Upper West Side Rezoning Fight Begins

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The New York Sun

As builders put the finishing touches on the Ariel Condominiums — two 30-plus-story luxury residential towers rising on Upper Broadway — the city is moving to make sure nothing like those buildings ever go up again in the area.

Vocal neighborhood opposition to the sleek, tiered Ariel Condominiums, which flank Broadway between West 99th and West 100th streets, provided the impetus for the New York City Department of Planning to propose the neighborhood’s first major rezoning in nearly a half-century, the chairwoman of the New York City Planning Commission, Amanda Burden, said in a telephone interview.

“People here are furious, still,” the president of West Siders for Responsible Development, Miki Fiegel, said of the 37-story Ariel East and 31-story Ariel West. “I look out my window, and see people pointing to the buildings — and shaking their heads.”

The Extell Development Co. purchased air rights from a nearby church, and a row of brownstones, enabling the construction of the 300-foot-plus towers. Inside the structures, two- to five-bedroom homes — some commanding prices of more than $3.5 million — boast high-end finishes, park and river views, and amenities such as a private movie theater, a pet spa, and a billiards lounge.

The president of the Real Estate Board of New York, Steven Spinola, said luxury apartments would both increase property values of local homeowners, and bring more upscale retail. He said he worried that the city’s proposal would discourage some muchneeded residential development in the area, adding: “This is a wide street — this is Broadway — and it’s where you want to encourage bigger and taller buildings.” Occupancy for Ariel East and Ariel West is scheduled for July and September, respectively. More than twothirds of the units have been sold, according to a spokesman for Extell, George Arzt. “The new zoning is bad for the architecture of the community because the buildings are going to be really chunky,” he said. “But, it’s good for our project because the views will be unobstructed.”

The planning department is proposing a neighborhood rezoning that, while increasing slightly the maximum squarefootage of developments, would impose height limits for avenues and side streets, respectively; force developers to erect structures flush with the street wall, and restrict the transfer of air rights from mid-blocks to avenues. Under the proposal, certain buildings along Broadway could rise to a maximum of 145 feet, which is less than half the height of either Ariel tower.

The new zoning would also provide incentives for developers to include below market-rate housing in their residential projects. The planning department’s proposal would affect the northern portion of the Upper West Side — bounded by 97th and 110th streets to the south and north, and Riverside Drive and Central Park West to the east and west.

A section of this neighborhood — on Manhattan Avenue, between 104th and 106th street — could be designated a landmark district as early as Tuesday, when the Landmarks Preservation Commission is scheduled to vote on the matter. The next day, the land use committee of Community Board 7 on the Upper West Side will hold a hearing on the new zoning proposal.

The Community Board’s land use committee’s co-chairman, Richard Asche, said the committee would likely vote in favor of the proposal — paving the way for a full-board vote next month. He said he favors development in the form of denser midrises, rather than thin high-rises. “Having massive, thin towers in the middle of a neighborhood of 10-, 12-, or 14-story buildings is cacophonous,” he said.

After the community board hearings, the proposal would have to be approved by president of Manhattan, Scott Stringer; the City Planning Commission, and the City Council. Ms. Burden said she is “completely confident that it will get through the council.”


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