CB4 Meeting on MTA site at W54th and Ninth

On September 21, 2009, three members of the West 55th Street Block Association met with various government representatives to discuss the proposed development site at what is now the MTA parking lot on West 54th and Ninth. The City has asked to put a 115-foot building here. CB4 has proposed a building with sections that are 85 feet and 99 feet tall. Here are the notes Christine Gorman took from that meeting.

WHO:
Carl Bevelhymer – West 55th Street Block Association
Christine Gorman – West 55th Street Block Association (also recorded these notes)
Lisa Pinto – West 55th Street Block Association
Danielle DeCerbo – City Council, Land Use
Seth Berliner – State Sen. Thomas Duane’s office
Elisa Gerantianos – Community Board 4, Hell’s Kitchen Land Use committee co-chair
Robert Benfatto – Community Board 4 office
Kate Seely-Kirk – City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s office
Joe Restuccia – Community Board 4, Housing committee co-chair
Greg Monte – NY Assembly Member Linda B. Rosenthal’s office (District 67)
Lindsey Allison – NY Assembly Member Linda B. Rosenthal’s office (District 67)

WHERE: Community Board 4 (CB4) offices, 330 W. 42nd St., 26th floor

A. OVERVIEW
Carl, Lisa and Christine met with the people listed above to express the West 55th Street Block Association’s many concerns regarding the MTA site at West 54th and Ninth specifically and the larger issue of the development at the Hudson Yards and in New York City generally. Joe Restuccia did most of the talking and outlined the history of the project and gave us some background on what the zoning rules for the Clinton special district allow and don’t allow. His bottom line: “If we had advocated for a park here [at W 54th and Ninth], we would have gotten a much taller building instead.”

Carl, Christine and Lisa talked about:
• Our support for affordable housing
• How our block felt blindsided by the decisions CB4 made over the summer
• The way our block is increasingly being surrounded by tall buildings
• The worrisome precedent CB4 set in agreeing to a taller building to replace the MTA parking lot at West 54 and Ninth
• The need for more affordable housing at Hudson Yards
• Our environmental concerns about the MTA site.

With respect to how much happened over the summer when people were away, Elisa Gerantianos said that a lot of that timing was out of CB4’s hands and that by having the meetings in June and July, they hoped to reach as many people as possible. She apologized that we felt blindsided by the timing. Joe Restuccia pointed out that most of the big decisions about what to do with the site were made in 2005, when the Block Association was in a more quiescent phase.

B. UPCOMING DATES WE NEED TO BE AWARE OF
Oct. 5: The City Planning Commission is having a review session on the Hudson Yards that may include decisions about the MTA site. We need to check with CB4 to make sure.
Oct. 19: The City Planning Commission votes on zoning issues.
Date TBD in November: City Council decides whether to have a hearing
Date TBD in December: City votes on City Planning Commission’s recommendations

C. OTHER INPUT WE CAN HAVE

CB4 wants to know if we have any suggestions on
• Whether to push for a supermarket on the ground floor of the new apartment
• The shape of the building – which will have one section that is taller in the mid-block than on the avenue

D. BACKGROUND ON CLINTON ZONING RULES
We didn’t get into the variations that are allowed in the perimeter areas vs. the heart of the Clinton Special District, but here are the basic rules on height limits to keep in mind, according to Joe.

On Ninth and Tenth Avenues:
85 feet – height allowance for buildings
115 feet – height allowed if granted a special permit

Mid-Block residential areas
66 feet -- height allowance for buildings
99 feet – height allowed if granted a special permit

As a city agency, the MTA by right does not have to follow zoning regulations. However, it is difficult for them to bypass the zoning regulations from a political point of view.

Affordable middle-income housing means income from around $50,000 or less per year (single person) to $103,000 (for a family of four)

E. BACKGROUND – TIMELINE
2004 Fall – a map of potential affordable housing sites in Hell’s Kitchen/Clinton area is drawn up
2005 – Proposal to build West Side stadium fails
2005 – New Memorandum of Understanding for West Side rail yards includes MTA (54th and Ninth) and DEP (48th and Tenth) sites for affordable housing.


F. WHAT HAPPENED THIS SUMMER
The City’s Housing Department asked for a special permit that would allow it to put a 115 ft building on the MTA site. CB4 voted in July to recommend a building that is 85 feet on the Avenue and 99 feet for the midblock portion. The vote was not unanimous: about two-thirds of the 40 members in attendance voted for the motion and one-third against.

[For more on the July meeting, see notes taken by Block Association members at http://www.west55ba.org/node/35; http://www.west55ba.org/node/36 and http://www.west55ba.org/node/37; also Chelsea Now: http://chelseanow.com/articles/2009/07/30/news/doc4a71ca79bb121597774730.txt]

Height issues. Joe explained that CB4 asked for the higher portion of the building to be in the midblock area –immediately adjacent to the MTA building that is already there – in order to preserve the low-rise character of Ninth Avenue. They looked at the height of the buildings at 340 W. 55 (the Sherwood) and 350 W 55 to make the determination.

Precedent. Joe says this is the first time that CB4 has agreed to back the issuing of a special permit in Clinton. There were two other times in the past (1990s?) that they voted and fought against applications for special permits.

Developer. He says that no developer has been chosen to build on the MTA site. That’s a whole other process.

Other issues. The things CB4 is fighting against:
• The City’s original desire to build to 115 feet
• The shape of the building – with all the height on the Ninth Avenue side
• MTA’s surprise request to ask for 30,000 sq. ft in the new building for their own purposes.

G. POLITICAL ACCOUNTABILITY

The 2005 Hudson Yards deal (including the minimal affordable housing makeup) was pushed by then Governor Eliot Spitzer and Mayor Mike Bloomberg. The memorandum of understanding was signed by Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff.

H. OTHER

Robert Benfatto said he would send us a .pdf of the map showing the neighborhood and available areas for affordable housing that Joe kept referring to.

The Windemere (corner of W 57 and Ninth) has been sold and the five remaining tenants have all agreed to settlements in consideration of the harassment they were subjected to for staying. The new developer has agreed to 20% permanent affordable housing but will probably ask to add floors to the top of the building as part of a hardship case. This is allowable even though the building is landmarked.

Transportation Meeting and Report Tonight!

From Council Member Gale Brewer's office --

WHEN: Tuesday, September 22, 2009, 6PM-8PM

WHAT: NYC Department of Transportation presents:

West Side Transportation Study Findings (from West 55 Street to West 86 Street)
* Existing Conditions Analysis
* Major Findings
* Community Issues &
* Preliminary Recommendations

WHERE: 899 Tenth Avenue (between West 58 and West 59 Streets.

Sponsored by the Office of Council Member Gale A. Brewer and Community Board 4 & 7, Manhattan.

For more information, contact Council Member Brewer's District Office at 212-873-0282.

Illegal Hotel -- Meeting on Oct. 1

Tom Cayler sent the West 55th Street Block Association an email about the illegal hotel on our block. He gave us permission to reprint it on our blog:

"I work with the West Side Neighborhood Alliance Illegal Hotel Committee. Our mission is to close the rash of ill-hotels, as we call them, that have been cropping up all over town.

You have one at 335-337 West 55, we call it the Swiss Miss. I have been there several times. The Ill-Hotel Committee has placed several complaints through 311 on this location. It was given a violation for ill-hotel use back in 2007, but ECB, the adjudicating body has not heard the case yet. This is typical. I know the name of the person at ECB that you have to contact to stop these endless adjournments. A letter would be a good idea.

If you have the time, actually going to the hearing is a good idea, I have
been more times than I care to remember.

We have met with the Department of Finance (DOF) and are trying to get them involved in this location which is operating as a commercial venture with a residential Certificate of Occupancy. And I just asked Bob Benafatto at CB4 to please forward a complaint to the Department of Buildings from his office.

Our next meeting is on Oct. 1, Thursday, at HCC, 777 Tenth Ave.

It is a difficult problem, but we have now closed ill-hotels at:
460 West 46
461 West 43
354 West 39
526 Ninth Ave.
517 West 45

we have gotten violations placed at :
311 West 48
320 West 49

572 Ninth Ave., 336 west 46, and the Swiss Miss have resisted our efforts.
We are hopeful that DoF will be helpful as that will hit them where they
live, their pocket book."

The Best,
Tom Cayler

Annual Tree Lighting Campaign Kick-Off

The West 55th Street Block Association is officially kicking off our annual fund-raising drive. Our goal is ambitious: $20,000. That’s $20 per person times the 1000 people we estimate live on the block. Your contribution will not only light the trees, but also fund the flowers in the spring and make new projects possible down the road.

Last year we faced a crisis – the loss of a tradition 30 years in the making. We launched a desperate Save the Lights fund-raising campaign. Neighbors came together, local businesses contributed, and collectively we raised enough money to meet our goal. By early December, the trees on West 55th Street were aglow. Three thousand tiny, energy-efficient incandescent lights added luminescent warmth to our community throughout the winter season.

This year we continue our effort, our tradition and our commitment to reshaping and improving the space in which we live. Our goal is to have the lights up by November 16-18. Professional arborists from SavATree, who worked with us last year, are eager and excited to continue our partnership. The West 55th Street Block Association will be organizing fund-raising activities and social events in the upcoming months culminating with a Tree Lighting Celebration on December 9th. If you love the tree lights, if you love living on this very special block in Hell’s Kitchen, please contribute to making your block even better. Light up the Block! –Carl Bevelhymer

Burglaries Down, Prostitution Up

While burglaries are down in West Midtown, sex workers have become more visible in the morning in Hell’s Kitchen, according to NYPD statistics and eyewitness testimony from community members presented at the Community Affairs meeting of the Midtown North Precinct on September 15th.

Two factors account for the sudden increase in visibility: First, the police night shift that monitors much of this activity changes around 5am. Sex workers, clearly cognizant of police patrols, have adjusted their working hours accordingly. Second, there is an increase in high-rise construction developments in the vicinity and sex workers view construction workers as a perfect pool for clientele.

So what can be done? The Midtown North Precinct has organized a special task force to target sex crimes and will be altering patrol hours. If you notice nefarious activity, contact the West 55th Street Block Association (west55ba[AT]gmail[DOT]com), call 311 or attend a Midtown North Precinct Community Affairs meeting every third Tuesday of the month at 7:30 PM at the Fountain House, 425 W 47th Street. –Carl Bevelhymer

Development, Zoning Laws and West 54th and Ninth

This is a short primer about real estate development, zoning laws and the MTA Site at West 54th and Ninth that has stirred up so much concern on our block. If you have anything information to add to our knowledge base, please let us know in the comments below. Or email us at west55ba[AT]gmail[DOT]com.

Our neighborhood is caught up in a development fight over what is going to happen at the Hudson Yards more than 20 blocks away in the West 30s. Over the summer, Community Board 4 acted to chip away at special zoning rules that make Hell’s Kitchen more livable. They voted in favor of granting a variance so that a 12-plus story building can go up at West 54th and Ninth (806 Ninth Ave.), which is now the site of an MTA parking lot.

What Happens Next. The West 55th Street Block Association testified against the changes at the public hearing of the Department of Planning on Sept. 9, 2009. The Planning Commission will issue a ruling later this year, then the Borough President comments on it and the City Council votes on the variance.

Zoning Preserves Our Neighborhood’s Character. Back in 1974, special zoning regulations were passed in order to preserve the low-rise, working and middle-class character of the buildings in the “Clinton Special District” (Eighth to Tenth Avenues, W 42nd to W 57th Streets). Those rules generally limit new buildings to six stories (66 feet) in midblock residential areas and seven stories on the Avenues.

The Attacks Begin. During the real estate boom, a developer sought to build an 11-story building at the site of an old chocolate factory at 321 West 54th Street. Community Board 4 and the West 55th Street Block Association successfully fought that bid. Today, Beta West is just six stories high. A few years later, a different developer quietly cobbled together air rights from other buildings in order to erect the 18-story Nicole building at 400 West 55th Street. All Community Board 4 could do was negotiate better setbacks and close the air rights loophole.

The Hudson Yards. This is the last big piece of land – about 26 acres – that can be developed on Manhattan’s West Side. The yards run west from Penn Station to Twelfth Avenue. By building a platform above the rail yards, you can put buildings on top of them. Naturally building such a platform is expensive. That is where the MTA site at West 54th and Ninth comes in. By putting affordable housing there (and at W 48th and Tenth), the Related Companies (the developer) hopes to avoid including much affordable housing at the main site.

Environmental Concerns. The soil and water under the MTA parking lot, which used to be a bus depot, is contaminated with petroleum, benzene and other volatile compounds. There is an open complaint (DEC Spill Case 96-13939) for the lot.

Breaking the Clinton zoning rules sets a terrible precedent. We want affordable housing but not at the cost of the height restrictions. What the neighborhood really needs is a park at 54th and Ninth! You can get updates on this and other neighborhood issues at www.west55ba.org/blog –Christine Gorman

Testimony on MTA site and Zoning Changes

Four things to let you know about the MTA site at West 54th and Ninth and the plans for putting up a 12+ story building there.

-- Christine G. testified before the NYC Department of Planning last week against the zoning changes that would be needed to build where the parking lot is now. See below.

-- A couple members and staffers from community Board 4 have agreed to meet with Carl B. and Christine G. on Monday, Sept. 21 to hear the Block Association's concerns.

-- Christine G talked with both Gale Brewer (who represents the north side of West 55th street) and Christine Quinn (who represents the south side of West 55th street) about the MTA site.

-- Environment: The site is what's known as a brownfield site and is contaminated with petroleum and other organic products, including gasoline, benzene, xylene etc. An environmental impact study was done on the whole Western Rail Yard project (of which the MTA site is a tiny part) -- See especially chapter 12 with respect to MTA site at this link: http://nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/env_review/western_rail_yard.shtml



Caption: Members of City Planning Commission on Sept. 9, 2009

Testimony before the New York City Department of City Planning (September 9, 2009)
Christine Gorman, President, West 55th Street Block Association

Good morning. My name is Christine Gorman and I am the president of the West 55th Street Block Association. We have a wonderful community between Eighth and Ninth Avenues with 1000 residents and we have had a Block Association for the past 31 years.

We are fed up with the Clinton Special District zoning laws being continually chipped away at – not just in our neighborhood, but throughout the Hell’s Kitchen area. The latest example is the attempt to shoehorn much-needed affordable housing into an extra-dense, over-tall apartment building at West 54th and Ninth instead of making affordable housing a large and permanent part of the main Hudson Yards site.

Here is why we’re so angry:

• In 2002, a developer wanted to build extra stories at 321 W 54th near Ninth Avenue. Community Board 4 successfully fought that and no variance was issued.

• In 2004, the Nicole at West 55th and Ninth asked for a zoning variance. This time, the neighborhood lost an air rights battle and an 18-story building was built – although CB 4 managed to negotiate a setback.

• Now, just 5 years later, we’re hearing about plans to lift both height and density restrictions at the MTA site at West 54th and Ninth. The strategy is clear – if at first you don’t succeed in gutting the rules, try, try again.

• We are also very worried about the soil and water contamination that has occurred over the years at the Ninth Avenue site, which used to be a bus depot. Longtime residents remember when gasoline actually filled up the basements in buildings that were downhill of the site. A spill was discovered in 1997 and has been registered as DEC Spill Case 96-13939.

The City’s own environmental impact study cites extensive contamination with petroleum, benzene, xylene and other volatile organic compounds at the Ninth Avenue site. This will require soil removal and “appropriate vapor mitigation systems” –whatever they are – to protect workers and residents. And why should we believe that stirring up all those chemicals won’t cause a health problem?

Time after time, we are told it is better to cover up brown field sites like this one with plastic, clean dirt, grass and trees – not to stir up the chemicals underneath them. Why is the Ninth Avenue site any different?

We have seen what happens when regulators in the banking and insurance industries get too cozy with the groups they are supposed to regulate. Our nation’s entire economy nearly collapsed and still hasn’t recovered. We’re seeing the same problem now with developers and city planners.

There was a reason to preserve the Clinton Special District in 1974 and there still is one today. We strongly oppose granting any zoning variances for the site at W 54th and Ninth Avenue. What we need there is a park, NOT another overgrown apartment building that is too tall and too dense and doesn’t fit into the architecture of the surrounding neighborhood.

Zoning Hearing -- Sept. 9, 2009

The Department of City Planning is holding a hearing about the Hudson Rail Yards development plan, which includes putting a 12-to-18 story apartment building with few-to-no setbacks on the site of the parking lot at W54th and Ninth. Folks from the West Side Neighborhood Alliance plan to testify at the meeting.

Sept. 9, 2009 from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM. Department of City planning hearing about the Hudson Rail Yards plan (including W 54 and Ninth).

Where: 22 Reade Street (Manhattan).

We have asked for more information from both Speaker Christine Quinn's office and the Housing Conservation Coordinators group that is trying to preserve safe, decent and affordable housing in Hell's Kitchen/Clinton area.

Related link: Testimony at Sept. 9 hearing on MTA site