Great news! The Federal Communications Commission has rejected Boldyn Network’s appeal of the  adverse effects findings for the 100 Horatio St. and !00 Jane St. 5G towers. The FCC upheld the New York State Historic Preservation Office’s determination that these futuristic three-story-tall towers would have adverse effects on the Greenwich  Village Historic District and the Gansevoort Market Historic District. You can read the FCC’s decision here.

Since the consulting parties, the public and the SHPO were shut out of the appeals process, we don’t know any details about how the FCC reached its decision. The entire situation was quite odd. It turns out that no applicant had ever tried to appeal an adverse  effects findings decision before, and the FCC had no process in place to handle such an appeal. The only way we were able to obtain a copy of Boldyn’s appeal was through a Freedom of Information Act request, and when we did obtain a copy it turned out that Boldyn had incorrectly summarized the SHPO’s findings about the 100 Horatio Street tower, and had failed to give the FCC the comments submitted by the consulting parties and the public in response to Boldyn’s initial applications for both towers (which they were legally required to do).

Save Gansevoort and our allies, including Village Preservation, have spent the past 4 months deluging the FCC and other federal entities with concerns about the exclusion of the consulting parties and the SHPO from the process, the total lack of transparency, and Boldyn’s flawed appeal submission. We believe that our efforts helped encourage the FCC to do the right thing.

Representative Jerry Nadler and his office have been extremely helpful throughout this process, and we owe him a big THANK YOU! Unfortunately Representative Dan Goldman, our local congressperson, has been completely unresponsive to our concerns.

We hope that Boldyn will now walk away from the proposed 100 Horatio and 100 Jane Street towers, but it’s quite possible they will attempt to negotiate measures to “mitigate” the adverse effects.  If they do initiate such a negotiation,  the consulting parties would participate and any decision would have to be approved by the SHPO. The most common mitigation measures would be to move the towers’ locations or change the design of the towers. Any design change would require hearings and approval by the NYC Public Design Commission. Save Gansevoort strongly believes that any adequate mitigation must include moving both towers significantly farther away from the boundaries of the historic districts.

As always, stay tuned…

Wow. This is quite an article.

“Just two of the nearly 200 Link5G towers installed by tech firm CityBridge since 2022 have been fitted with 5G equipment, company officials said. Delayed installations and cooling enthusiasm around 5G technology have discouraged carriers like Verizon from using the towers to build out their networks, experts say.”

Bonus points for describing the 5G towers as looking like “giant tampon applicators emerging from the sidewalk.”

As we’ve reported, the New York State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) has twice found that the giant proposed 5G towers at 100 Horatio Street and 100 Jane Street (actually on West 12th Street) will have adverse effects on the adjacent Greenwich Village Historic District and Gansevoort Market Historic District.

We recently found out that Boldyn Networks is asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to override the State Historic Preservation Office’s finding. It’s pretty outrageous.  Boldyn initially tried to evade the Section 106 historic preservation reviews altogether. They then made a mess of their first attempt to conduct the reviews last spring and the FCC told them to start over. Then, as a result of the review, they were told by SHPO that the towers would have adverse effects. Then, after asking SHPO to review this decision, they were told again by SHPO that the towers would have adverse effects. Now, Boldyn is asking the FCC to give them a pass and reverse the SHPO’s decision.

We’re still working to find out what process the FCC will use to make a decision, what opportunities we will  have to intervene, and what the anticipated timeline will be. More information to follow…

Good news! For a second time, we’ve stopped the three-story-tall 5G towers proposed in the West Village.

The New York State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) has reaffirmed its previous finding that the towers proposed at 100 Horatio Street and “100 Jane Street” (actually on West 12th Street) would adversely effect the adjacent historic districts. The SHPO has again asked that the towers not be sited at these locations. 

Boldyn Networks, the company trying to build these towers, is also considering towers at or near 771 Greenwich Street, 807 Greenwich Street, and 100 Gansevoort Street. They have indicated they will likely proceed with these other towers if they are allowed to build the towers at 100 Horatio Street and 100 Jane Street.

Interestingly, the city itself is beginning to have second thoughts about the 5G towers. According to Crain’s New York, city officials are “reassessing” the towers’ design because their size has “sparked backlash in multiple neighborhoods” (who could have guessed?)

Boldyn has the option of going to the Federal Communications Commission and asking them to override the SHPO’s decision. If Boldyn decides to do this, we’ll fight them at the FCC. Stay  tuned!

Meanwhile, thank you to the SHPO for protecting our historic districts. Thank you also to Village Preservation, which has worked hard to stop these towers. And thank you to our local elected officials—State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Assemblymember Deborah Glick, and Councilmember Erik Bottcher—who sent a strong joint letter asking SHPO to reaffirm its finding that the 100 Horatio Street and 100 Jane Street 5G towers would adversely effect our historic districts.

As promised, here’s a flyer (pdf) you can post in your building about the proposed three-story-tall 5G towers on Washington Street. The flyer asks residents to send a comment to the NY State Historic Preservation Office urging SHPO to reaffirm its previous decision that these towers would adversely effect the Greenwich Village Historic District and the Gansevoort Market Historic District, and should not be sited at these locations.

Our local elected officials have sent another excellent joint letter to the NY State Historic Preservation office (SHPO) asking SHPO to reaffirm their previous finding that these three-story-tall towers do not belong across the street from the Greenwich Village Historic District and the Gansevoort Market Historic District.

Thank you again State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Assemblymember Deborah Glick, and City Councilmember Erik Bottcher!

Boldyn Networks has asked the New York State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) to reverse their findings that the proposed three-story-tall 5G towers at 100 Horatio Street and 100 Jane Street are incompatible with the adjoining historic districts.

We need to tell the SHPO that they did the right thing and should reaffirm that these huge towers do not belong across the street from the Greenwich Village Historic District and the Gansevoort Market Historic District. See the above photo showing an accurately scaled graphic of the proposed tower at 100 Horatio Street.

Here are three things you can do to help stop these towers:

1. Send a comment to SHPO using Village Preservation’s handy “one-click” email form. It’s even more effective if you personalize the text of the letter (you can edit the text on the Village Preservation form).
   
   
2. Help promote the email campaign. Share the link to the Village Preservation email form on the social media platforms you are active on.
   Here’s the Save Gansevoort facebook post promoting this page that you can like and share.
   
   
3. Tell your friends and share information about this campaign within your building. Within the next few days, we’ll post a pdf for a flyer that you can post in your lobby.

For more information, take a look at the recent detailed comments that Save Gansevoort has submitted on the 100 Horatio Street tower. These comments amplify the extensive comments we previously filed on December 12th.

We’ll be submitting similar comments for the 100 Jane Street tower (which is actually on West 12th Street) in the next few days. As discussed in our comments, the one change that Boldyn has made is that they are removing the advertising screens from these two towers. However, simply removing these screens does not constitute the kind of redesign that would be necessary to mitigate the towers’ adverse effects. Additionally, while Boldyn says it is for the moment “not pursuing” towers at 807 Greenwich St., 771 Greenwich St., and 100 Gansevoort St, Boldyn has confirmed to us that these towers could be resubmitted at nearby locations (or in the case of 771 Greenwich the same location) in the near future.

BIG NEWS!

The New York State Historic Preservation Office, the agency conducting the Section 106 reviews to determine if the 3-story-tall LinkNYC 5G towers will have adverse impacts on historic districts and landmarks, has now asked that all four 5G towers currently proposed in the West Village be moved. This includes the proposed towers at 100 Horatio Street, 100 Jane Street, 771 Greenwich Street, and 445 West Street. This is a major win for us.

The reason that SHPO gave for their decision is that they don’t want the towers located within or across the street from historic districts or landmarks in our area. As a practical matter, this means it may be hard to find sites for many of these towers in the Far West Village. Boldyn Networks has the option to appeal SHPO’s request to the Federal Communications Commission, but we’re cautiously hopeful that they won’t. Having first tried to evade the Section 106 reviews altogether and then botched the first attempt at a review, Boldyn has very little credibility on this front. However, if Boldyn does appeal they can be sure that Save Gansevoort and our allies will continue to fight them every step of the way. We shall see…

We owe a big THANK YOU to the NYSHPO for protecting our historic districts. A big thank you also to Village Preservation, which has been working hard to oppose these towers, and to the city-wide preservation organizations—Historic Districts Council, Municipal Art Society, and NY Landmarks Conservancy—that have put much time and work into trying to corral and respond to what is really a massive city-wide project. And we are grateful to our local elected officials—State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Assemblymember Deborah Glick, State Senator Brian Kavanagh, and Councilmember Erik Bottcher—who issued a powerful joint letter asking that LinkNYC 5G towers not be situated within or close-by historic districts and individual landmarks in our area.

Yesterday, our local elected officials sent an excellent letter to the NY State Historic Preservation office (SHPO) asking that 3-story-tall LinkNYC 5G towers NOT be sited within or close by historic districts and landmarks in our area. They specifically ask that SHPO, the agency conducting the historical review of these towers, find that all the towers planned in the West Village will have adverse effects on our historic districts and individual landmarks.

Thank you so much State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Assemblymember Deborah Glick, State Senator Brian Kavanagh, and City Councilmember Erik Bottcher!

Boldyn Networks has submitted their application for a futuristic 3-story-tall LinkNYC 5G tower at 100 Horatio Street (southwest corner of Horatio and Washington streets). This tower would be across the street from both the Greenwich Village Historic District and the Gansevoort Market Historic District. It will also have two large illuminated advertising displays.

This tower is subject to a “Section 106 review” to determine whether it will have an adverse effect on the adjacent historic districts. Please submit a comment describing why you feel this huge tower would in fact have a negative impact on the historic character of these historic districts.

Comments should be sent to citybridgelink5g@ebiconsulting.com In the subject header, include “Section 106 review of tower at 100 Horatio Street,” and mention the tower address in the body of your comment as well. (Each 5G tower is subject to a separate Section 106 review, and you need to send separate comments for each tower; if you’ve already commented on one of the other towers it’s fine to send another comment on this one.)

Comments must relate only to the impacts of the proposed tower on the historic buildings and districts; it you raise concerns unrelated to historic preservation your comment may be ignored. I’d suggest making the following points:

1. This tower will be very visible year-round, and particularly during the months when trees are not in leaf.
2. The tower’s design and materials will clash with both the 19th-century residential architecture that typifies the adjoining area of the Greenwich Village Historic District, and the late-19th and early-20th-century brick warehouse and market architecture of the adjoining Gansevoort Market District Historic District.
3. Your personal feelings about how this huge tower would negatively impact the historic character of our area.

Village Preservation has additional suggestions for comments along with an optional form you can use if you wish (the form needs to be sent to the same citybridgelink5g@ebiconsulting.com address):
https://www.villagepreservation.org/oppose-a-5g-tower-at-100-horatio-street/

The deadline for comments is January 4th, but with the upcoming holiday it’s a good idea to submit comments as soon as possible.

In case you are not familiar with what these towers look like, here’s a photo from the NY Times of a Link5G tower that’s been built on Bayard Street (this tower does not have the advertising displays that will be on the 100 Horatio St. tower). Note the size of the tower relative to the people standing at its base: