Community Corner
Fight To Block LES High-Rises Ramps Up
Margaret Chin and Gale Brewer are continuing their efforts to block massive high-rise towers from the Lower East Side waterfront.
LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — Local politicians are continuing their fight to block high-rise towers from being built on the Lower East Side waterfront and are proposing a new regulation that would require more public overview for major changes in the neighborhood.
Council Member Margaret Chin and Manhattan borough president Gale Brewer officially filed a zoning text amendment on Wednesday. If approved, the amendment would help protect out-of-scale luxury developments from being built on the Lower East Side, according to Chin and Brewer.
Currently, developers have multiple high-rise towers planned for the Two Bridges waterfront area, a neighborhood that has historically been devoid of skyscrapers and luxury housing.
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Chin and Brewer, both Democrats, say developers were allowed to move forward with their plans thanks to a loophole in the current zoning restrictions. Their amendment, they say, would close that loophole and define the towers as major modifications to the neighborhood, requiring the prospective buildings to go through a more thorough review process before the developers can move ahead with the plans.
"This is the real estate business in New York: there's intense pressure to find and exploit loopholes to build huge ultraluxury buildings," Brewer said in a statement. "That's what's happening in Two Bridges, where massive out-of-scale towers could move forward because of a staff-level determination that they are only a ‘minor modification’ to the neighborhood's plan. Sometimes you need to clarify rules to make sure they're enforced, and that's what we're doing here."
Find out what's happening in Lower East Side-Chinatownfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The high-rises have spurred outrage and fear from longtime residents who the addition of such pricey real estate could accelerate gentrification in the neighborhood.
Chin and Brewer filed a draft of the legislation in October before filing the official version on Wednesday, they said. The legislation will undergo a public review process with the Department of City Planning.
Image credit: Rendering via CityRealty
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