UWS High-Rise Clears Hurdle, Opponents Vow To Keep Fighting

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — A planned high-rise apartment tower on the Upper West Side cleared another hurdle Tuesday after receiving the approval of the city Board of Standards and Appeals for the second time in two years.

The board voted Tuesday to uphold its 2018 ruling in favor of the developers of 200 Amsterdam Ave., a planned 668-foot tower that was once destined to be the Upper West Side's tallest building. State Supreme Court Justice W. Franc Perry had vacated the 2018 in March in relation to a lawsuit filed by preservation groups fighting to block the tower's construction.

Members of the opposition groups packed the Board of Standards and Appeals meeting Tuesday, but were left disappointed by the result, but vowed to continue their fight.

"They're taking zoning lots that have never been heard of before and calling them legal," Olive Freud of the Committee for Environmentally Sound Development said Tuesday. "And we're going to keep fighting it — we have been for two years, and we're going to continue fighting it."

Richard Emery, the lawyer representing groups challenging the tower, said Tuesday that the BSA's decision seems to contradict Justice Perry's interpretation of New York City's zoning laws from the judge's March ruling.

Perry's ruling seemed to indicate that any combined zoning lots (lots made up of more than one tax lot) cannot include partial tax lots. The Board of Standards and Appeals' rulings seem to be based off 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.

"We believe that was the inference and clear message of that opinion. We'll see what he says when it's presented squarely to him now," Emery said.

Opponents of 200 Amsterdam Avenue have long argued that its "gerrymandered" zoning lot — which stretches far beyond the building site — violates the city's zoning codes. 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.

"The zoning for 200 Amsterdam has been consistently interpreted for more than 40 years. Three completed buildings on the same block have the exact same zoning. While we’re pleased with today’s BSA decision, it’s unconscionable that opposition has continued for this long. NIMBY’s, backed by special interest groups, continue to drain the resources of the DOB and BSA, as well as New York taxpayers," SJP Properties said Tuesday 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.