Landmarks Preservation Commission Head Resigns Amid Outcry

NEW YORK CITY — The Landmarks Preservation Commission head will resign after a proposed rule to cut down on public hearings sparked outrage across the city.

Meenakshi Srinivasan will step down after Council Speaker Corey Johnson joined preservation advocacy groups in decrying the proposed rule change that would cut public hearings and community boards out of the approval process for certain applications.

LPC first floated the rule changes — which called for "authorizing the LPC Staff to approve a variety of work-types that are consistently approved by the Commission" — at a public hearing on Feb. 13, records show.

Andrew Berman, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation executive director who led the charge against the new rules, called them "an inherently anti-transparency, anti-good government, anti-public participation move."

Berman released a statement Thursday asking Srinivasan's replacement, who has not yet been named, to rectify a recent and "disturbing drift" that occurred in the agency under the de Blasio administration.

"Preservation has been undervalued and the Landmarks Preservation Commission was more geared towards greasing the skids for developers than protecting what New Yorkers love about their city," Berman said.

"The Chair’s resignation is an opportunity to get us back on the path towards truly valuing the special qualities which make our city so distinctive and wonderful."

Srinivasan did not reference the controversy in her statement and said she had made the decision to resign, before the rule change proposal became a public issue, in order to transition to the private sector.

“I am proud of what we have accomplished,” said Srinivasan in her statement released Thursday. “It’s been an intense, challenging, and incredibly rewarding experience.”

Srinivasan will serve her last day on June 1, she said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, who appointed Srinivasan to the post in 2014, released a statement calling Srinivasan “a talented, dogged public servant and a leader with know-how, and she’s proved that time and again.”

“We congratulate her and thank her for the important reforms she instituted, and we wish her well in her future pursuits.”

Photo courtesy of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission