Community Board Committee Reviews 3 Major East Harlem Developments

EAST HARLEM, NY — Member of Community Board 11's land use, landmarks and planning committee reviewed land use applications for three major East Harlem development projects Wednesday night.

The board voted to send a motion recommending the approval of one of the projects — a block-swallowing development on East 96th Street between First and Second Avenues comprising three new school buildings, a re-built Marx Brothers Playground and a residential tower that could rise as high as 68 stories. The motion stated that the committee approved the project so long as 50 percent of its residential units are made permanently affordable, residents of Community Board 11 are given priority for enrollment in the new schools and the developer — a partnership between the Educational Construction Fund and private developer AvalonBay — work to reduce building height.

But the approval of the land use committee doesn't necessarily mean the East 96th Street development is close to being approved. The Community Board's housing committee voted to reject the project and the education committee will also review the project before the vote goes to the full board.

The land use committee also analyzed, but did not vote on, applications for another block-swallowing mixed-use development on East 126th Street between First and Second avenues and a proposal brought by the city Department of Sanitation to relocate its garage on East 99th Street between First and Second avenues to a new location on East 127th Street between Second and Third Avenues.

The East 126th Street development site will include "a mix of permanently affordable and middle income residential, commercial, and community facility uses," according to the project's applicant — the city Economic Development Corporation. The site is currently home to a bus depot and recently archeologists discovered that it is the site of an african burial ground. The EDC has pledged to build a living memorial in the footprint of the burial ground in the new development.

The committee was not pleased with a Department of Sanitation (DSNY) presentation to relocate the Manhattan District 11 garage to a site on East 127th Street. Representatives from the department proposed leasing the space — currently occupied by a car dealership — to hold 41 pieces of department equipment including garbage collection trucks and salt spreaders.

While leasing the space the DSNY would build a garage which would hold the trucks. But committee members were not sold on the project due to the fact that the garage would not be fully enclosed: a demand they have insisted on due to East Harlem's disproportionate rate of Asthma.

This article will be updated with more detail.

Photo courtesy of Community Board 11