Opponents Of 200 Amsterdam File Latest Legal Challenge

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Preservation groups fighting to prevent the construction of a 668-foot tower on the Upper West Side filed another legal challenge against the development in the wake of a June Board of Standards and Appeals ruling that favored developers.

The new Article 78 lawsuit — filed jointly by the Municipal Art Society of New York and the Committee for Environmentally Sound Development — argues that the Board of Standards and Appeals failed to properly re-evaluate building permits for the planned apartment tower at 200 Amsterdam Ave. Preservationists claim that the board simply "doubled down" on its 2018 approval of the project, despite state Supreme Court Justice W. Franc Perry's ruling to vacate the board's previous decision.

"The BSA’s continued refusal to listen to reason has forced us to return to the State Supreme Court on an issue that should be a matter of common sense," Elizabeth Goldstein, President of the Municipal Art Society, said in a statement. "The 39-sided zoning lot at 200 Amsterdam Avenue is an affront to both the letter and the spirit of the Zoning Resolution."

Perry's ruling, issued in March, ordered the Board of Standards and Appeals to take another look at whether the proposal for 200 Amsterdam violates the city's zoning regulations. The board once again gave the development the green light during a June hearing.

Opponents of the development have long argued that its "gerrymandered" zoning lot — which stretches far beyond the building site — violates the city's zoning codes. The combined zoning lot (lots made up of more than one tax lot) includes a number of partial tax lots, which lies at the heart of the legal issue.

Attorney Richard Emry, who is representing opponents of the building, told Patch in June that he interpreted Justice Perry's March ruling to mean that combined zoning lots cannot include partial tax lots. The Board of Standards and Appeals seem to believe the opposite due to the fact that the city Department of Buildings has approved building permits for developments on 200 Amsterdam Ave's block that use combined zoning lots that do include partial tax lots, Emery said in June.

Local elected officials such as City Councilmember Helen Rosenthal, Borough President Gale Brewer and Sate Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal support the challenge against 200 Amsterdam.

As the legal challenge continues, so does construction at 200 Amsterdam Avenue's site. Developers SJP Properties and Japanese-based Mitsui Fudosan expect the building to top out this summer and have already built 40 stories. Two attempts at obtaining temporary restraining orders to stop construction at the site have failed.

Developers have framed legal challenges against the building as an effort by Upper West Side "NIMBYs" (Not in my Backyard) that don't want to see a tall building go up near their homes despite the fact that other buildings on the block follow similar interpretations of the city's zoning rules.

"As directed by the court, this past June the BSA re-examined and subsequently reconfirmed that 200 Amsterdam complies with all NYC zoning codes. It’s unconscionable that NIMBYs continue to spend extraordinary funds and drain city and state resources in order to fight this as-of-right development, while only serving narrow interests," a representative for SJP Properties said in a statement.

When 200 Amsterdam Ave. was first proposed by SJP Properties it was to become the tallest building on the Upper West Side. Extell Development's 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.