Community Board 2 voted with only one nay and two abstentions last night to approve a resolution supporting the revised plans of New York University to preserve the Provincetown Theater at 133 Macdougal Street and demolish the buildings at 135-9 Macdougal Street.

It defeated with only a few nays a substitute resolution that would have called for the preservation of all the related buildings that were yesterday declared eligible to be placed on the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places.

The university initially proposed razing all the buildings for a new structure but after considerable community outcry recently revised its plans to preserve the actual theater and make its new construction around it lower.

Andrew Berman, the executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, shown at the left, told the meeting that the university is "proposing to demolish one of the most historically significant sites within the proposed South Village Historic District before the Landmarks Preservation Commission has a chance to act."

He said that the university had agreed to support the designation of the proposed district and that it had also agreed recently to planning principles to "prioritize re-use before development."

Mr. Berman also noted that the university plans to build around the theater a low-rise building for use by its law school although it had "just a few years ago built its massive new Furman Hall for its Law School," so "why was this urgent need not anticipated when this massive new development was planned?" The university will gain only 17,000 square feet of space under the proposed new development, he maintained.

He argued that the site has been called "the cornerstone of bohemia." "#139 housed the original Provincetown Playhouse in its ground floor, while #135 and #137 housed the Liberal Club, the Washington Square Bookstore, the Heterodoxy club, and Polly's Restaurant - four establishments considered ground zero for the revolutions of thought, culture, and politics which emanated from Greenwich Village in the early 20th Century. These establishments were closely associated with Eugene O'Neill, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Emma Goldman, Margaret Sanger, Theodore Dreiser, Upton Sinclair, Max Eastman, Jack London, and Sinclair Lewis," he said.

Kathleen A. Howe of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation wrote Mr. Berman a letter yesterday stating that the properties meet the criteria for listing on the registers, noting, however, that owners must not oppose such listings that do confer historic preservation grants from various sources for non-for-profit organizations that own such properties.

David Gruber, chairman of the institutions committee of Community Board 2, told last night's meeting that the committee felt that "a realistic compromise was struck" and that the university "should be commended for its outreach to the community and for treating the proposal not as an 'as-of-right' project which they could have but to work within the guidelines and principals established by the [Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer Community Task Force."

The resolution passed "with the understanding that NYU has agreed...that all possible measures to insure the integrity of the theater and the neighboring buildings are protected during demolition and construction..., that the exterior and facade of the Theater be restored and that NYU make every attempt to use whatever historic and or original furniture or other elements that are available and that the existing brick be retained on the exterior facade..., that NYU make every effort to create an exhibit within either the actual theater or the newly created building that details the rich history of the Theater and building."

The playhouse launched works by John Guare, Eugene O'Neill, Edward Albee, Sam Shepherd and David Mamet among others.