Fieldston girds for fight vs. new houses at pond

After residents blocked a family’s 2010 plans to build three houses near Indian Pond, the small, beloved body of water in the Fieldston Historic District, the project is gaining steam.

The Bloomfield family has modified its original plans in an effort to placate neighbors’ concerns and filed the project anew, under the name “Bloomfield Development,” with the Department of City Planning.

The modifications include eliminating one of the originally planned driveways, destroying fewer trees around Indian Pond and creating a storm water management plan that the developer claimed would provide better drainage for the area around the pond than the site currently has. The homes are planned for a 1.3-acre lot at 4680 Fieldston Road.

However, members of the Fieldston Property Owners Association (FPOA) are gearing up for another fight. After dozens of them came to Community Board 8’s Land Use Committee meeting to voice concerns on Monday night, a lawyer for the Bloomfields agreed to postpone the family’s request for a certificate of appropriateness from the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), among other measures.

Receiving that certificate is one of the most important steps for the project to move ahead. Indian Pond is in the middle of the Fieldston Historic District, where the city must approve changes that could affect the character of the neighborhood. Fieldston is also part of Riverdale’s Special Natural Area District, a zoning designation aimed at protecting the natural features like rock outcroppings.

At the request of Land Use Committee Chairman Charles Moerdler and FPOA President Brendan Contant, Howard Weiss, a lawyer for the Bloomfields, promised to ask LPC to postpone its consideration of the proposed Indian Pond houses from next week to late January.