NEW YORK | 200 Amsterdam Avenue | 684 FT | 51 FLOORS

[chris08876]

Credit: chused

[chris08876]

Credit: chused

[NYguy]

http://www.westsidespirit.com/local-...pertall-towers

UWS takes aim at supertall towers

BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
MAR 12, 2018

Amid neighborhood concerns that two looming high-rise development projects in the West 60s could signal the imminent creep of Midtown skyscrapers into the Upper West Side, Community Board 7 took steps last week to address the spread of so-called supertall towers.

The community board voted at its March 6 meeting in favor of a resolution calling on the city to close perceived loopholes with respect to building heights in the city’s zoning code.

The resolution cites several tactics for increasing building heights that developers have utilized with increasing frequency in recent years as technological advances have reduced the costs of supertall construction and the city’s booming luxury housing market has incentivized developers to build higher.

One such tactic addressed in the resolution is the practice of building higher-than-standard ceilings on each floor to raise a tower’s overall height.

The resolution also mentions mechanical spaces and voids, which appear perhaps most famously in 432 Park Avenue, the Midtown condo development that features empty two-story gaps at regular intervals up the nearly 1,400-foot-tall tower. Because mechanical voids do not count toward a building’s floor area, which helps determine allowable height, critics say the spaces can be strategically used by developers solely for the purpose of raising the height and value of buildings’ upper floors.

The administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio signaled it would move to reform the use of voids at a January 2018 town hall meeting hosted by the mayor on the Upper East Side. “We agree that the notion that there are empty spaces for the sole purpose of making the building taller for the views at the top is not what was intended, and so we are already working under the mayor’s direction with the Department of Buildings to see how we can make sure that the intent of the rules is followed,” said Marisa Lago, chair of the City Planning Commission.

The community board’s move takes place against the backdrop of two luxury condo towers currently under development at 200 Amsterdam Avenue and 50 West 66th Street that critics have argued do not align with the scale or context of the surrounding neighborhood. Slated to rise 668 and 775 feet, respectively, each tower would eclipse the height of any existing building on the Upper West Side.

Both projects have been the target of criticism from elected officials and local land use groups, and 200 Amsterdam is the subject of a pending zoning appeal arguing that the site’s building permit should be revoked.

The city’s Board of Standards and Appeals will hold a public hearing on the 200 Amsterdam appeal on March 27.

[chris08876]

Excavation still occurring. Stienway Jr will eventually rise here.


Credit: chused

[NYguy]

https://www.westsiderag.com/2018/03/...interpretation

Opponents of Upper West Side’s Tallest Tower Have New Hope After City Letter Cites ‘Incorrect’ Zoning Interpretation





March 26, 2018
By Carol Tannenhauser

It was revealed that, on March 9th, a letter to the NYC Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA), written by Michael J. Zoltan, assistant general counsel of the Department of Buildings (DOB), acknowledged that the decision to grant a building permit to SJP Properties, the developer of 200 Amsterdam at 69th Street, was based on an “incorrect” interpretation of the “Zoning Resolution,” which governs land use and development in the City.

Copied on the letter was Frank E. Chaney, an attorney who is preparing to appeal the DOB’s decision to grant the permit before the BSA, at a public hearing on March 27th. Chaney is representing the nonprofit Committee for Environmentally Sound Development, headed by Olive Freud, and strongly supported by City Council Member Helen Rosenthal and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, who co-sponsored the Town Hall.

“This is a significant win for us,” said Chaney. “The DOB said, ‘You’re right, we were wrong,’ and agreed with every single argument we made. The importance of this decision cannot be overstated. This rarely happens that the DOB will acknowledge that they made a mistake.”

“As it stands now, the DOB basically agrees with our argument that the definition of a zoning lot was incorrectly interpreted by the DOB in prior rulings,” he explained, “that zoning lots should not consist of bits and pieces of various tax lots as 200 Amsterdam does. But they still think the building permit should not be revoked, because it wasn’t incorrect when they approved the zoning lot.”

Brewer urged everyone to attend the BSA hearing, which will be held on March 27th at 10 a.m., in Spector Hall, at 22 Reade Street.

“It is possible to win this if each of us shows up,” she said. “It makes a difference. Numbers count.”

[patriotizzy]

Originally Posted by NYguy

https://www.westsiderag.com/2018/03/...interpretation

Opponents of Upper West Side’s Tallest Tower Have New Hope After City Letter Cites ‘Incorrect’ Zoning Interpretation





March 26, 2018
By Carol Tannenhauser

Love all the setbacks. Reminds me of 111w 57th crown.

[NYguy]

https://nypost.com/2018/03/26/reside...artment-tower/

Residents pulling out all the stops to block 51-story UWS apartment tower


By Steve Cuozzo
March 26, 2018

Community activists grumpy over any “out of context” (in their view) project typically claim that it received illegal city variances or tax breaks, or that it violates historic-district rules or unconscionably requires evicting longtime residents.

But since those objections don’t apply at 200 Amsterdam, at the corner of West 69th Street, an organization calling itself the Committee for Environmentally Responsible Development has found a different villain: an obscure, 40-year-old Department of Buildings internal memo that supposedly goofed in interpreting city zoning rules.

SJP and Mitsui say the project will bring the city $7 million in annual property taxes. They note that despite objections over height, it will stand considerably shorter than nearby buildings, including Time Warner Center.

The developers also say, and the DOB agreed, that the project is 100 percent as-of-right — meaning it requires no zoning change. They have a permit to construct it and are digging the foundation.

But the “environmentally responsible development” organization, led by preservationist group Landmark West!, demanded a hearing before the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals, which interprets zoning rules. The BSA will take up the matter on Tuesday.

[yankeesfan1000]

^ Also relevant from that article. Sounds like this is going to move forward as planned, and DOB might close this perceived zoning loophole for future buildings. NIMBY's had four decades to address this, and didn't. If NIMBY's succeed, the developer will undoubtedly sue the city for most/all of the $275M they spent on this lot and the associated air rights, and then we all get to literally pay for NIMBYs.

Also, the more renderings I see of this, the more I like it, nice find NYGuy.

"...However, the DOB carefully weighed this argument last year. It even temporarily stopped work at the site. But it concluded after a four-month audit that although the 1978 memo might have made a partial “incorrect interpretation” of zoning rules, to deny the developers a permit would be “arbitrary and capricious."

That’s because the agency has adhered to its earlier reading of the memo for four decades, and relied on it to grant permits for at least three other buildings on Amsterdam and West End avenues..."

[NYguy]

^ These people have time and money to waste on fighting a skyscraper in a city of skyscrapers. Their "out of context" is bs. If you don't like tall buildings, you certainly shouldn't be in Manhattan.

The City should come back with a finding for increased development rights, meaning the tower could grow a little taller. That would be too sweet.

[Zerton]

The Nimbies are especially crazy here because this isn't in a low or even mid-rise neighborhood. There are tall skyscrapers all around the site and down Broadway.

[chris08876]

They don't even have good taste in architecture either. The only acceptable reason to fight something like this that I could understand is if was so aesthetically bad that it would paint a bad image for the area. If this was a budget hotel that you see typically rising in the Garment district for example. But its not, its much better than that.

They don't make an exception for good projects.

[chris08876]

Regressive NIMBYS Attempt To Halt 200 Amsterdam Avenue As Pile-Driving Begins, Upper West Side

Construction is progressing quickly at 200 Amsterdam Avenue, where a 51-story, 668-foot tall skyscraper will soon rise. When first announced, the building was to become the tallest skyscraper on the Upper West Side. That title was lost when Extell announced plans for 50 West 66th Street, a particularly striking 775-foot tall residential building designed by Snøhetta. But even the area’s second-tallest is too much for local NIMBYs, and with excavation work on the project now making rapid headway, opponents have begun engaging in increasingly deranged efforts to hoist a wall of red-tape around the southern blocks of the Upper West Side.

News of the worsening absurdity first broke March 9th, when assistant general counsel of the DOB, Michael Zoltan, wrote to the NYC Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) that the DOB’s approval of building permits for 200 Amsterdam was founded on an inaccurate interpretation of zoning lot rules. The confusion came from an old memo that was in the process of being revoked, meaning the approval was legal at the time of processing.

The error was revealed in an extensive review and rigorous audit of 200 Amsterdam’s zoning lot composition, spearheaded by outraged local NIMBYs. After admitting error, Zoltan requested that the Board affirm the DOB’s ruling regardless, on the basis that “the Department is prohibited from acting in an arbitrary and capricious manner.” In other words, since approvals were already granted, the DOB is limited from intervening, as it could rightfully be interpreted as cherry-picking, which could have larger implications for the city’s economic and real estate community.

[...]

=======================
NYY

[NYguy]

https://www.westsiderag.com/2018/03/...sterdam-avenue

Powerful Forces Clash at Zoning Hearing Over Tower on Amsterdam Avenue




By Carol Tannenhauser
March 29, 2018

Four hours of testimony on Tuesday from politicians, unions, architects, and community activists apparently wasn’t enough for a city board to determine the fate of a planned apartment tower at 200 Amsterdam Avenue at 69th Street.

After listening to arguments on both sides about whether or not the permit for the proposed 668’ building (rendering below) should be revoked, the New York City Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) decided they need more testimony. A follow-up hearing is scheduled for June 5th

Should the building permit be revoked? An appeal filed by the nonprofit Committee for Environmentally Sound Development says yes, because it was granted in error by the Department of Buildings — an error the DOB itself now acknowledges. The problem is, the same mistake was made for the past 40 years! The developer claims he was playing by one set of rules and it would be “arbitrary and capricious” to change those rules mid-game.

[jackster99]

^every single one of those people look exactly how I picture what NIMBYS look like. They all have that "I need to speak to your manager" face

[Submariner]

I’d really like to see a psychological study performed on these people. There has to be some kind of underlying illness at play. Their qualms are just too bizarre for there not to be something off kilter driving them.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by jackster99

^every single one of those people look exactly how I picture what NIMBYS look like. They all have that "I need to speak to your manager" face

Yeah, those are the people who "shhhh" you in the library, or anywhere else. You dare not put a foot of shadow on their sunshine, if they ever get any.

[tdawg]

I am so in love with the design of this building. I really hope it gets built.

[yankeesfan1000]

Originally Posted by Submariner

I’d really like to see a psychological study performed on these people. There has to be some kind of underlying illness at play. Their qualms are just too bizarre for there not to be something off kilter driving them.

I'd love to know what percent of them actually pay market rate rents, and aren't in a rent stabilized unit, or something they bought in 1970.

[Busy Bee]

Originally Posted by jackster99

^every single one of those people look exactly how I picture what NIMBYS look like. They all have that "I need to speak to your manager" face

Blue ribbon comment. Kudos.

[Prezrezc]

I particularly enjoyed basking in the justifiably pissed tenor of Nikolai Fedak's article.

I pray that his prediction of NIMBYism in this city passing away with a whimper within half a century comes to fruition.