Posted Feb 26, 2020, 8:59 PM
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New Yorker for life
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Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Borough of Jersey
Posts: 51,907
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Not so fast, cretins...
http://www.ourtownny.com/news/cuttin...-size-JI930931
Cutting Supertalls Down to Size
After the 200 Amsterdam ruling, Kallos focuses on the East Side's Sutton Tower
EMILY HIGGINBOTHAM
25 FEB 2020
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Politicians, community advocates and developers are looking to the future of Manhattan development following an unprecedented court ruling this month ordering the removal of 20 floors from a nearly finished Upper West Side tower. One lawmaker is already at work to use the decision to cut the height of another supertall across town.
Council Member Ben Kallos, who represents part of Midtown and the Upper East Side, was one of the several elected officials who turned out to celebrate Judge Franc Perry’s decision to revoke the building permits for the 59-story tower at 69th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Quickly, Kallos, who is running for Manhattan Borough President when Gale Brewer leaves the post in 2021, got his wheels turning and saw that Perry’s ruling opened a window to reargue the legality of the 847-foot Sutton Tower being constructed at 430 East 58th Street in his district.
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Both buildings were given the go ahead from the city’s DOB and Board of Standards and Appeals, the city agency responsible for reviewing land use determinations, despite legal challenges from the community. But the legal issues in these cases are not the same.
In the case of 200 Amsterdam, Perry determined that the Department of Buildings erroneously gave the developers, SJP Properties and Mitsui Fudosan America, a permit to build on an illegal 39-sided zoning lot that used partial tax lots from several disconnected properties in order to build an exceptionally tall building in a neighborhood where 20-story buildings are the norm.
As for Sutton Tower, the East River 50s Association (ERFA) has been fighting the development since 2015. In Nov. 2017, the community advocacy group was successful in changing the zoning regulations of the neighborhood to bar supertall towers to be built in Sutton Place. A month late, however, the developer, Gamma Real Estate, appealed to the BSA for an exception to the new zoning law, and the board granted the project an exception and allowed them to be “grandfathered” in.
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Kallos, though, is confident the decision will go the community’s way this time.
The council member said he wished the 200 Amsterdam decision had come down sooner to prevent other supertall development on the East Side from going up, but wanted to be clear that he is for practical development in the city.
“If you come into the neighborhood, and you build something that is similar to what's already here — whether it's 200 feet or even 300 feet or even 400 feet — no one is going to care,” Kallos said. “[We welcome it] if you're a good neighbor, if you reach out to folks, you don't do work after hours, and if it’s more housing — particularly housing that is affordable.”
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