals.

Sincerely,

Name
Address (Be sure to include this information)

Hon. A. Gifford Miller
Speaker, Council of the City of New York
City Hall
New York, NY 10007

(fax: 212/788-7207; e-mail: miller@council.nyc.ny.us)

Dear Speaker Miller:

I am writing to express my strong opposition to the proposal to impose fees for permits from the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). LPC permit fees would have an extremely deleterious impact upon Greenwich Village, Noho, the East Village, and countless other communities throughout New York City. The proposals would seriously diminish our ability to protect the historically, architecturally, and culturally significant buildings which are a cornerstone of New York’s economic and cultural appeal and vitality.

Compliance with landmarks law requires broad voluntary support for its provisions. The imposition of fees for LPC permits will diminish this support and deter property owners from seeking permits. Small residential property owners, who do not qualify for federal tax breaks for owning landmarked property and whose profit margins may be quite modest, will be most impacted by this provision. By creating an additional special burden for maintaining properties of historic, architectural, or cultural importance to the entire city, we send the absolutely wrong message.

Property owners often seek these permits for no reason other than voluntary compliance or fear of penalty. The imposition of penalties is dependent upon the violation being reported by the public and the LPC’s single compliance officer (who covers 22,000 landmarked properties citywide) inspecting the property and serving the violation. With permits costing owners money as well as time, increased non-compliance will jam the currently overtaxed system with violation complaints requiring inspections, taking away from other necessary and urgent work which the Commission should be doing. It would make much more sense to consider increasing penalties for LPC violations as a revenue generator for the agency. Property owners who ignore the law rather than those seeking to follow it should more appropriately bear any new fiscal burden for the agency.

Clearly New York City faces difficult budget decisions right now and must work to preserve essential services for our collective health and well-being. However, the proposed fees will result in minimal immediate savings but could severely compromise landmarking’s effectiveness and undermine a system which has proven to strengthen our city’s fabric on a multitude of levels, including economic (an Independent Budget Office study has shown that, in spite of the restrictions it may place on development, landmarking more often than not results in increased property values). I thus strongly urge you to reconsider these proposals.

Sincerely,

Name
Address (Be sure to include this information)

Hon. Robert Tierney
Chair, NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
One Centre Street, 9th floor
New York, NY 10007
(fax: 212/669-7797; e-mail: rtierney@lpc.nyc.gov.)

Dear Chair Tierney:

I am writing to express my strong opposition to the proposal to impose fees for permits from the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). LPC permit fees would have an extremely deleterious impact upon Greenwich Village, Noho, the East Village, and countless other communities throughout New York City. The proposals would seriously diminish our ability to protect the historically, architecturally, and culturally significant buildings which are a cornerstone of New York’s economic and cultural appeal and vitality.

Compliance with landmarks law requires broad voluntary support for its provisions. The imposition of fees for LPC permits will diminish this support and deter property owners from seeking permits. Small residential property owners, who do not qualify for federal tax breaks for owning landmarked property and whose profit margins may be quite modest, will be most impacted by this provision. By creating an additional special burden for maintaining properties of historic, architectural, or cultural importance to the entire city, we send the absolutely wrong message.

Property owners often seek these permits for no reason other than voluntary compliance or fear of penalty. The imposition of penalties is dependent upon the violation being reported by the public and the LPC’s single compliance officer (who covers 22,000 landmarked properties citywide) inspecting the property and serving the violation. With permits costing owners money as well as time, increased non-compliance will jam the currently overtaxed system with violation complaints requiring inspections, taking away from other necessary and urgent work which the Commission should be doing. It would make much more sense to consider increasing penalties for LPC violations as a revenue generator for the agency. Property owners who ignore the law rather than those seeking to follow it should more appropriately bear any new fiscal burden for the agency.

Clearly New York City faces difficult budget decisions right now and must work to preserve essential services for our collective health and well-being. However, the proposed fees will result in minimal immediate savings but could severely compromise landmarking’s effectiveness and undermine a system which has proven to strengthen our city’s fabric on a multitude of levels, including economic (an Independent Budget Office study has shown that, in spite of the restrictions it may place on development, landmarking more often than not results in increased property values). I thus strongly urge you to reconsider these proposals.

Sincerely,
Name Address (Be sure to include this information)

Please also forward a copy of your letter to Mark Silberman at the Landmarks Preservation Commission, One Centre Street, 9th floor, NY NY 10007, or (fax) 212/669-7960, or msilberman@lpc.nyc.gov.