East Village Preservation Plan Up For A Vote

* The city’s Landmarks and Preservation Commission is poised to approve a new plan today that will conserve about 330 historic buildings across 15 blocks in East Village and the Lower East Side. Preservationists say it is the first step in a long process to protect the city’s historic neighborhoods. Development in both areas has accelerated in recent years, prompted by New York University’s ongoing expansion in Greenwich Village and the rise in rents on the Lower East Side. But the proposal will save two houses of worship, including the East Village’s last remaining tenement synagogue and a Russian Orthodox Cathedral which once had a condo on top of it. Andrew Berman, director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, said NYU has “gobbled up properties” in recent years but the plan is not specifically directed at the university. “The neighborhood has seen dorm, hotels, condos, and certainly there have been other developers that have moved ahead with or considered new demolitions,” he said. “NYU will be affected by this but this plan is much broader than that.”