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.