BROOKLYN, N.Y. - The early 20th century row homes along 44th Street, bordering Sunset Park in Brooklyn, are part of a proposed historic district. If approved, it would be the first such designation for the waterfront community.

"It’s very special to us as a neighborhood because it’ll help us preserve the history of what it means to be in Sunset Park," said homeowner Cynthia Felix.

Community leaders and advocates spent six years organizing residents and documenting thousands of properties to submit its historic district request to the Landmark Preservation Commission for consideration.

"It’s not just the homeowners that organized around this. It was the business community, the renters, the community board, all the elected officials," said City Councilman Carlos Menchaca. 

One reason for the push is a wave of renovations and rebuilding, where in some cases knocking down entire brownstones. Residents formed the Sunset Park Landmarks Committee and offered trolley tours around the neighborhood to build support for the land-marking process. NY1 went on a tour back in 2014.

"Social media campaigns and printed brochures and just knocking on doors and meetings and meetings and meetings in order to get us this far," said Lynn Massimo with the Sunset Park Landmarks Committee. 

On Tuesday, the Landmarks Commission took testimony from residents in a public hearing, which is the last step before the Commission votes.

"The research department studied the entire neighborhood which is over 4000 buildings to really determine those areas that retain the strongest historical character and sense of place," said Kate Lemos McHale, Research Director at NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission.

The Commission found that the most architecturally significant areas were concentrated in four separate sections. So now the historic district proposal is made up of Sunset Park North, South, Central and 50th Street.

While a date for the vote hasn’t been scheduled yet, the Commission says it’s expected to happen in the coming months.