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The beau monde of DUMBO gathered this week to schmooze, eat, drink … and save the neighborhood from overdevelopment.

The DUMBO Neighborhood Association’s “Town Hall” meeting on Monday centered on geting the area designated as a historic district.

“We need to do whatever we can to preserve DUMBO’s unique character,” said association President Karen Johnson.

The highlight of the gathering at the Powerhouse Arena on Main Street — besides the food provided by Foragers, Retreat and Ferrigno’s, and the wine served up by 68 Jay Street bar — was filmmaker Julia Ryan’s documentary “DUMBO: Then and Now,” which chronicled the area’s evolution from a residential area in the mid-1800s to a center of manufacturing in the 1900s, to its current residential-buildings-in-the-midst-of-old-manufacturing incarnation, where real-estate costs are rising faster than almost any other neighborhood in Brooklyn.

The film put into pictures what the preservation of “DUMBO’s character” really means — restoring the Belgian-block streets, preventing developers from tearing down unique, old factory buildings, and making sure that new buildings don’t rise so high that they block the views of the bridges.

The Neighborhood Association has been lobbying to get DUMBO landmarked for several years, and the residents’ efforts paid off last month when the Landmarks Preservation Commission started the process.

But the wait for protection could take up to two years, and residents are worried that developers could take advantage of the delay to tear down old buildings. In January, the Neighborhood Association sounded the alarm that a developer had started demolishing a 140-year-old building at 205 Water St. The Department of Buildings temporarily revoked the demolition permit when residents called city officials to protest.

Councilman David Yassky, one of the local pols to make an appearance at the meeting and a staunch supporter of landmarking for DUMBO, promised to try to speed the process.

“I look forward to having a landmark district [in DUMBO] in a year and a half,” said Yassky (D–Brooklyn Heights).

Some small commercial property owners might try to throw a wrench into the landmarking plan. The Neighborhood Association has heard complaints.

“There are always some landowners who oppose landmarking so they won’t have to ask for permission to change their buildings, or they resent being limited by the city,” said Milton Herder, a resident in favor of the landmarking.

Under city rules, anyone who owns a building inside the protected district must apply before making any changes to a building’s exterior.

©2007 The Brooklyn Paper

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