Regarding the lack of debate in Sunnyside Gardens over the Special Planned Community Preservation (PC) District now in place and the push by a small group to landmark the district, it is very difficult for nuanced detailed arguments over zoning issues to be represented in the press. However, we in Sunnyside Gardens have been extremely lucky in our neighborhood which has been protected from tear-downs and McMansions under the City Planning [Commission]'s PC district zoning which has been in place since 1974, and prohibits any enlargements or changes to topography as well as specifying other restrictions. This means that our neighborhood has preservation protections. The fact that there have been some problems with compliance with this preservation zoning, sometimes allowing people to get curb cuts and driveways approved, has upset a lot of people on both sides of the issue. The fact that many homeowners were given confusing or wrong advice about the zoning has also upset a lot of people. If this is too complicated for people who are new to the issues to understand, it doesn't mean the information should be buried. The following has been all but ignored in the media:

1. There are other issues in terms of land use here, such as additions of porches and decks [and] taking down of trees, that are complex and cumbersome.

2. The Department of Buildings has corrected their coding system as of December 2006 to include the PC for Sunnyside Gardens which would prevent these misunderstandings. The previous failings of the Buildings Department were key in the push to landmark the neighborhood and this information goes to the heart of our problems in Sunnyside Gardens.

3. The City Planning processes involve greater community participation and allow for local input much more than the Landmarks Commission has provided for here. Only a few residents, two who have recently moved to Sunnyside, seem to be advising the Landmarks Commission staff about what should be allowed in Sunnyside Gardens. That is not community-wide involvement.

Many of us who found out about landmarking at the first government meeting on November 29, 2006, thought we were in the middle of researching, discussing and finding answers about how best to preserve the neighborhood. Instead, our voices were cut off when the Landmarks Commission decided to listen to outsiders who are preservation experts in other neighborhoods and to a small group of residents spreading fears of overdevelopment, and to calendar Sunnyside Gardens on March 6th while we were in the middle of this process.

Many homeowners and renters are still just learning about the complex issues at hand. Homeowners in the Bengali community have literally been shut out of the process and only recently came to a public meeting on February 27 because a few of us reached out to them. After three months of research and meetings with two people from City Planning, with four people from the Landmarks Preservation Commission, with two lawyers, three preservationists and six Urban Planners, it is my deep belief that we would be better protected from overdevelopment with an adjustment to the current PC District regulation, and we would be better able to exist as a community of people, not just houses and buildings, by having continued open dialogues and debates and for the community to come together to find the issues that we can agree upon in a common basket of concerns.

There is a misrepresentation in the press that often boils the argument down to a "feud" between people in Sunnyside on issues other than preservation. I truly am upset when I'm misquoted, I'm sure other people are upset when they are misquoted or misunderstood. For example, I asked the Landmarks Commission, the City Council and the Community Board [2] for translation of announcements back in December 2006 for homeowners who are not proficient in English. This request acknowledges that in Queens we are in the most diverse locality in the United States, and that while I know many immigrants who speak several languages including English, there are also homeowners who are not proficient in English but are proficient in one of the 7 or so major languages spoken in Sunnyside Gardens. Several of us have experience and expertise in reaching out to non- English speakers and in how to organize simultaneous translation. Our requests have fallen on deaf ears at the Landmarks Commission, our Community Board and our City Council. It is not appropriate to translate announcements after decisions have been made. The Queens Borough President's Office funds translation services and none of our government officials seem to know how to make use of it. But we as citizens do and they should ask for advice if they don't know what to do before scheduling any more meetings.

Officials continue to say they "love the diversity" here in Sunnyside Gardens. Well, actions speak louder than words and the fact that all announcements by all government officials are in Englishonly shows that the outreach effort is rushed and limited. The fact that announcements are not widely disseminated for CB 2 meetings and meetings are announced with four- and five-day notice is also a failure in adequate outreach by both the LPC and the Community Board 2. The push to landmark now is a push to cut off all of this outreach and communication as well as communication to those of us who are proficient in English. It takes time to do proper outreach across differences. And those of us who are proficient in English needed time to read through all the literature and yes, we have a difference of opinion with the pro-landmark advocates. So we are part of the group that is "different". And we are a growing number of residents who are taxpaying voters. We will remember all of this for a long time.

For many of us, our choice to live in Sunnyside Gardens was and continues to be a choice to have a home, not an investment property that we can flip. At the Community Board 2 hearing on February 27, Landmark Preservation Commission [Chair Robert] Tierney told us that the top benefits of landmarking our neighborhood for homeowners was that our property values will go up and it will bring us prestige. This shows a lack of understanding of why many people live here. Many of us live hand to mouth. We never sought prestige and didn't ask prestige to seek us out. We also don't want our monthly expenses to go up and don't want to be economically driven out of the neighborhood. We are not part of the group of realtors, investors, and those people who are flipping properties. We are not part of a group of people who can make money off of making Sunnyside Gardens a "commodity". We are invested in our community of people, not just the buildings. Most of us just wanted a place to live.

We are calling for the LPC to stop this process and for the community to have an open public debate on the detailed and complex issues of zoning and regulation. We have an alternative proposal and we would like to present it in an effort to not only address issues in Sunnyside Gardens but to begin a discussion about the greater Sunnyside community.

I firmly believe that our situation in Sunnyside Gardens has implications beyond our small neighborhood of 8,000-plus residents. We have an opportunity here to have real education, communication and outreach on issues that usually leave homeowners and renters out of the complex dialogue within terms of landmarking. If the argument for landmarking is so good, then the prolandmarking people should have no fear of a measured and careful open debate where all details are shared in public, not in back-room discussions out of earshot of the greater community. Those of us who are opposed to landmarks designation and are for preservation are public with our statements and have been the recipients of a great deal of flak from strict preservationists in ways that are too complex to go into in this letter. We want the decisions to be made at the community level, not an outside agency.

On March 16, Lauren Charles from the Landmarks Commission told three of us that the LPC usually does not have to count or deal with so many letters from homeowners opposing Landmarks designation. Whether this is true or not we don't know, we only know that is what she told us. We can look at this as an exciting time to heal divisions, create a new paradigm and an enlightened, engaged community or we can continue to shut off dialogue and steamroll the process to landmark. Sincerely,
Judith Sloan
Preserve Sunnyside Gardens Coalition