Landmarks Leaves the Tiffany Window, and a 30,781 Sq Ft Site, in Limbo

The Landmarks Preservation Commission heard the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island’s application to permanently remove a 12-panel Tiffany Studios window from St. Bartholomew’s Church at 1227 Pacific Street on September 15, closed the hearing on a 10 to 0 vote, and then did not vote on the application. The calendar records the disposition on docket LPC-26-12626 in two words: No Action. That is not an approval and it is not a denial. The Diocese asked and did not get an answer.

Why it matters

No Action is a stage, not an ending. LPC’s own description of the Certificate of Appropriateness process says a determination is often made not at the hearing but at a later public meeting, and that a complete application must be ruled on within 90 working days. Here the commission published no reasons, and no decision document exists for a docket it did not decide.

The calendar’s bookkeeping shows the difference. On the applications LPC resolved that day it records two votes, one closing the hearing and a second on the merits. On LPC-26-12626 it records one, moved by Commissioner Chen and seconded by Commissioner Ikpemgbe, and nothing after it. The first item on the same calendar shows how the stage ends: 257 Canal Street was approved with modifications 9 to 0, after drawing No Action at its August 4 hearing.

The numbers

We re-pulled PLUTO for Brooklyn Block 1200. Lots 16, 72 and 80, all held by the Diocese’s trustees, total 30,781 sq ft of land carrying 27,036 sq ft of building, a blended built FAR of 0.88. At each lot’s own maximum residential FAR, 7.52 on the church lot and 3.0 on the two R6A lots, the site supports about 196,000 sq ft, leaving roughly 169,000 sq ft unbuilt. One discrepancy: PLUTO records Lot 16 as C6-3A, the LPC calendar as C6-3.

What’s next

LPC has posted its September 29 agenda and LPC-26-12626 is not on it. The buildings department record has not moved: still no demolition or new-building application. The window is already out of the church, crated and in storage in Queens under the temporary approval we reported Monday.

What a developer underwriting this assemblage learned on Tuesday is about the schedule. The 169,000 sq ft of unused floor area is still there and the marketing is still running, but the window question cannot be closed out until the commission rules, and there is no date and no reasoning to price against. Church-owned land is one of the few large soft sites left in central Brooklyn, and this is its cost: the path runs through a body that can decline to answer. See the New York market.