The historic district of Park Slope has had the highest property values in the neighborhood, and has been able to ride out the slump in housing prices in recent years. Now, the Park Slope Civic Council, a community group, is campaigning to expand the neighborhood’s historic district, which could prevent the kind of real estate speculation that led to the slump.
“The district is the center of the neighborhood and also has the best housing stock,” says Marc Garstein, 64, the president of Warren Lewis Realty Associates, an agency that has a focus on Park Slope.
Garstein believes that the advantage of this expansion is that it will further prevent what he calls “bad fit” development projects that have fed speculation and real estate bubbles, especially through the destruction of old buildings to construct new residential developments.
A historic district designation limits the amount of new construction in an area by protecting the façade and size of buildings of historic character. The Park Slope Civic Council, which began its attempt to expand the boundaries of the current Park Slope Historic District in 2007, sees the expansion as a safeguard for a neighborhood that wishes to defend its residential property values from massive speculation.
