East Siders To Vote On Controversial Hospital Rezoning Wednesday

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — After more than five years of heated town halls and community board meetings, Upper East Siders will vote on whether to approve a plan to rezone a portion of East 77th Street to expand Northwell's Lenox Hill Hospital on Wednesday night.

The upcoming Community Board 8 meeting at the Brick Presbyterian Church comes after the NYC Department of City Planning gave Northwell the green light to renovate the medical center and add extra stories to the building this March.

The March certification launched the mandatory public review process, which is the first step in finalizing construction plans.

The project will modernize and upgrade many parts of the hospital on East 77th Street between Lexington and Park avenues, which Northwell Health representatives said are far below current industry standards.

The new building, Northwell said, would upgrade operating rooms and emergency treatment facilities to modern industry standards, expand the emergency medicine capacity and convert all of its inpatient rooms to single-bed rooms. Currently, two-thirds of the hospital's patient rooms are shared rooms.

"Our current facilities, while steeped in history, are increasingly challenged to meet the demands of 21st-century medicine," Lenox Hill's executive director Daniel Baker told Community Board 8 at a committee meeting on Jan. 28. "That's why we're embarking on this journey to renew Lenox Hill Hospital."

But, some critics looked at the project — which, in one option, would rise 436 feet over Lexington Avenue and add only 25 new beds after more than six years of construction — with derision.

The Wednesday night meeting is expected to be a well-attended one, since local organizations, including Friends of the Upper East Side, The New York Landmarks Conservancy, Carnegie Hill Neighbors, and CIVITAS, have all opposed the rezoning before it was certified by the Department of City Planning and are now advocating for a new plan to be drawn up that is closer to the existing zoning of the block.

"We reject Northwell’s current plans and ask them to engage with us for a better solution to meet the community’s needs," Stacy Krusch, a member of Committee to Protect Our Lenox Hill Neighborhood, told Patch. "We agree that the hospital needs to be renovated but as a good community hospital, not a hospital that will destroy the neighborhood during its lengthy construction and forever afterwards."

The public review is a roughly seven-month discussion period where city planners will present the proposed plans to the local community board and the borough president, followed by public hearings.

These boards and stakeholders will make their official recommendations to the city, and once the process is complete, the plan will go before the City Council for a vote.

At Wednesday's meeting, only Community Board 8 members will be able to vote.

"LHH will be in attendance, but we will not be taking any more oral public testimony; only CB8 Board Members will be recognized to speak and ask questions of the Applicant. The public is, of course, invited to attend the meeting," Community Board 8's meeting announcement reads.

The renovation plans

There are two different designs currently on the table for the new building.

In one plan, the building would be built to rise 436 feet over Lexington Avenue, but taper down to 195 feet on East 77th Street and East 76th Street.

This plan would take six years of construction on the building itself and three more years of work on the building's interior, hospital officials said.

In another newer plan, the building would come to 395 feet over Lexington Avenue, and drop down to 360 feet over the side streets.

Building this plan would take six-and-a-half years of construction on the building itself, and two-and-a-half years of construction inside the building, hospital officials said.

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

"Through these improvements, we are investing in a future that prioritizes quality care, efficiency and accessibility for all who walk through our doors in need,” Michael Dowling, president and CEO of Northwell Health, said.

Meeting details

Wednesday night's meeting will take place at 6:30 p.m. at The Brick Presbyterian Church in Watson Hall, located at 62 East 92nd St. The meeting will also be available on Zoom. For Zoom access to the meeting, sign in by clicking this link.

Northwell will answer questions submitted by Community Board 8 . Then, board members will vote on whether to approve or disapprove the plans.

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