City Appeals Board To Discuss Controversial UWS Tower In June

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — The next step in a fight over a planned 668-foot skyscraper on the Upper West Side will take place at a hearing of the city's Board of Standards and Appeals in June.

The BSA has scheduled a public hearing on the development of 200 Amsterdam Ave., located near West 68th Street, for its June 25 meeting, according to city officials. It won't be the first time 200 Amsterdam appears before the board. In July 2018 it ruled in favor of the building's developers, upholding a city decision to award construction permits.

State Supreme Court Justice W. Franc Perry vacated that ruling in March this year after a challenge brought by Upper West Side preservation groups.

Local elected officials have asked the city to halt constructionby 200 Amsterdam developers SJP Properties and Japanese-based Mitsui Fudosanin in the wake of that legal decision, but work at the site has continued at a rapid pace.

Opponents of 200 Amsterdam and its developers will likely be at odds during the BSA hearing over whether the board should consider recent construction at the site when making its decision. Developers could claim that revoking building permits would represent an "undue hardship" at a "reasonable economic return." The BSA was created on the premise that property owners are entitled to a reasonable economic return, according to the board's website.

Attorney Richard Emry — who is representing groups such as the Municipal Arts Society and the Committee For Environmentally Sound Development — said in April that recent construction work at the site shouldn't influence the board's upcoming decision. The work cannot be considered a hardship due to a previous stipulation to disregard all progress on the building made after May 2018.

A spokeswoman for SJP Properties disputed Emry's claim and said that the stipulation ended on March 14, 2019. The stipulation was contingent on an agreement between developers and opposition groups, which ended when the court vacated the previous Board of Standards and Appeals decision, the spokeswoman said.

Should the legal challenge against the building win, developers may be forced to demolish any parts of the structure that are found to violate zoning laws. Manhattan Borough president Gale Brewer cited an Upper East Side development that demolished 12 floors five years after it was built as precedent.

Opponents of 200 Amsterdam Avenue have argued that its "gerrymandered" zoning lot — which stretches far beyond the building site — violates the city's zoning codes. The development's sprawling zoning lot defies both the letter and spirit of the city's regulations, preservation groups argue.

When 200 Amsterdam Ave. was first proposed by SJP Properties it was set to become the tallest building on the Upper West Side. Extell Development's recently proposed 15 W. 65th St. — which would rise 775-feet-tall — has since taken that title.