On Wednesday, April 9, officials from the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission discussed plans for a Prospect Heights historic district with hundreds of residents and business owners at P.S. 9.

The meeting included the first public presentation of LPC's study area boundaries for a Prospect Heights historic district. Although LPC's study area boundaries vary somewhat from the historic district boundaries proposed by PHNDC, LPC Executive Director Kate Daly mentioned that the LPC study area contains over 700 buildings, which would make it the largest historic district designated by LPC in more than 15 years. Director of Research Mary Beth Betts explained the rationale for selecting the study area boundaries, and Diretor of Preservation Sarah Carroll (pictured) explained the process of regulating building in an historic district, answering questions from the audience.

New York City Council Member Letitia James also attended the meeting, and spoke in support of historic designation for Prospect Heights.

Asked by an audience member about the timetable for designation, Daly said that the next step in the process, "calendaring" a public hearing in preparation for a formal evaluation by the Landmarks Commission, would likely take place before the end of the year. Following the evaluation report, the Commissioners would vote on designating a historic district in Propsect Heights; this vote could come as early as 2009. The audience members, many of whom expressed concerns about out-of-character building in the neighborhood, applauded enthusiastically when told of LPC's interest in moving the process forward.