Officials join fight against Indian Pond houses

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After hearing weeks of community opposition to a project to build three houses near Indian Pond, a small, serene body of water in the Fieldston Historic District, Riverdale’s four main elected officials on Tuesday morning sent a letter to the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) urging the panel not to approve the development.

LPC was scheduled to hear the Bloomfield development’s case to receive a Certificate of Occupancy on Tuesday, after The Press went to print. The Bloomfield family needs the document to build three homes on a 1.3-acre lot at 4680 Fieldston Road since the location is in the Fieldston Historic District, a zoning designation LPC applied to protect the character of the neighborhood. The City Planning Commission would also have to approve the Bloomfield development, since it is in Riverdale’s Special Natural Area District (SNAD), a designation meant to protect natural features like trees and rock outcroppings. It is not clear when such a review might take place.

On Feb. 5, Councilman Andrew Cohen, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, state Sen. Jeff Klein and Rep. Eliot Engel wrote a letter to LPC’s Chairwoman Meenakshi Srinivasan merely urging her “to insure that any possible development on this site be done in compliance with SNAD and Landmarks regulations. Anything less would render these regulations meaningless.”

By Tuesday morning, the officials had adopted a more aggressive stance against the Bloomfield development.

“While we do not take the position that the applicant has no right to build anything on this property, we do believe that the application as proposed is flawed and will compromise the integrity of the Fieldston Historic District,” they wrote.

“It would be premature for the LPC to grant this application given the specifics of the application and especially given the number of homes proposed for the site,” they continued. “Therefore, we ask LPC to deny this application at this time.”

Bloomfield development, Indian Pond, Jeffrey Dinowitz, Jeff Klein, Andrew Cohen, Eliote Engel, June Eisland, Oliver Koppell, Shant Shahrigian
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