Metro

Landmark vote opens door to Ground Zero mosque

The Landmarks Preservation Commission gave the thumbs down this morning to giving a lower Manhattan building historic status — paving the way for a controversial new mosque to open just blocks from Ground Zero.

The 9-0 vote opens the door for the demolition of the 152-year-old building on Park Place, where construction is planned for the mosque.

A few protesters heckled the commission at the end of the vote.

Mayor Bloomberg, who supports the mosque’s construction, said the WTC site “will forever hold a special place in our city, in our hearts. But we would be untrue to the best part of ourselves – and who we are as New Yorkers and Americans – if we said ‘no’ to a mosque in Lower Manhattan.”

He added that Muslims were “among those murdered on 9/11 and that our Muslim neighbors grieved with us as New Yorkers and as Americans. We would betray our values – and play into our enemies’ hands – if we were to treat Muslims differently than anyone else. In fact, to cave to popular sentiment would be to hand a victory to the terrorists – and we should not stand for that.”

The Anti-Defamation League, the nation’s leading Jewish rights group, came out last week against the mosque and Islamic community center.

“Some legitimate questions have been raised [about possible ties to] “groups whose ideologies stand in contradiction to our shared values,” the group said.

“Ultimately, this is not a question of rights but a question of what is right,” it added. “In our judgment, building an Islamic center in the shadow of the World Trade Center will cause some victims more pain unnecessarily, and that is not right.”

Families of 9/11 victims have also protested the plan over the past year.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission has pointed out its decision has nothing to do with the planned use of the structure.

“The purpose of [today’s] vote is to decide whether the building has a special character or special historical or aesthetic interest or value as part of the development, heritage or cultural characteristics of New York City, New York State or the nation,” said commission spokeswoman Elisabeth de Bourbon.

Supporters of landmark status, including GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio, had argued that the building warranted landmark status because it was struck by plane debris during the attacks.

But commissioner Christopher Moore said that the debris hit a number of buildings on 9/11.

“One cannot designate hundreds of buildings on that criteria alone,” he said. “We do not landmark the sky.”

With AP