By Raanan Geberer
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

COBBLE HILL – Pop-jazz singer and songwriter Norah Jones may have won five Grammys, but her brownstone renovation project may not be that popular in Cobble Hill, at least among some civic leaders and residents.

As has been reported in the Eagle, the Landmarks Preservation Commission has approved her plans to put 10 double-hung windows into the windowless side wall of her recently purchased brownstone on Amity Street.

Nineteenth-century brownstones usually have windowless side walls. These walls usually abut other brownstones, but this isn’t necessarily true when the brownstones are facing corner buildings.

In this case, Ms. Jones’ brownstone, which is still undergoing renovations, is “about 45 feet� from a corner brownstone that is a four-family co-op, according to Richard Moore, president of the co-op board. Moore says he found out about the addition of the windows earlier this month when he received a phone call from Ms. Jones’ contractor.

“It [the renovations] would have a number of windows looking directly at our house and garden,� says Moore, an attorney. He adds that he informed the Cobble Hill Association because of its concern with landmarks issues.

Murray Adams, a former president of the Cobble Hill Association, says Ms. Jones and her architect originally went to the Landmarks Preservation Commission for some other, more minor alterations. A hearing was held in June for those renovations (excavation work in the back, an HVAC unit, and removal of several units from existing openings). But later, he said, Landmarks approved the 10 windows with a “staff decision,� without a hearing.

Adams added that according to city Buildings regulations, windows that are right on a “lot line,� or the boundary of a lot, have to be “wired windows,� similar to those that many people have in their bathrooms, but these would be regular double-hung windows.

In addition to compromising the co-op residents’ privacy because of the windows’ closeness, said Adams, this decision is a “bad precedent� because it could lead to more such renovations within the Cobble Hill Landmark District.

Craig Hammerman, district manager of Community Board 6, says the community board is concerned because the Landmarks decision was made without input from the community, and because the addition of the windows was not part of the original request but was basically an add-on.

Lisi de Bourbon, spokeswoman for the Landmarks Preservation Commission, said, “The important thing to keep in mind is that the reason why there was no hearing is that the window work meets the work of the Landmarks Preservation Commission and can be approved at the staff level. There is a section of our rules that gives permission for staff to approve the exact type of work we find [at Ms. Jones’ address].

“We approve work like this all the time, and this by not by any means unusual for the commission.�

Moore, the co-op president next door, added that reports that neighbors are threatening Ms. Jones with a lawsuit are exaggerated. “They’re talking to our lawyer and we’re attempting to talk to hers,� he said. Many in the community would apparently settle for a new Landmarks hearing on the windows issue.

Norah Jones, the daughter of Indian musician Ravi Shankar, is on the verge of releasing her fourth album as this article is being written. She has sold more than 16 million albums within the U.S. At the time of her breakthrough album in 2002, Come Away With Me, she lived in Williamsburg.

Her listed architect is Richard Lewis, according to Ms. de Bourbon.

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