Friday, April 25, 2008

That's a big community facility

HEIGHT FIGHT VS. 'CRANE' BUILDING
By SANDERSON, NY Post

Thirty-three floors of the 43-story apartment building rising at the site of last month's deadly crane collapse would have to be turned into a "community facility" to comply with zoning rules, a neighborhood activist said yesterday.

A community facility could be a medical clinic, a church or a school, city rules say.

City officials admit they wrongly gave the green light to the project at 303 East 51st St., where a tower-crane collapse on March 15 killed seven people.

Neighbors hope to leverage the city's mistake into a deal that would halt construction of the building at its present height of 18 stories.

"If they take this thing up substantially higher, they are going to have to bring in a new tower crane," said Bruce Silberblatt, a retired construction executive and vice president of the Turtle Bay Association, which is leading a petition campaign to limit the building's height.

Acting Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri told a state Assembly committee yesterday that he has ordered a review of the tower's zoning approval, which would guide his agency's decision on what to do about the building.

Photo from NY Times

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

They use also tackle the real issue that a community facilities designation should not be as of right, First it should not be allowed to circumvent the normal procedures including complying with an environmental imapct study and second the definition of community facility should realy be one that benefits the community and include community input. Cranes collapsing are not mutualy exclusive of regular construction.

Anonymous said...

it happens all over the city like the grand crap at 80-08 grand ave they used that loophole also