New York (N.Y.). Landmarks Preservation Commission

Under the 1990 Charter of the City of New York, Chapter 21-A, the Landmarks Preservation Commission, a part of the Department of Parks and Recreation, was established as a separate city agency.

The composition of the 11-member Commission includes three architects, one historian qualified in the field, one city planner or landscape architect, one realtor, and one resident of each of the five boroughs of the City. Appointed by the mayor for three year terms of office, members, except for the chair, serve without compensation. The commission appoints a full-time executive director and employs techinical experts and other employees required to perform its duties.

The landmarks Preservation Commission is responsible for designating, establishing, and regulating landmarks, portions of landmarks, and landmark sites, interior landmarks, scenic landmarks, and historic districts. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Law identifies as a landmark "any improvement any part of which is 30 years old or older, which has special character or special historical or aesthetic interest or value as part of the development, heritage or cultural characteristics of the city, state, or nation and which has been designated as a landmark pursuant to the provisions of the Landmarks Preservation Law."

The City of New York Landmarks Preservation Commission was established by Local Law 46, signed by Mayor Robert F. Wagner, April 19, 1965, although its beginnings go back much further. In 1951, the Committee on Historic Architecture of the Municipal Art Society, created a list of historically and architecturally important buildings in New York, and in 1954 published a 40-page inventory of structures it judged worthy of landmark status.

On April 2, 1956, the New York State Legislature enacted Chapter 216 of Laws of New York, 1956 which empowered local governments to enact regulations for the protection, enhancement, perpetuation or use of places, buildings, structures, works of art and other structures having a special character, or historical or aesthetic interest.

In 1957, buildings regarded as landmarks by the Municipal Art Society began to be identified by the New York Community Trust. Subsequently, a total of 178 important structures were to be distinguished by its descriptive bronze Historic-Landmark plaques.

On June 19, 1961 Mayor Wagner set up the Mayor's Committee for the Preservation of Structures of Historic and Esthetic Importance, which was to develop procedures for the preservation of notable structures in New York. It proposed the establishment of a "Landmarks Preservation Commission" to survey the city, identify landmarks, and neighborhoods for preservation, and draft a landmarks law.

On April 22, 1962 the Temporary Landmarks Preservation Commission comprised of 12, nonsalaried members was established. Through an executive order on June 26, 1962, other government agencies were required to notify the Commission of proposed public improvement sites to forestall the destruction of possible landmarks.

In May of 1964, the Temporary Commission presented Mayor Wagner with a draft of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Law, which after review by the City Council Committee on Codification and a public hearing, was passed unanimously by the Council on April 6, 1965. On April 19, Mayor Wagner signed the law making the Landmarks Preservation Commission a statutory body. A 1973 amendment added the designation of scenic landmarks and interior landmarks to the power of the Commission to designate landmarks and historic districts.

Under Local Law 1968, No. 22, the Landmarks Preservation Commission was incorporated into the newly-created super agency, the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Affairs (PRCA), and retained that status through the creation, under Local Law 1976, No. 7, of the Department of Parks and Recreation, until it became an independent city agency with the approval of the electorate of the revised 1990 charter of the City of New York.