Tag Archives: Hudson Square rezoning

Yet Again Another Construction Site in Our Neighborhood: 233 Spring aka 20-24 Vandam

If you heard a lot of construction noise this morning as we did, it was coming from yet another construction site in our neighborhood: 233-245 Spring Street, aka 20-24 Vandam, where an enormous crane (the full length of the block) was being installed. According to the Department of Buildings’ website, the crane is 409 feet long (35-40 stories tall). Their current crane permit runs through June 11, 2015, so this yellow tower and will be a fixture on Vandam for at least a year.

409 foot long crane installed on Vandam Street (June 22, 2014)

409 foot long crane installed on Vandam Street
(June 22, 2014)

This site is owned by Laurence Gluck’s Stellar Management, which plans to merge the 233 Spring Street building, home to the Aveda Institute, with 161 Sixth Avenue, and with two small neighboring parcels that a 24-foot by 100-foot vacant lot with 25,000 square feet of development rights. The new building is slated to be 18-stories tall.

Our neighbors on Vandam and Charlton Streets, and at 188-192 Sixth Avenue, will be most severely impacted by this site, but the noise radiates over to Sullivan Street and to 160 Sixth as well.

What you can do: If you have complaints to make about noise, after hours variances or unsafe working working conditions at this site, here’s some helpful information:

  • The page on the Department of Buildings website with information about permits for his site is here.
  • The link to check if they have after hours variance permits is here.
  • The location to note in 311 complaints is 233-245 Spring  Street or 20-24 Vandam Street.

If you do make complaints to 311 or Community Board 2, be sure to record them on the SVN noise complaint registry so we can have a record should we need to follow-up with the Department of Buildings or the Department of Environmental Protection.

We owe this latest addition to the on-going disruption of our once quiet neighborhood to former Mayor Bloomberg and his yes-to-all-luxury-development City Council, who approved the Hudson Square rezoning last year without provide Historic District protections for our neighborhood. The Hudson Square rezoning allows residential buildings up to 290 feet on wide streets, and between 185 and 230 feet on side streets, depending upon the site, and on whether or not affordable housing is included.

The South Village Historic District

The fight to have the triangle below Houston—bordered by West Broadway, Sixth Avenue, and Canal Street—included in the South Village Historic District continues. According to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, the current Landmarks Preservation Commission Chair has refused to consider the third and final phase of GVSHP’s proposed South Village Historic District in spite of a promise to do so in 2008. And while the GVSHP’s proposal to rezone the South Village to put in place height limits and eliminate the zoning bonus for construction of dorms and other university facilities has enjoyed strong support from Community Board #2, the City has thus not moved ahead.

What you can do: Write to Mayor de Blasio and urge him to support expanded landmarks protections and rezoning of the entire South Village right away. Here’s a sample letter from our friends at GVSHP. Tell the Mayor what out-of-scale development is doing to your neighborhood.

18-Story Tower Proposed for 120-140 Sixth Avenue aka 72-80 Sullivan Street (Important Public Hearing)

140 Sixth BW

Proposed tower (light grey). As of right tower (darker grey).

An 18-story tower, retail space, and a parking garage have been proposed for the quiet Sullivan Street block between Broome and Spring. An application for a zoning variance has been filed for this location. The developer has long planned to build a hotel tower on this site, which the zoning for the site allows. He is now seeking a zoning variance to allow the development to be residential, which the zoning for this site currently does not allow. You can read more about the application by downloading the variance documents HERE.

An 18-story tower at this site is not appropriate, whatever the use. The tower will cast additional shadows on Vesuvio Playground and SoHo Square. The site is located within the South Village Historic District that has been proposed since 2006 (and which the City has still not agreed to move on).  And nearly all the sites in the surrounding neighborhood which are zoned for residential development only allow new development at a much more limited scale – about 31% smaller than the proposed development.

140 Sixth Ave Shadow StudyTherefore we believe that if this development is to be allowed a variance for residential development – which will be much more profitable for the developer – that it should:

  • be at the size and density which is allowed for residential development in the surrounding area
  • keep any tower developed on the south portion of the lot, where the tower will be somewhat less intrusive (as is proposed, but not required, in the variance plan)
  • allocate 20% of the units as affordable middle-income housing, and,
  • include a public-use space (either a meeting space in the retail facility, or a public outdoor space).

WHAT YOU CAN DO

ATTEND the Community Board #2 Land Use Committee public hearing on the variance on Wednesday, June 12 at the Little Red Schoolhouse Auditorium, 272 Sixth Avenue (Bleecker Street) and urge the Community Board to only approve a variance for residential use if the size of the development is consistent with what the residential zoning for the surrounding neighborhood allows and if the developer provides appropriate contributions to the life of the neighborhood in the form of affordable housing and/or community space. The meeting begins at 6:30 pm, and this is the 3rd and final item on the agenda.

WRITE to the Community Board at info@cb2manhattan.org to share your concerns and comments (please copy south.village.neighbors@gmail.com).

PRINT AND POST this flyer in your building to keep your offline neighbors informed.

South Village Neighbors Testify at City Council Hearing on Hudson Square Rezoning

South Village neighbors David Chester and Harry Pincus testified on Tuesday, February 11th at the City Council public hearing on Hudson Square rezoning plan. Chester underscored the need for affordable housing in our neighborhood, while Pincus noted that European cities have figured out how to preserve their civic treasures, why not get it right in New York’s South Village?

David Chester from South Village Neighbors on Vimeo.

Harry Pincus from South Village Neighbors on Vimeo.

You can watch the full hearing here (all 3 hours and 15 minutes of it, so not for the faint of heart). Or use the slider bar to move forward to hour 2:12 to hear David and his panel, and to hour 2:35 to hear Harry’s testimony. Also check out Sarah Malloy-Good’s testimony (at hour 2:29) on behalf of Assemby Member Deborah J. Glick, strongly advocating for public spaces and real city planning during the rezoning process.