Brewer Rejects UES Blood Center Rezoning, But Battle Continues

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — The Manhattan Borough President formally recommended Wednesday that the city reject the New York Blood Center's proposed rezoning, dealing the project an expected, but still meaningful blow.

"I understand that the Blood Center needs to modernize their facilities, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of the residential character of the surrounding neighborhood, to which they have been a great neighbor for almost 50 years," Brewer said in her written recommendation, submitted to the City Planning Commission on Wednesday.

First announced last fall, the project aims to replace the nonprofit blood bank's aging headquarters on East 67th Street with a 16-story, 334-foot research tower filled with laboratories, offices and more. To build it, the Blood Center must persuade the city to rezone the block to allow for more dense construction.

Brewer's decision came on the last day of the 30-day window that her office had to review the proposal as part of the monthslong public review process known as ULURP. Though she has no ability to kill the project, a recommendation by her staff of land-use experts can be influential.

On Thursday, the proposal will come before a new set of eyes: the City Planning Commission, which will hold a public hearing marking the third major step in the project's public review. The hearing will be held in-person at 10 a.m. at the commission's Lower Manhattan headquarters, but members of the public can also submit written testimony and watch live on YouTube.

The proposal has roiled the neighborhood in recent months, stoking opposition from neighbors who object to the precedent that would be set by "upzoning" a mid-block site, as well as concerns about shadows the tower would cast on a nearby park and school.

Brewer's stated objections mirrored the Community Board's, including the suggestion that the Blood Center simply build a smaller structure on the same site that would not go beyond the current zoning limits.

In the first major step of the ULURP process, Community Board 8 recommended in June that the project be disapproved by the city, passing it onto Brewer. She held her own public hearing on the Blood Center earlier this month, and had strongly hinted that she opposed the project.

The City Planning Commission, unlike Brewer and the board, has the ability to stop the project if seven of its 13 members vote to disapprove it. The commission's 60-day window starts Thursday.

Neighborhood opponents of the development encouraged residents to attend Thursday's City Planning meeting, noting that public comments do not carry over from one stage of ULURP to the next.

"Your opposition needs to be strongly vocal, and unrelenting," the group Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Distrct said in an email to members. "A large, vocal turnout expressing concerns about this project is key."

If the commission approves it, the Blood Center project will face a final, 50-day showdown in the City Council this fall, where East Side Councilmember Ben Kallos will likely urge his colleagues to vote against it.

Previous coverage:

• Blood Center Hearing By Borough President Is Set: What To Know
• UES Blood Center Tower Disapproved By Board, Heads To Boro Prez
• Blood Center Returns To UES Board As Frustrations Mount
• Upper East Side Blood Center Tower Advances Despite Opposition
• NY Blood Center Plots Major Upper East Side Expansion