Posted Nov 14, 2017, 9:48 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2001
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https://citylimits.org/2017/11/14/ma...t-in-the-city/
Manhattan Parcel with Murky Origins Could Frame a Debate Over Parks and Development in the City
By Rick Stachura
11/14/17
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A project five years in the making gained widespread attention last month when it was portrayed as the latest chapter in the Bill de Blasio-Andrew Cuomo feud. Neither the mayor nor the governor, however, warrant the attention. They’re minor characters in a story that hinges on a complicated issue: Is the Marx Brothers Playground on 2nd Avenue between East 96th and 97th Streets a park or a playground?
On October 23, Cuomo and the State Legislature agreed to find out. In a memorandum, the Governor ordered Rose Harvey, Commissioner of the State Department of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation to “investigate all of the property’s historical records, uses, and any other factor relevant to the land’s designation.” Consequently, before the City can commandeer the area for construction, it must wait for Harvey’s assessment.
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In September 2013, the Educational Construction Fund (ECF) selected AvalonBay Communities, Inc. to redevelop the site. The firm’s proposal survived the Uniform Land Use Review Process (ULURP) and secured the City Council’s approval in August 2017.
Under the plan, Park East High School, presently at 230 East 105th Street, and The Heritage School, now at 1680 Lexington Avenue, will be shuttered and combined into a new eight-story building along 1st Avenue. COOP Tech will be demolished and reborn as a nine-story structure along 2nd Avenue. It will share the same foundation as 20,000 square feet of retail space and a 63-story residential tower with over 1,000 rental units; 300 apartments will be income-targeted or “affordable.”
Meanwhile, the Marx Brothers Playground will be shifted to the center of the block.
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Of the 300 affordable apartments, 100 will be set aside for households making less than $34,360 for a family of three (40 percent of area median income, or AMI), while the other 200 will go to households earning from $51,540 to $85,900 for a family of three (60 to 100 percent of AMI).
During the project’s ULURP stage, local officials tried to get AvalonBay to tweak some of those numbers but failed. “The Area Median Income (AMI) does not go low enough for 37 perfect of residents who make $23,000 or less. We believe that the AMI and the affordability can go lower,” Manhattan Borough President Gail A. Brewer said at a meeting of the City Planning Commission (CPC) in May 2017.
In a letter addressed to the CPC In March 2017, Chair of East Harlem’s Community Board 11 Diane Collier wrote that the venture needed to “include more affordable housing units, with 50% of the units to be permanently affordable.” In 2016, the East Harlem Neighborhood Plan set an even higher and broader goal, urging that public sites be redeveloped with 100 percent income-targeted housing.
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Although he didn’t veto the bill when he finally received it from the Legislature on October 11th, Cuomo waited 12 days to apply his signature and attached a “chapter amendment”—the memorandum that deferred alienating the site until Commissioner Harvey completes her analysis. Explaining his action, the Governor scribed: “Classification as park or parkland should not provide zoning bonuses to private industry. Playgrounds [however] are a different classification and may be eligible for zoning incentives, and no state approval of alienation is necessary.”
.....Cuomo’s October 23rd memorandum merely places the inevitable on hold as Harvey’s future findings are not imbued with any force of law. She wasn’t even given a timetable to return them. Perhaps the pause will foster greater public awareness. Or maybe Cuomo’s missive will be heard as a wake-up call to officials about the overall role of parks—and playgrounds—in an increasingly dense city.
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