After losing 50 W. 66th, NIMBYs set their sites on the next thing…
https://ilovetheupperwestside.com/la...t-66th-street/
Landmark West Loses Appeal Against 50 West 66th Street
Bobby Panza
May 3, 2022
Quote:
BP: Is there anything that the community can do while this motion process is taking place?
Sean Khorsandi: To be honest, the lawyer is pursuing this because he’s knee-deep in this already. The community shouldn’t need to do anything. That’s at the root of the problem here. The community has already paid their taxes, which pays for the Department of Buildings to interpret the zoning resolution which they also paid for because they fund city planning. And they paid for the Board of Standards and Appeals and all of those salaries — that whole agency.
….. So, the other thing they can do besides paying attention is to take action. The immediate neighbors on the Upper West Side must take the threat of what’s going to happen at the Walt Disney Corporation’s ABC Campus seriously. The fight on 66th Street is already informing that. We now know that the same developer of 66th Street has purchased the ABC Campus and he could have done something similar there. But, even more, with even fewer restrictions, because that building, that block does not lie within the Lincoln Square special zoning district. However, we also know that we have the benefit now of having regulations and new laws on the books; namely, mechanical height limits, so it’s less lucrative to keep building mechanical floor after mechanical floor.
….. when ABC does move downtown and those 2.6 acres are redeveloped, the developer will know that the entire community is watching, but we also need to be vigilant about all these mechanical spaces and other loopholes.
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Quote:
Bobby Panza: Because we’re probably, if this is approved to move forward, we’re going to be seeing a lot of construction, a lot of scaffolding, a lot of trucks, a lot of noise. Sean, is the plan to completely demolish the ABC buildings and build something new, or are they going to build something on top of it?
Sean Khorsandi: So, the ABC site is a composition of several buildings. I believe two of them are in the historic district: the former Durland Riding Academy and 30 West 67th St. But 47 West 66 St., also known as the Barbara Walters Building, the ABC headquarters building, the WABC-TV building, and 7 Lincoln Square, all have zero landmarks protections.
All those buildings were designed by the firm Kohn, Pedersen, Fox (KPF). And it’s our expectation that, in time, all of those will be demolished. Partly because of the way the zoning lies where the bulk can sit. And even conversion of the office tower is unlikely because the floor plates don’t make sense for a residential adaptive reuse.
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Quote:
Bobby Panza: Is there anything else that we’re leaving out that we should talk about right now?
Sean Khorsandi: Well, you were asking one thing about what the community could do now and I think what everybody really needs to do is double down and focus their attention on the American Broadcasting Company site and our upcoming ULURP process, the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure application. Because, if we can get that site, as has been underway for months now, incorporated into the Lincoln Square Special District, it gives us another layer of protection.
The reality is, in a development of this scale, which the Upper West Side has not seen since the midcentury urban renewal era; it really should go through a public process. The community board should be involved, the community should be involved. And, unfortunately, as our planning situation has said, this would all be realized as of right development unless they go for something beyond the underlying zoning if they are looking to move bulk in certain ways. So, there’s a path of least resistance for a developer and, unfortunately, that cuts the community out and, hopefully, there’s a way for the community to stay involved and be part of the decision-making for their own neighborhood.
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