After the Ridgewood Property Owners and Civic Association (RPOCA) urged the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to move forward with designating two additional districts in the neighborhood for preservation, one lawmaker has backed the group in their efforts to save more homes.
Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan, an advocate for preserving the historic housing stock in Ridgewood, recently wrote a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio echoing RPOCA’s request to landmark the two districts — mainly bound by Seneca Avenue, Stockholm Street, St. Nicholas Avenue and Cornelia Street.
“Landmarking these districts would go a long way to preserving many of the wonderful unique residential buildings that offer so much history over the last century,” Nolan wrote in the Sept. 18 letter. “These homes are a unique structure and its history deserves to be preserved so that future generations of residents of western Queens can continue to admire and enjoy them.”
There are currently four historic districts in Ridgewood: the Stockholm Street Historic District, which has 36 protected buildings; Ridgewood North Historic District with 96 buildings; the Ridgewood South Historic District with 207 landmarked buildings; and the newest — and largest district — the Ridgewood Central Historic District which landmarked 990 homes in November 2016.
Nolan also pointed out in the letter her and RPOCA’s fears of uncontrolled overdevelopment in the Ridgewood community which threatens the historic nature of these homes.
“Landmarking our neighborhood will not only preserve it but also protect it from additional unfettered irresponsible development,” she wrote. “Over the last several years, I have seen new developments that are out of character with the community, residential homes being altered or changed on the outside and many smaller units demolished and replaced with larger developments further taxing the infrastructure of our community.”
In addition to the request to move on landmarking the two areas presented by RPOCA, Nolan asked the mayor to re-examine the LPC’s decision to deny the request to preserve a group of residential row houses on DeKalb Avenue between Seneca and Cypress avenues.
