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A community coalition blog concerned with the Carroll Gardens and Greater Gowanus communities in Brooklyn, NY: our land-use and development; our safety; our historical context; and our protection from extreme environmental hazards.
Friday, March 21, 2014
Gowanus Canal CAG Meeting
More info re: Gowanus Canal Historic Preservation!
Hello from CORD!
Please see this very important post at the FROGG website:
http://froggbrooklyn.org/historic-preservation/
entitled: "FROGG Responds to the Delay in Gowanus Historic District Designation"
Please see this very important post at the FROGG website:
http://froggbrooklyn.org/historic-preservation/
entitled: "FROGG Responds to the Delay in Gowanus Historic District Designation"
And please scroll to the bottom to see the yellowed areas to find the contact info
for where you can write a letter of support to the New York State Historic Preservation.
Thank you!
CORD
"The
NYS Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) meeting scheduled for this week
has been miss-characterized in this posting. The State was not going to
"take a look at FROGG's Application", the State has been reviewing and
even expanding the district boarders for the proposed Gowanus Historic
Listing for a number of years now. And nothing, NOTHING, in this listing
has any baring in the any river walk (though everyone should know that
Gowanus is not a river and never has been). The odd thing is
that NYC has also received materials to review the historic listing over
the years. NYC has been fully aware of which properties NYC are within
the district, for quite some time now. Yet they now ask for 60 more
days after years of review? (edit)for where you can write a letter of support to the New York State Historic Preservation.
Thank you!
CORD
.....The city's request this week, for more time to look into their properties, can be seen as the means of granting additional time to Mr' Appel's group to drum up more letters of objection.
What the delay also does is give those who were asked to sign those form-style letters of objection, time to actually look at the merits of this redevelopment incentive program and submit a new letter to the State SHPO office retracting their original objection."
A letter of support (and one retracting a previous letter) can be sent to:
Ruth L. Pierpont
Division for Historic Preservation
New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
P.O. Box 189
Waterford, New York 12188-0189
or
Daniel McEneny
New York State Historic Preservation Office
One Delaware Avenue, North
Cohoes, NY 12047(518) 237-8643 x. 3257
See
http://froggbrooklyn.org/historic-preservation/ for the rest of this text.
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Gowanus Canal Preservation Controversy!
Hello from CORD!
Please read this wonderful response to the Gowanus Canal Preservation Controversy and respond to the mayor - and send to your circle of friends and other organizations that will support FROGG and the Historic Designation for Gowanus.
See sample letter (yellow highlights) at the bottom.
CORD!
March 2014, Volume 11, Number 2
Property Owners Agitate to Prevent Economic Development in Gowanus
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National Packing Box Facotry 543 Union Street
In
an almost unprecedented move, two groups - the Gowanus Alliance and the
Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation - are protesting
the proposed listing of the Gowanus Canal Historic District on the New
York State and National Register of Historic Places. The community-driven campaign to place the area on the Register in recognition of its importance
to the history and development of New York City, its archaeological
resources and its distinctive collection of vernacular commercial and
residential architecture. The Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus (FROGG)
began their campaign to have the area recognized for its historic
importance almost ten years ago and, as part of the environmental
investigation around the proposed clean-up of the Canal, the NYS Office
of Historic Preservation declared the area eligible for National
Register listing in 2006. In 2011, HDC chose Gowanus as one of our "Six to Celebrate" and supported their successful application for a $7,500 grant from the Preservation League of New York Stateto
help pay for the necessary research for the nomination. The research
led to a nomination which was scheduled to be voted upon by the State
Review Board on March 13. However, the State Historic Preservation
Office was contacted by New York City's Law Department which requested a
postponement of the vote for 60 days while city officials evaluated the
proposal. Under state law, the City has a right to request this delay,
but only has limited authority to modify the details of the proposal. We
were alerted to the City's request earlier this week with the rationale
that notice of the listing worked its way very slowly to the various
city agencies who deal with the area, so they needed additional time -
an excuse made somewhat plausible by the change in administration but
still disturbing given the outreach and broad public awareness of this proposal.
Much more disturbing is the push against the listing by the two organizations. As quoted in the Daily News:
"We
don't think it's a progressive way of looking at Gowanus," said Paul
Basile, the founder of the Gowanus Alliance, who owns several one-story
commercial warehouses on Baltic and Seventh Sts. that fall within the
proposed district lines. "This would severely limit future development
and kill job growth," said Bill Appel of the Gowanus Canal Community
Development Corp., which delivered a joint letter to hundreds of area
property owners earlier this month urging them to reject the proposal. On the Gowanus Alliance's website, a letter is posted
which
states "this proposed district could impose significant costs,
complications, and restrictions on development, construction,
renovation, maintenance and the operation of our properties". It goes on
to state that SHPO approval will be required for permits such as
shoreline stabilization permits, NYS Housing financing or HUD funding,
which will "inflict costly, undue burdens on the affected property
owners".
These
comments do not make sense. The area was declared eligible for the
National Register in 2006, which means that for the past 8 years, the
State Historic Preservation Office has been reviewing and commenting on
any permits which involve state or federal government actions or funds.
The regulatory "burden" - what little there is - has been in place for 8
years. The sole change that listing the district on the Register would
be to make it possible for projects in the district to apply for NY
State and Federal tax credits for rehabilitative work. That's it. It is
entirely voluntary - listing on the Register does not place private
development under any kind of regulation. It encourages investment and
economic development with tax incentives. But that is only a by-product
of the listing. The real purpose of listing on the National Register is
to acknowledge and raise awareness of the importance of a site to the
history of our country, to change the conversation from "the notoriously
polluted Gowanus" to "the canal which built Brooklyn". It seems that
some people are happier with deriding and demeaning the neighborhood
than celebrating it. Let's not let their bleak vision triumph.
Please contact Mayor Bill de Blasio and tell him to let the State Review Board vote on the Gowanus Canal Historic District.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/static/pages/officeofthemayor/contact.shtml
Tell him to:
Please
permit the NYS Review Board to vote on the Gowanus Canal Historic
District. Listing the area on the National Register of Historic Places
will only encourage economic development and investment in the
neighborhood. This is a community-driven plan which is business and
development friendly, and lifts the community up by acknowledging the
Canal's importance in the development of our city. There are no new
regulations or requirements which will be triggered by this designation,
only the possibility of incentives to development.
(you have a maximum of 300 words)
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CORD HISTORY:
With the "Protect Our Homes" petition, CORD was formed in May, 2007. This petition arose as an overwhelmingly negative response to the coming of the over-sized 360 Smith Street Development at the corner of Smith Street and Second Place (Aka Oliver House; aka 131 Second Place). This petition, which had well over three thousand signatures, led to a new zoning text amendment in summer of 2008.
To: Our Elected Officials, Community Leaders, The MTA:
(MAY, 2007)
We the undersigned Carroll Gardens homeowners and residents, are appalled by the "as of right" ruling which allows owners and developers to erect buildings in our neighborhood with no regard to the impact they will present to our quality of life and the value of our homes........
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?crlgrdns
To: Our Elected Officials, Community Leaders, The MTA:
(MAY, 2007)
We the undersigned Carroll Gardens homeowners and residents, are appalled by the "as of right" ruling which allows owners and developers to erect buildings in our neighborhood with no regard to the impact they will present to our quality of life and the value of our homes........
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?crlgrdns