Sunset Park wants to stop the insanity

From the Daily News:

Sunset Park is being clouded.

For years now, builders have been breaking up century-old rows of brownstones, putting up schlocky condos in the middle of blocks where they look like they don’t belong.

The character assassination has gotten so out of control that a new group is working hard to gain landmark status for pockets that have a high density of unspoiled housing stock.

The group, Sunset Park Landmarks Committee, is hoping to convince the city to landmark up to 800 buildings — or 10% — of the neighborhood.

In an area that’s not conventionally regarded as historic, that’s not nothing.

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CB2 not too keen on aluminum house

From Sunnyside Post:

The plans to develop a site within the Sunnyside Gardens Historic District were greeted with skepticism by Community Board 2’s Land Use Committee last night.

The architects provided details on the developer’s proposal to construct an aluminaire house – made of metal – and eight accompanying residential units for the first time.

The development would take place on the corner of 39th Avenue and 50th Street, at the site of the historic Phipps playground. The Phipps sold the property in July 2007 to DBH Associates for $1.43 million.

The proposed residential units—which would be contained within one building– would be clad with terracotta-colored panels, with a brick pattern.

About 50 residents turned out for the committee meeting—many holding leaflets that read: “Say ‘No’ to unwanted development in our Community!” Meanwhile, a letter was circulating that had been written by Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer to the Landmarks Preservation Committee voicing his opposition to it.

Many residents questioned whether any type of development could take place on the property. Dorothy Morehead, who is a member of community board 2 and owns a real estate firm in the Gardens, said that the former playground is deemed “open space.” She said that she has never heard of a case where the Landmarks committee has permitted development on “open space”.

The house would essentially be a showpiece or a museum where people could visit. The Aluminaire Foundation, he said, would be leasing space on the site from the developer to keep it there.

The housing units—which would bring income to the developer through rent or condo sales—would act as a buffer between the aluminaire house and the historic brick homes in Sunnyside Gardens.

But Stephen Cooper, Co-Chair of the Land Use Committee, suggested that the aluminaire house – and accompanying units—were not a good fit for the Historic District. “The buildings [in the Gardens] are all essentially the same. They are brick, all two stories tall—essentially all the same look,” he said. “There is not a single aluminum house in the area.”

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Proposal to plop aluminum house into Sunnyside Gardens

Now
Coming soon?
Dear Residents of Sunnyside, Woodside & beyond,

There is an alarming proposal in the works that seeks to turn the historic corner lot at 39th Avenue and 50th Street into an out-of-place, post-modern housing development. This corner lot falls within the Sunnyside Gardens historic district and therefore all development proposals must be approved by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). As a smokescreen, the developers are also proposing to move a 1931 aluminum house onto the lot.

We are a group of concerned residents opposing this development. The manner in which this proposal is being rushed through without sufficient public notice is indicative of the developers' not having our community's best interest at heart. This development proposal runs contrary to the community's aim of preserving the corner lot from succumbing to over-development.

Our group has other ideas for this historic open space -- namely the transformation of it into a truly public community garden and green common, while preserving its existing structures and trees. Most of the parks in Sunnyside now are either concrete playgrounds serving primarily school children, exclusive gardens or private parks charging membership dues. We want to change this.

The development proposal is completely wrong for the historic district, and it's completely wrong for our community. But the Landmarks Law gives every one of us the right to voice our choice for our future, and we need everyone to exercise that right.

Right now there are 3 things you can do to help:

1. Please “Reply” to this e-mail to say you oppose this development.

2. There will be an unveiling of this development proposal this week at Community Board 2's Land Use committee meeting. If a lot of us show up and demonstrate our disapproval of the proposal, the harder it will be for the development to win the support it needs. This is not a public hearing and we may not get to speak, but a lot of disappointed faces in the audience will help convey our message.

The meeting is Wednesday, June 19 at 7 pm at the address below:

Community Board 2 office
43-22 50th St. off Roosevelt Ave., 2nd floor.
(Note - this is NOT at Sunnyside Community Services)

Worse still the LPC public hearing, may be scheduled for July 9. This gives us little time to organize our opposition so we want the hearing delayed.

3. Call and e-mail Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer’s staff to ask them to do everything in their power to delay the LPC's public hearing. Please leave a voicemail if there is no pick up.

Nick Gulotta, staff preservationist:
NGulotta@council.nyc.gov
718-383-9566, ext.5

Yours,
Cautley Garden
cautleygarden@gmail.com
https://sites.google.com/site/cautleygarden/

Jimmy Van Bramer has a "staff preservationist?" Well, excuse me!

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Brooklyn neighborhood wants landmark protection

From the Daily News:

A whopping 1,150 Victorian-style homes around Ditmas Park would be landmarked to maintain their historic character under a proposal being pushed by local pols and community leaders.

City Councilman Jumaane Williams (D-Flatbush) and other elected officials are urging the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission to bestow that status on the homes, built 100 years ago by a small group of architects who converted the neighborhood from farmland into a tree-lined community.

“We are big believers in preserving and celebrating the history of what we have in this community,” said Williams’ spokesman Stefan Ringel.

The Bloomberg administration is reviewing the 437-page application, submitted in March by a group of neighborhood associations and the Flatbush Development Corp.

Swaths of homes in the Ditmas Park area have already been landmarked, but that process has been done piecemeal since 1978.

So there's a City Council member out there who hasn't been bought by developers? How nice that must be.

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