Sutton Place Tower Wins Zoning Exception

Are New Yorkers starting to push back against tall towers? There’s growing evidence that they are. The latest came on Tuesday, when the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals approved plans for an 800-foot luxury condo tower in Sutton Place – and neighborhood opponents promptly announced they would sue to block the project, Crain’s reports.

Early in the development process, a neighborhood coalition called the East River Fifties Alliance advanced a rezoning proposal to cap building heights in the area, with the backing of city councilman Ben Kallos. Their goal was to push through the changes before the developer, Gamma Real Estate, completed the foundation work, which would have ensured enforcement of the height cap. Under city law, a project can potentially elude rezoning laws if excavation is complete and there is “substantial progress made on the foundations” when the rezoning goes into effect. In its action Tuesday, the Board of Standards and Appeals granted Gamma such an exemption from the rezoning. Construction, which had been halted, can now resume. 

"Today's decision by the Board of Standards and Appeals comes as no surprise," the East River Fifties Alliance said in a statement. "[We] will now take the community's fight against this monstrous, out-of-place megatower to the courts and away from a city agency." 

Last week, shareholders at the massive Seward Park Co-op on the Lower East Side rebuffed an offer of $54 million for their air rights, which would have allowed a developer to dramatically increase the height of two condo towers that will be built adjacent to the co-op. And historic preservations applauded recently when the state legislature ended its session without taking action on a bill that would have removed height caps from buildings in New York City. The bill had the support of the Real Estate Board of New York and many developers. 

Some New Yorkers, it seems, are starting to push back.