February 24, 2020: A state judge has ruled that developers of a nearly completed 52-story condo tower will have to remove 20 floors of the building to comply with zoning restrictions.[1]
As it currently stands, the building would be the tallest on the Upper West Side. However, community groups claimed that the developer “had abused zoning rules to justify the project’s size.” Under normal rules, the developer might have been allowed to build only a 20-story building.[1][2]
The details are hard to follow because the zoning laws in New York City are complicated. To create bigger and taller buildings, the laws allow “developers to purchase the unused development rights of adjacent buildings.”[2]
But opponents said this project went too far and “created a ‘gerrymandered,’ highly unusual 39-sided zoning lot.” They claimed, and a State Supreme Court judge agreed, that many of the lots were only loosely connected. The judge ordered the developer to "remove all floors that exceed the zoning limit.”[2]
“It is exceptionally rare in New York for a developer to have to remove completed floors from a building, but it has happened,” according to the New York Times. “In 1991, a developer was forced to reduce a 31-story building on East 96th Street to 19 stories.”[2]
The developer plans to appeal and what happens next is unclear.
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