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Developers Win Battle In Years-Long Fight Against High-Rise Towers In Two Bridges After Appeals Court Overrules Previous Decision
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Sydney Pereira
Published Aug 28, 2020
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By
Sydney Pereira
Published Aug 28, 2020
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Four proposed megatowers are a step closer to rising in the Two Bridges neighborhood of Manhattan after a panel of judges ruled in developers' favor in a land use battle that will shape the future of this slice of the Lower Manhattan waterfront.
An appeals court ruled on Thursday that development plans for the buildings comply with the underlying zoning—meaning the towers do not have to wind through a lengthy public review process known as the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP.).
"Although the proposed towers are more than twice the height of surrounding buildings, it is undisputed that they do not violate any applicable zoning regulation," a panel of four judges in the Appellate Division ruled.
Four towers, two of which would share a base, are proposed to be between 63 and 80 stories tall. The City Planning Commission first approved the developers' plans in December 2018—spurring a trio of lawsuits filed by the City Council, Tenants United Fighting for the Lower East Side, and Lower East Side Organized Neighbors. In earlier rulings, community groups and the council won in stunning decisions where a Manhattan Supreme Court judge ruled the towers could not move forward without additional review. During one hearing, he told the courtroom: "You can’t just do this because the zoning allows it. I just can’t believe this is the case."
The developers and Department of City Planning appealed.
In the City Council's lawsuit, which Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer co-signed, lawmakers argued the project needed to go through the public review under ULURP. Doing so would give Councilmember Margaret Chin, or whoever is elected to that council seat in 2021, power to halt or negotiate the project through a binding vote in City Council. Under ULURP, councilmembers typically defer to the neighborhood representative.
The panel of judges on Thursday disagreed that the project needed to go through that process.
Requiring the development go through ULURP is "inapplicable to the proposed buildings," the panel of judges ruled, overturning a lower court's decision.
"In reaching this result, we are mindful of petitioners' concerns that their constituents have had limited input on the proposed development's potential effects on their neighborhood, including increased density, reduced open space and the construction of a large number of luxury residences in what has been a primarily working class neighborhood of low to medium rise buildings," the ruling reads. "However, existing law simply does not support the result petitioners seek."
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, Councilmember Chin, and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer said in a joint statement: "We're disappointed in today's decision to overturn the lower court's ruling in our favor and are evaluating our options."
They said they had sued the administration "because we believed that the community needed a seat at the table for a proposal which would add close to 3,000 units of majority luxury housing within a three block radius in a historically affordable and diverse waterfront neighborhood, and will pierce through a low-income senior building."
The buildings would include among the "single largest infusions of new affordable housing" in the borough in decades, a spokesperson for the team of developers said. Seventy-five percent of about 2,700 apartments would be market-rate, and the remaining earmarked as "affordable."
"We applaud the court's decision, which makes clear that these projects were lawfully approved and comply with zoning that's been in place for more than 30 years," a spokesperson for the developers, JDS Development Group, L+M Development Partners, CIM Group, and Starrett Development, said in a statement. "Private investments in affordable housing and essential community infrastructure are even more critical as the city emerges from the COVID-19 crisis."
"New York is more than ready for 700 new affordable homes, new and improved open spaces, an ADA-accessible subway station and $12.5 million in improvements to NYCHA," the city's Corporation Counsel, James E. Johnson, said in a statement. "This ruling now makes it possible. The Planning Commission was on firm legal ground as it moved these important projects forward without subjecting them to ULURP review. The Court reached the right result and New Yorkers will reap the benefits sooner because of it.”
The other two lawsuits led by community groups are still pending, meaning the developers won't be building anytime soon.
"The appellate division did not touch those other two decisions," Paula Segal, attorney for TakeRoot Justice, told Gothamist. "Those decisions remain a barrier to the buildings moving forward."
On behalf of TUFF-LES and cohort of other groups, Segal argues the developers are required to obtain authorization from City Planning to build within the development area the buildings are proposed in, under the zoning code 78-313. That would mean City Planning needs to determine how the towers would impact the neighborhood under a slew of measures to ensure the buildings would "benefit" residents in the area and the city as a whole, according to the zoning text.
Thursday's ruling does not address that specific argument, she said.
In justifying the decision, the judges specifically noted that the City Council "could have taken steps" to change the zoning in a way that would prevent such towers from being built or amend the ULURP process.
"Having failed to do so, petitioners cannot seek a remedy in the courts," the judges wrote.
Meanwhile, another coalition of neighborhood groups is trying to garner support from elected officials to change the zoning rules along the waterfront between the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges. TUFF-LES, Good Ol' Lower East Side, CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities, and Community Board 3 are moving toward filing their plan for Two Bridges to lower the allowed height of new buildings and require deeper affordability.
"We know that the ultimate plan for the future of the Two Bridges neighborhood is the rezoning," said Two Bridges resident and board member of TUFF-LES Trever Holland. "That has not changed. That's how it has been from day one."
Community Board 3 recently voted to sign onto a letter to the Department of City Planning about the draft neighborhood rezoning application on what the rezoning—facilitating smaller store fronts, half affordable housing, and a max about 35-story buildings—would look like. On the Lower East Side in Essex Crossing, about half the apartments are set at below market rates. The department said it would review the latest draft and CB 3 letter upon receipt to "continue this dialogue."
"We're doing this for the long term future of the neighborhood, not just to necessarily stop these towers," Holland said. "We've been crying and yelling to people, 'Look, we need to change that underlying zoning.' If we're going to be smart about this, that's what we need to do." He added he hopes Brewer and Chin sign on in support of it.
"We're at a critical point in which our neighborhood is really under threat," he said.
Tagged
housing
development
ulurp
court ruling
development on the LES
Two Bridges
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Sydney Pereira
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