[HK-Online] HK Online - 8th Ave. Air Rights - 4/2/00

[kitchen]

Hell's Kitchen Online                                4/2/00
http://hellskitchen.net "All the News the Times Won't Print"
------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, see the bottom of this newsletter
------------------------------------------------------------
IN THIS ISSUE ...

Clinton Special District Coalition - April Meeting
Monday, April 3 at 7 p.m. Hartley House, 413 W. 46th St.

Antonia Bryson, CSDC's attorney is scheduled to be
interviewed on Scott Sommer's Housing Notebook.
Monday 7-8 pm on WBAI, 99.5 FM (we'll have a radio at the CSDC meeting).

The City's appeal of CSDC's successful lawsuit annulling the Theater 
Subdistrict Zoning Amendments (AKA Broadway Air Rights) will be heard later 
this week in the Appellate Division, First Department. Briefs have already 
been submitted by both sides and on Thursday at 2 pm the judicial panel 
will hear oral arguments. The proceeding is open to the public (especially 
those who were active in Air Rights battle), but we remind everyone the 
courtroom is where we can only just sit and listen.

    Appeal by the City of New York
    Oral arguments
    Thursday, April 6 at 2 pm
    Appellate Division, First Department
    27 Madison Ave. (NE corner of Madison and 25th St.)

The city's main argument appears to be that "not one square foot" of 
additional development rights were added -- they claim with a straight face 
that it was merely a "redistribution" across the entire Theater Subdistrict 
(50 blocks all the way over to Sixth Ave.) But where they continually 
mislead the court is that they added three blocks of the Special Clinton 
District to the Midtown District/Theater Subdistrict. So where previously 
on the west side of Eighth Avenue developers could only build a total of 10 
FAR (Floor-Area-Ratio), the amendments would allow 14.4 FAR (that could be 
ten or more additional stories on a building).

Last June, Justice McCooe of the Supreme Court saw through this ruse and 
the city's failure to conduct an Environmental Impact Statement. He 
annulled the amendments.

As expected, theater owners Shuberts, Nederlanders and Jujamcyns put in an 
Amicus Curiae brief claiming that the Air Rights transfers would benefit 
all of Broadway. And of course, they still advance the notion that all the 
theatrical unions are supporting the Broadway Initiative.

On Clinton/Hell's Kitchen side, the Municipal Arts Society and Civitas 
together submitted their own Amicus Brief asking the court to uphold 
McCooe's decision.

And to complicate matters, Resnick (who developed the Gershwin Building at 
8th and 49th) are seeking to intervene in the case. They took advantage of 
the new zoning even though it was under a legal challenge to put a Food 
Emporium in the first floor of their residential building. The old zoning 
prohibited store frontages greater than 40 feet, but the new (now annulled) 
zoning allowed larger stores.

They even brought on board Sister Elizabeth Hassalt from Encore Senior 
Center to claim in an affidavit (and to create a postcard campaign) that a 
Food Emporium on 8th Avenue would be a welcome addition to a neighborhood 
lacking affordable food and that seniors could shop at anytime, even 3 
a.m.! What they didn't mention was that Encore is located in St. Malachy's 
Church -- that reportedly got a bundle of money from Resnick for its 
development rights for the Gershwin building next door (not to mention all 
that Shubert/Theater League money). To see how affordable a Hell's Kitchen 
Food Emporium is, see 
http://tenant.net/pipermail/hkonline/1999-November/000194.html.

Of course, the issue is not about Food Emporium or affordable food. Despite 
the deception, Resnick was told it could very easily seek a variance for 
its store.

No one thinks sustaining our earlier court victory will be easy. The 
Appellate Division is known to be developer-friendly, so it's entirely 
possible the case could be reversed and the Air Rights reinstated. We'll 
keep our fingers crossed. For more information, see 
http://hellskitchen.net/csdc/suit/index.html