Department Proposes to Streamline HPOZ Program Through New Preservation Plans

The Department of City Planning has been seeking public input on a new proposed initiative to complete Preservation Plans for the 16 Historic Preservation Overlay Zones (HPOZs) that do not currently have an adopted Plan.

Having been drastically impacted by the City's current fiscal crisis, the Department of City Planning will be experiencing up to a 45% decrease in staffing and resources.  In order to ensure the ongoing growth and sustainability of the citywide HPOZ program, the Department will unquestionably need to make significant changes to the program.

At a December 2009 meeting with the citywide HPOZ Alliance, HPOZ Board members and community stakeholders discussed a range of potential options for confronting the current crisis.  Many expressed a strong preference for a specific streamlining option: the adoption of 16 new Preservation Plans as a way to increase efficiency and free up staff resources that will allow the program to remain sustainable.

Preservation Plans provide the following important benefits:

• Thoughtfully crafted design guidelines help to shape projects in their initial stages by setting clear and predicable expectations, thereby avoiding a long and drawn-out review process
• The exemption from review of work that will not have any discernable change or impact to the property saves staff and HPOZ Board resources;
• Delegating review of minor projects that comply with the design guidelines to Department staff substantially reduces the required staff time spent on projects that constitute positive restoration work. Based on the Department's experience with several existing HPOZ Preservation Plans, delegation of review has resulted in considerable savings in staff time.

The Department therefore proposes to work with the HPOZ Boards and other stakeholders to complete all 16 remaining Preservation Plans by mid-2010.  To ensure both greater citywide consistency among the Preservation Plans and the needed gains in efficiency, it is essential that all new Preservation Plans provide the same level of Exemptions and Delegations. 

To review the draft list, along with a cover memo from Ken Bernstein of the Office of Historic Resources outlining the rationale for this initiative, click on the attachment below.