Broadway-Flushing nears landmark status

Broadway-Flushing inched closer to receiving Landmark status when they received a letter from Albany and the New York State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) stating that, in a unanimous decision, they were placed on the State Register of Historic Places. The next step in the process won’t be so easy, but matters the most.
The Broadway-Flushing Homeowners Association (BFHA), who represents the area, must gain approval from the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). They’ve already garnered full approval from Community Board 7; they voted 42-0 in favor of the landmark status.
The BFHA still has yet to send in documentation and photographs of all 1330 homes; they said they would be wrapping it up this week.
Gaining approval from the city will be no small feat. Of 84 New York City Historic Districts in the five boroughs, just six are located in Queens. “They are less inclined to look at suburban neighborhoods,” said Paul Graziano, an urban planning/historical preservation consultant and also a principal along with Phillip Esser of Associated Cultural Resource Consultants, who wrote the nomination for the State Register. The Commission did take a tour around Broadway-Flushing three months ago and left impressed. “They said this is a really great neighborhood, so they’re definitely interested,” Graziano said.
The BFHA is desperately seeking Landmark status to protect their neighborhood, in existence since 1906, from developers taking down their beautiful Colonial and Tudor Revival-style homes and creating oversized, cookie-cutter homes, known as McMansions.
“We’re doing this out of desperation to try and preserve the neighborhood,” said the BFHA President, Mel Siegel, who estimated eight McMansions have been developed in the area.
It would take a year or two to get official Landmark status, but upon receiving the application, the LPC can calendar the area. That would put flags on the entire neighborhood at the Department of Buildings and give the LPC the power to deny contractors from tearing down any more buildings in the area.
Still, there is some opposition in Broadway-Flushing. Ed Konecnik, who lives in the area, has voiced his displeasure that residents weren’t asked about the decision to apply for Landmark status; nor were they given the choice to vote on the matter.
“We were never polled, they just send out an invitation to a meeting,” he said. “[They’re] trying to solve the problem with the wrong solution. It’s a zoning and building code problem, not a Landmarking problem. Why don’t we upgrade the zoning?”
Graziano, who recently designed the rezoning plans for Whitestone, College Point and Bayside, said that “while the current zoning is part of the problem, even the most restrictive zoning in New York City will not stop demolitions and alterations in Broadway-Flushing.”