Thousands Sign Petition Against Lenox Hill Hospital Expansion

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Thousands of people have signed on to a petition asking government officials to oppose an ambitious and controversial plan to expand the Upper East Side's Lenox Hill Hospital.

In a little more than one week since the petition's launch, more than 1,300 people have signed the online version, the Committee to Protect Our Lenox Hill Neighborhood announced. The group, which was formed specifically to oppose Northwell Health's expansion plan for Lenox Hill Hospital, also estimates that hundreds more have signed hard copies of the petition.

The committee hopes that the petition will pressure local and state officials to officially oppose Northwell's plan, which calls for zoning variances to build a 516-foot hospital tower on Lexington Avenue and a 490-foot residential tower on Park Avenue between East 77th and 76th streets. Petitioners plan to send the signatures to officials such as Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio and local City Councilmember Keith Powers.

"In a City Council district whose 2017 Democratic primary election was decided by fewer than 2,000 votes, our campaign has gathered more than 1,000 signatures against Northwell’s disastrous scheme in just 10 days," Andy Gaspar and Stephanie Reckler of the Committee to Protect Our Lenox Hill Neighborhood said in a statement. "The incredible momentum building around this campaign should send a clear message to our elected officials that Northwell’s proposal is simply not viable and must be withdrawn immediately."

Community Board 8 voted overwhelmingly in October to oppose Northwell's expansion plan. Despite board opposition and the thousands of petition signatures, elected officials have no way of taking formal action against Northwell's plan. The health system has insisted that its plans for Lenox Hill are still in the early stages, and nothing has been submitted for official review.

In addition to the new hospital and residential towers, Northwell's plans call for a 200-foot-tall structure to occupy most of Lenox Hill's block-length campus. The new campus will not increase the number of beds at Lenox Hill, but instead create individual rooms for hospital patients.

Hospital officials said that the new complex would account for increased congestion by moving ambulances off 77th Street and into the facility as well creating less obstructive loading docks on East 76th Street.

Local officials such as Keith Powers and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer have voiced concerns regarding the expansion plan, detailing them in a letter to Northwell, but have not been outright in their opposition. Powers and Brewer asked Northwell to explore the possibility of an expansion that would conform to as-of-right zoning at the hospital's site and called on the hospital system to create a comprehensive plan for all of its facilities on the Upper East Side.