Controversial UES Hospital Development Moves Forward — With A Catch

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Two City Council committees unanimously approved a long-fought-over plan to rezone a portion of East 77th Street to expand Northwell's Lenox Hill Hospital — but with a major caveat — on Wednesday afternoon.

The plan that the Council's Committee on Land Use and the Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises both pushed forward is different from the two plans fought over during the mandatory public review process.

The newly approved plan has a construction time of eight years, including five-and-a-half years of external construction and two-and-a-half years of internal construction.

This timeline is down from the more than nine years previously discussed during the mandatory public review period, which is wrapping up next week with a final City Council vote.

The new plan approved by the committees on Wednesday also lowers the tower on Lexington Avenue, as well as East 77th Street and East 76th Street.

The new plan will allow the tower to rise 370 feet tall on Lexington Avenue, and between 180 feet and 235 feet on the numbered streets.

This is an overall reduction from the plans discussed in the mandatory public review process, which kicked off in April.

In one version of the previous construction plans, the building would rise 436 feet over Lexington Avenue but taper down to 195 feet on East 77th Street and East 76th Street. In another discussed plan, the building would come to 395 feet over Lexington Avenue, and drop down to 360 feet over the side streets. Either way, these plans would have had a construction timeline of around nine years.

The City Planning Commission and the Manhattan Borough President voted in favor of the renovation, and Community Board 8 voted 23-15 with two abstentions to reject it.

Before that, the original plan, which was first brought to the community in 2019, had a timeline of around 11 years and a tower height of 516 feet.

"There are obviously reasonable concerns about living in a construction zone: The noise, the dust and the disruption in a quiet residential neighborhood," City Councilmember Keith Powers, who represents the district, said at the Wednesday vote.

"It's also vital not to lose sight of the critical purpose of this building: Health care for patients at their most difficult moments," Powers said.

With the new plan, the hospital will transform all patient rooms into single-bed rooms, update operating rooms, and add a new center specifically for labor and delivery patients, hospital officials said.

"After years of planning and conversations, today’s vote to advance the essential revitalization of Lenox Hill Hospital marks a major win for New York City," a spokesperson for the hospital told Patch. "We remain committed to building a state-of-the-art hospital that will serve generations of New Yorkers, while also balancing the needs and concerns of our neighbors."

However, Valerie Mason, the chair of Community Board 8, said the new plan is still out of scale with the neighborhood.

"We acknowledge that finally, as of this morning, after more than 6 months of stonewalling, Northwell has agreed to a 66 foot height reduction on the Lexington Avenue side and that the midblock will be at 235 feet but we remain extremely disappointed with the overall height and mass of the building," Mason told Patch, adding that "no one has convinced us that the modernization of Lenox Hill Hospital, which we and Lenox Hill want, cannot be achieved on a much smaller, more contextual scale of build."

The latest plan also creates an ambulance bay within the building's footprint to reduce traffic on the street, and includes a community benefits package that would pour $25 million into the 77th Street 6 train subway station as well as $2.5 million for neighborhood beautification and tree maintenance, Powers said.

"This plan better delivers on the needs of the community, while also maintaining Lenox Hill's excellent standard of care and showing the hospital can continue to serve our city for years to come," Powers said.

All 51 members of the City Council will vote on this latest plan on Aug. 14.

A decision by the City Council is final unless the Mayor vetoes it. The Council, with a two-thirds majority, can override the Mayor's veto.

For questions and tips, email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.

This article was updated with statements from the chair of Community Board 8 and a spokesperson from Northwell's Lenox Hill Hospital.