NEW YORK | 247 Cherry Street | 1,013 FT | 77 FLOORS

[Zapatan]

Originally Posted by chris08876

The Manhattan supreme court is rejecting the developers request to dismiss this rubbish lawsuit. Amazing how things work around here. BS lawsuit, bs reason, and for what... 1 vacant one story structure.

I think this ultimately, along with all of the LES towers will proceed, but with delays.

Right, it's a pain but that doesn't mean they (the plaintiffs) will win the lawsuit.

[chris08876]

Yeah I doubt this will hamper JDS. Just delay the project.

The community fears gentrification, even though there is a big affordable component. I think the whole area needs to be rezoned. The units quantity is nice, but still low. NYC is entering the era where towers need to have 1000-2000 units each. We are talking very high density. It could be done. The % of "X" affordable units will rise if the overall unit count is higher, given ratio of affordable to market rate.

If we want to see more affordable units, the parameters need to be there. Height isn't one of them, but unit size/parcel density/FAR all need to be increased. Citywide. Ideally, a place like Manhattan wouldn't need a parking, as its not common in new res towers (if it is, its a perk).

2100 market rate units between the 4 towers is woefully low.

[chris08876]

Locals denounce Two Bridges towers at City Planning hearing:
Dozens of residents spoke in opposition to an environmental review which they said ignored critical impacts on the community

A trio of skyscrapers slated to rise in the Two Bridges section of the Lower East Side were roundly denounced at a public hearing held at the City Planning Commission on Wednesday. The meeting concerned the discussion of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the three projects, which the Planning Commission had agreed to delay from earlier in the summer over concerns that local residents did not have enough time to study it.

The developments have already received criticism from local elected officials and Lower East Side residents on the grounds that the buildings aren’t going through a typical public review process. The developers don’t need a rezoning for the proposed sites, and as a result aren’t required to go through the city’s months-long public review process known as the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure. City Council member Margaret Chin and Manhattan Borough President have been trying to push forward a bill that would ensure a more thorough public review, but their efforts haven’t gained much traction within the City Planning Commission so far. They tried to make their case again on Wednesday.

“I’m here today as part of a fight to save a neighborhood,” said Chin, kicking off the public testimony portion of the meeting on Wednesday. “Two Bridges has been a low-to-mid-rise haven for New Yorkers of all backgrounds for decades. If approved, these applications would destroy the neighborhood and it would do so without any real public review.”

“The idea that these immensely tall towers are ‘minor modifications’ is appalling,” added Brewer, later in the meeting. “These developments will have a negative impact and drastically and permanently alter the neighborhood.”

At 260 South Street, which is currently being used as a parking lot, Two Bridges Associates have planned a two-tower development designed by Handel Architects that will bring up to 1,350 apartments to the neighborhood, of which 338 units will be permanently affordable. Both of the towers would be over 700 feet tall. At 259 Clinton Street, Starrett Development wants to build a rental with 765 apartments, of which 191 will be permanently affordable. Perkins Eastman will design the building. And finally at 247 Cherry Street, JDS has retained SHoP Architects to design a supertall that will have up to 660 apartments, of which 165 will be permanently affordable.

The trio of developers have also committed to making several infrastructural improvements to the neighborhood including installing an elevator at the East Broadway F train station, and widening the platforms; create more green open space; and increase flood resiliency, among others.

“The three proposed projects will deliver approximately 700 much-needed units of permanently affordable housing, representing one of the largest infusions of affordable housing in Manhattan in decades and a critical addition amid the ongoing housing crisis,” part of a statement released by the developers read. “At the same time, the proposed developments include investments that will provide genuine and lasting benefits for current residents of the neighborhood.”

But Lower East Siders were having none of it. For nearly seven hours on Wednesday, dozens of residents and members of local community advocacy groups spoke passionately against the skyscrapers and criticized the environmental impact statement saying it ignored several critical features like the lack of public schools in the area; the lack of transit infrastructure beyond the subway and buses; and the long-term effect on rent-regulated apartments in the neighborhood.

===================
CurbedNY

[The North One]

I don't know how you can live in New York and protest skyscrapers, go move to Boston if you don't like supertalls.

[BonoboZill4]

NIMBYs in cities like NYC and Chicago don't make sense, yet both have soooooo many. Those two cities are the reason skyscrapers are the way they are today, and yet they spit on its history. So sad and regressive

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by BonoboZill4

NIMBYs in cities like NYC and Chicago don't make sense, yet both have soooooo many. Those two cities are the reason skyscrapers are the way they are today, and yet they spit on its history. So sad and regressive

It's mind boggling. Of all the places to be if you dont like skyscrapers.

“The idea that these immensely tall towers are ‘minor modifications’ is appalling,” added Brewer, later in the meeting. “These developments will have a negative impact and drastically and permanently alter the neighborhood.”

Really Brewer? What are the negative impacts? You know, the new buildings in the Hudson Yards will drastically and permanently alter the west side of Manhattan. I know more people live in this area, but your argument against something can't simply be "my neighborhood is shitty, and I want it to stay that way."

[NYguy]

https://www.6sqft.com/developers-of-...-improvements/

Developers of controversial Two Bridges towers pitch $55M in transit and open space improvements





OCTOBER 18, 2018
BY DEVIN GANNON

During a City Planning Commission hearing on Wednesday, local residents and officials of the Two Bridges community voiced their strong opposition to four towers planned for the Lower Manhattan neighborhood. Those who testified against the buildings questioned the developer’s draft environmental impact study (DEIS), which found the projects would not cause displacement, amNY reported. Developers also announced measures to mitigate the potential adverse effects on the neighborhood, which include upgrading the F train station at East Broadway, improving public parks, and implementing flood protection measures.

In a joint statement, the three developers said their projects will deliver about 700 much-needed units of permanently affordable housing and called it “a critical addition amid the ongoing housing crisis.”

“At the same time, the proposed developments include investments that will provide genuine and lasting benefits for current residents in the neighborhood,” they wrote. Investments proposed by the developers include $40 million in upgrades to make the East Broadway station ADA-accessible and roughly $15 million in upgrades to three local public parks, neighborhood-format retail, and “various other improvements.”

City Council Member Margaret Chin and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer introduced a text amendment last year that would force the projects to go through the city’s land use review process. Because the Department of City Planning said the buildings would create only a “minor modification” to the neighborhood, under a broad zoning plan that had expired a decade prior, the development currently is not required to go through the uniform land use review procedure (ULURP).

"Through the dozens of personal testimonies we heard today from advocates and residents, there is no question that the impact of these enormous towers will be unprecedently destructive–and will go far beyond the City-block sized area they plan to build on,” Chin said in a statement following the hearing.

“To greenlight these proposals without a thorough community engagement process through ULURP would create a troubling precedent for vulnerable communities that are under siege by out-of-scale development.”

The CPC will accept public comments until Oct. 29 and then a final environmental impact study will be reviewed before a vote can be scheduled. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development must approve JDS Development’s plan because it involves relocating 19 residents in a senior housing project overseen by the federal government during construction.

[mrnyc]

see? the chinese can still do tai chi. so whats the problem?

[Zapatan]

That rendering is awesome, keeping my fingers crossed this thing goes through.

Originally Posted by mrnyc

see? the chinese can still do tai chi. so whats the problem?

Haha yea, it's all good now. Lawsuit's off guys

[chris08876]

Originally Posted by Zapatan

That rendering is awesome, keeping my fingers crossed this thing goes through.

I think all the LES towers will rise. I'm excited about the impact on the skyline too. If you've ever seen the view from mid Harbor, looking Northwest or towards the East River, its really going to be altering in a sense. Just seeing what One Manhattan Square has done, and knowing 4 more similar towers are rising upwind.

[NYguy]

http://thevillager.com/2018/10/25/tw...residents-cry/

Two Bridges towers’ impacts would be too much, residents cry









October 25, 2018

In a pivotal moment for the Two Bridges neighborhood, more than 100 people signed up to testify about four mammoth proposed high-rise towers at a City Planning hearing on Wed., Oct. 17.

Most slammed the projects as poorly planned, saying the towers would ramp up gentrification in the transit-deprived angle between the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. Downtown politicians have called for a lengthier public review that would give the City Council a vote on the megaproject.

“There’s a right way to do development and a wrong way, and we firmly believe this is the wrong way,” MyPhuong Chung, chairperson of Community Board 3’s Land Use Committee, said in her testimony.

Opponents derided how the towers would block light and air and decrease the per capita open-space ratio in the neighborhood. Others argued — contrary to the developers’ impact statement findings — that sewage overflow would occur if the towers’ 2,775 new units were added to the neighborhood.

The projects include an 80-story building at 247 Cherry St., by JDS Development Group; 62- and 69-story towers at 260 South St., by L+M Development Partners and the CIM Group; and a 63-story tower at 259 Clinton St., by Starrett Group.

The developers have touted the affordable units in the projects as a major community benefit, along with $55 million in transit and open-space improvements they would provide, plus added retail space and some resiliency floodproofing measures.

“The three proposed projects will deliver approximately 700 much-needed units of permanently affordable housing, representing one of the largest infusions of affordable housing in Manhattan in decades and a critical addition amid the ongoing housing crisis,” the developers said in a joint statement.

The nearly 700 affordable apartments would be available to households earning 40, 60 and 120 percent of the area median income, or A.M.I.

SHoP Architects’ Gregg Pasquarelli, whose firm is partnering with JDS Development on the project, referenced several waterfront developments as parallels to the Two Bridges project — including developments in Greenpoint and Williamsburg, 550 Washington St. in Hudson Square, Murray Hill’s American Copper Buildings and Hunter’s Point South in Long Island City.

“When all buildings are the same height, it greatly diminishes what is uniquely New York about New York,” he said. “We believe this will create a vibrant, beautiful, equitable and appropriate skyline.”

The audience scoffed at this idea, and even Anna Hayes Levin, a City Planning commissioner, said Two Bridges is entirely different from those sites.

“The thing that’s different, for the most part, those were industrial areas,” Levin said. “We’re in a different environment than the other ones that you used to argue the appropriateness of the scale here.”

To slow the project or at least gain leverage, Borough President Gale Brewer and Councilmember Margaret Chin have filed a text amendment with City Planning to force the plan through the lengthier review process — Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, or ULURP — which would give the Council a binding vote on it. They filed the amendment in January, but the commission has yet to review it.

“I really am horrified that City Planning is allowing a project of this magnitude to proceed without adequate public review,” Brewer said.

[Zapatan]

These people really need to find something better to do with their lives than to protest a skyscraper in what is arguable the skyscraper capital of the world.

[citybooster]

Is there anyone who can stop this YIMBY insanity regarding Lower East Manhattan?

[Sky88]

I think the best solution for JDS Development is to abandon that stupid neighborhood and to build a new 80 - 90 story tower elsewhere in NY.

[Zapatan]

Originally Posted by Sky88

I think the best solution for JDS Development is to abandon that stupid neighborhood and to build a new 80 - 90 story tower elsewhere in NY.

Yes, or build an 80-90 story tower here and stick it to 'em

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Sky88

I think the best solution for JDS Development is to abandon that stupid neighborhood and to build a new 80 - 90 story tower elsewhere in NY.

And then what of the NIMBYs elsewhere?

It's hardly that easy, even in a city of skyscrapers.

[chris08876]

They are really going to flip when 4 new towers rise in the years to come. But life will resume as normal. No disaster, nada, just another tower in a city with 6,413 highrises, and not included in that figure, 959 skyscrapers and counting!

Just another brick in the wall.

Now NIMBYS, stfu and if you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding!

[Sky88]

Originally Posted by NYguy

And then what of the NIMBYs elsewhere?

It's hardly that easy, even in a city of skyscrapers.

NIMBYs elsewhere...The politicians remove the power from the NIMBYs.

The Hudson Yards is a good place.

[10023]

The best neighborhoods in NYC, even Manhattan, dont have many skyscrapers.

[chris08876]

Originally Posted by 10023

The best neighborhoods in NYC, even Manhattan, dont have many skyscrapers.

I agree with this. NYC is NOTHING without its STREET ENERGY and Culture.

The high rises and skyscrapers are nice, but the energy and unique hustle/bustle are what make it great.