Group Asks DOB to Block 30-Story Greenwich Village Tower
Legion Investment Group wants to build a 30-story condo building at 5 W. 13th St. The advocacy group Village Preservation has called the project “dramatically out-of-scale”—and out of compliance with zoning regulations.
The advocacy group Village Preservation has asked NYC’s Department of Buildings to reject a developer’s proposed 30-story condo tower for West 13th St, deeming the project out-of-scale with its surroundings and in violation of current building guidelines.
If built, it would be the tallest building in the neighborhood by far.
Village Preservation’s executive director, Andrew Berman, has written a letter to DOB Commissioner James “Jimmy” Oddo, imploring him to reject the project’s zoning approval.
“This proposed 538-foot-tall, 36-unit luxury condo development is appallingly out of scale for this site and this neighborhood. On the basis of these objections, I urge you to reject the requested zoning approvals,” Berman wrote.
”The developer claims these plans conform to Mayor Adams’s new “City of Yes” zoning regulations, which if true, would legally require the City to approve the plan and issue permits,” a press release by Village Preservation adds. They then make it clear that they do not, in fact, believe that the plans “conform” to the new regulations.
The project is being spearheaded by Legion Investment Group and EJS Group. They bought the building, which is now occupied by vacant office units, for $57 million last year. According to the pro-development blog New York YIMBY, the building would come with amenities such as a “gym, swimming pool, golf simulator, pet-grooming room, library and lounge, seven enclosed parking spaces, and bicycle storage.”
Berman’s letter is essentially structured as the endorsement of a previous letter sent to Oddo by George Janes, a zoning specialist, which he attached to his own letter.
Janes makes a few elaborate objections to the zoning plans as is, the first being that “the building does not comply with ZR-35 61.” In other words, Janes and Berman believe that the proposed tower violates “street wall base minimum height” requirements. In layman’s English, they’re essentially arguing that the proposal’s facade is not aligned with the character of the buildings next to it, which is important for “contextual zoning” regulations intended to create a consistent visual experience for locals.
Secondly, and much more bluntly, Janes and Berman argue that the proposal “has too much [residential] floor area.” They argue that some of said floor area has not been properly accounted for, which would put it out of compliance with zoning laws.
Finally, they argue that the developer’s zoning application has a “deficient” zoning drawing (known as a “ZD1”). This is basically a visual illustration of the proposed tower, complete with a summary the ways in which it is zoning-compliant. It’s a labeled proof-of-concept, more or less.
“The ZD1 is not complete and does not follow the required instructions for such a drawing, containing errors and omissions which should have prompted a rejection by the Department,” Berman wrote in his letter to the DOB.
Janes is more scathing, writing that “this applicant ignored the [ZD1] guide and submitted a document that clearly does not meet the Department’s minimum requirements.” He includes some back-of-the-napkin math that provides very different floor area figures than those provided by the developer, writing that there “are substantial differences of hundreds of square feet per floor [emphasis his].”
On this basis alone, Janes adds, the DOB should reject the developer’s zoning application.