Court Rules In Favor Of UWS Tower Challenge

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — One of the Upper West Side's most controversial developments was set back Thursday when a state judge sided in favor of preservation groups challenging the building.

State Supreme Court Justice W. Franc Perry ruled Thursday to vacate a city Board of Standards and Appeals ruling from 2018 that favored developers SJP Properties and allowed the construction of a 668-foot apartment tower at 200 Amsterdam Avenue. The development was the tallest planned building in the neighborhood when it was announced.

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 Board of Standards and Appeals had somehow determined that the zoning lot here—a 39-sided 'Frankenstein' lot, stitched together from bits and pieces of various tax lots—was 'unsubdivided,' allowing the 668-foot-tall tower to go forward at the expense of the Upper West Side community," Olive Freud, president of the Committee for Environmentally Sound Development, said in a statement.

The Committee for Environmentally Sound Development and the Municipal Arts Society led the legal challenge against the development. The challenge had support of groups such as Landmark West! and politicians such as City Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal.

Rosenthal said in October — when the legal challenge was filed — that that the city Zoning Resolution is "incapable" of addressing the problem of out of context development because of tax lot loopholes that allow buildings such as 200 Amsterdam Avenue.

"Communities are being bombarded by projects that are supposedly 'as of right,' but they are often drastically out of context, do not actually comply with the spirit of special district and other local protections, and are not helping to address our affordable housing crisis," Rosenthal said in the statement.

A spokesman for SJP Properties said in a statement that the development firm "followed the law completely and continues to make construction progress," on 200 Amsterdam Avenue.

"We respectfully disagree with some of the judge’s ruling, which calls into question the validity of the Certificate of Occupancy of several completed and fully occupied residential buildings. 200 Amsterdam’s zoning permits were exhaustively reviewed by both the Department of Buildings and the BSA, the two city agencies with the primary responsibility for interpreting NYC’s zoning codes. Following thorough analysis and public testimony, both agencies determined that the building fully conforms with the city’s zoning laws," the statement reads.

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. Neighborhood groups and politicians are also fighting that development, and a proposed city rule would limit its height.