SAVED! - The LPC Budget

July 17, 2008 By Melissa Baldock

For the third year in a row, the Landmark’s Preservation Commission budget will include $300,000 to fund six positions to survey NYC’s neighborhoods for potential landmarks and assist with other critical LPC duties.

In past years, this funding was instrumental in enabling the LPC to give many unprotected historic neighborhoods the attention they deserve. It was because of this funding that the LPC was able to survey and begin the process this week of designating the Prospect Heights neighborhood, a project MAS had urged them to take on.

This year, budget cuts put this much-needed funding in jeopardy, but in response to a MAS advocacy campaign, the LPC’s funding was leveled for Fiscal Year 2009. MAS thanks the Mayor and the City Council, particularly Council Member Jessica Lappin, for recognizing that the LPC, a small and extremely under-funded agency, needs an adequate budget in order to designate and regulate New York’s architectural, historical, and cultural heritage. For more information, watch MAS’s video on the need for well-funded LPC.

The writer is Kress/RFR Fellow for Historic Preservation and Public Policy.

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