LPC Looks to Landmark Bed Stuy Bedford District

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“This is a historic night,” Evelyn Collier, the Landmarks Committee Chair of CB3, told the packed house at Restoration Plaza last night. The crowd was there to attend a Community Board 3 forum with the Landmarks Preservation Commission and Historic Districts Council on the planned Bedford Historic District, which extends south from Monroe Street to Verona Place (at Fulton) and east from Bedford to Tompkins Avenue. (Check out a rough draft of the map after the jump.) LPC has met with the community about a half-dozen times in the past year and is still in the informal stage of the landmarking process. Kate Daly, LPC’s executive director, said this landmarking process would be staggered after the Stuyvesant Heights expansion. “I know LPC will work swiftly and diligently to get the job done,” Council Member Al Vann told the crowd. The audience seemed supportive and mostly curious about landmarking questions like LPC’s role in emergency repairs, the historic preservation grant program, permit fees, and so forth. Overall it looks likely that the historic district will eventually happen. LPC’s building researcher noted that the 800 proposed buildings in the district (the majority of which are residential) are in “very good condition” and there are “no interruptions on the blocks.” It was noted that some of Montrose Morris’ best buildings are in this proposed district, not to mention this show-stopping block. Wrapping up the meeting, Daly said she saw “a very strong base of support for a historic district here.”

Click through for the map and another video from the meeting…

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