Pair Of Sleep Labs Makes New Lenox Hill Site 'Quality Housing'

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Is this new doctor's office a home away from home? The city — and the state's largest employer — think so.

A new Upper East Side development from Northwell Health appears to propose 16 floors of medical offices and outpatient services.

But according to Northwell and the city, it's actually "quality housing."

In addition to the outpatient oncology, cardiac care, imaging and surgery, the under-construction development on Third Avenue and East 77th Street contains two sleep diagnostic labs.

These clinical rooms are meant to help diagnose various sleep and epileptic issues, according to Northwell, and are clearly not meant for either lodging, rehabilitation nor housing, the traditional definition of a "rooming unit" when it comes to zoning.

Yet, these clinical labs have been deemed "rooming units" by the city's Buildings Department and the Department of Housing, Preservation and Development.

That allows the project, called the Northwell Medical Pavilion, to qualify for the "quality housing" program, which gives them zoning bonuses — namely a higher setback and a larger floor plate.

"The Pavilion includes sleeping rooms that will be utilized in the diagnosis and treatment of epileptic and sleep disorders," read a statement from Northwell sent to Patch. "These rooms are designed for stays of up to several days.”

Quality housing started as a zoning benefits program initiated three decades ago to help housing developers build lower, wider buildings instead of taller, "tower-in-the-park" style developments, according to reporting at the time.

It makes sense — medical offices and hospitals, too, desire avoiding building tall, skinny buildings. All that vertical travel is very inefficient.

"Standard zoning is really bad for hospitals," said local zoning expert George Janes. He has a keen eye for finding what he deems "ridiculous" examples of how the city's zoning codes need to be updated.

This, he said, is a prime example.

Normally, hospitals and medical buildings would get waivers of variances in order to build the big, blocky buildings that are best for hospitals. Janes said various fixes or zoning amendments have been discussed for years to help zoning adapt better to hospital use, but it has yet to happen.

Instead, he said, you get loopholes, like non-residential medical diagnostic rooms being classified as "rooming units" (typically defined as a hotel or dorm room) because "the zoning doesn't work," Janes said.

"Yes, people will be sleeping there," Janes said, "but they will be sleeping there for medical reasons, because they are being diagnosed with sleep disorders."

Even a Northwell rep said in an email to Patch that "Quality Housing" is just a technical name for a set of zoning regulations available for their Pavilion due to the two clinical diagnostic sleep rooms — a reduction from the original floor plan which contained five sleep labs.

When asked why clinical diagnostic rooms qualify as "rooming units," a HPD spokesperson said that because the rooms would be used for overnight stays and would lack both a kitchen an a bathroom — and that they were conditionally approved by the Department of Buildings.

A Buildings spokesperson told Patch that the sleep study rooms qualify for the "Quality Housing" program because they are considered a "non-profit institution with sleeping accommodation."

The spokesperson also clarified that regular inpatient hospital beds do not qualify as rooming units and would not allow regular hospital buildings to utilize the "Quality Housing" program.

According to a 2011 DOB bulletin, that definition is typically reserved for shelters, supportive housing sites or rehabilitation facilities.

Janes said the issue is that for people who live in city, whether they work in the industry or not, zoning should be more transparent — and predictable.

"Why don't we use the resources of the city to amend zoning to make it work better?" Janes said.