In 1965, New York City created the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to preserve historic neighborhoods and protect architecturally significant buildings. Over the next fifty years, the LPC designated over 100 neighborhoods in New York as historic districts. Through a series of collaborative projects with colleagues at NYU’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, my research on historic preservation advances both empirical and theoretical approaches to studying this important land use policy.
Our research published in the Journal of Urban Economics, identifies the heterogeneous impacts of historic preservation on property values in New York City. In neighborhoods outside of Manhattan, where the lost option value to redevelop is high, we find a significant increase in property values following historic designation; however, in Manhattan, we report virtually no impact of preservation on the price of property. We also identify an increase in property values in the communities immediately surrounding a historic district. In a second paper published in the Journal of the American Planning Association, we investigate whether historic designation accelerates gentrification by attracting high-income, highly-educated households into historic neighborhoods. Although preservation does lead to an improvement in the socioeconomic status of a neighborhood, we find no evidence of racial turnover.
Two additional book chapters add to this work. In an edited volume, Evidence and Innovation in Housing Law and Policy (Cambridge University Press, 2017), we compare the floor area ratio (FAR), new construction activity and the redevelopment of residential soft-sites (i.e., lots built to less than half of their zoned capacity) within and outside of historic districts to quantify the development capacity lost through historic preservation. This analysis offers a benchmark against which policymakers can evaluate whether preservation constrains housing construction. A second chapter asks whether historic preservation policies can be more inclusive in New York City.