City To Vote On Updated Sutton Place Rezoning Plan

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A group of Sutton Place residents trying to prevent supertall developments from taking over their neighborhood has adapted its rezoning application to address the concerns of city officials, the group's president told Patch.

The City Planning Commission — which will hold a public hearing to discuss the rezoning application on Oct. 18 — certified the East River Fifties Alliance updated plan this week, a spokesperson for the alliance told Patch. The ERFA's original plan sought to cap all new developments in Sutton Place at a height of 260 feet, but the new place seeks to simply contain the densest development to heights below 150 feet.

The plan draws inspiration from the city's "tower-on-a base" development rules, which generally apply to new developments on wide streets and avenues. The ERFA rezoning would require that all new developments from East 51st to 59th streets east of First Avenue would be required to allocate 45 percent of the total floor area permitted below a height of 150 feet, an alliance spokesperson told Patch. Buildings could still rise above 150 feet, but nearly half of the total density would be at heights that wouldn't be uncharacteristic of the existing neighborhood, according to the plan.

Developers would be able to receive additional buildable space by complying with a bonus structure currently in place under the 1987 Inclusionary Housing program for R10 zoned districts.

The ERFA told Patch that the new plan eliminates possible criticisms that the rezoning is anti-development.

"The re-zoning is pro development. It is not a downzoning. Density will remain at 10 FAR with the opportunity to expand that to 12 FAR with the creation of affordable housing," an alliance spokesperson said in an email. "Utilizing [tower-on-a base] rules will prevent out-of-scale development that could be built under the current R10 zoning."

Due to outdated R10 zoning regulations, in place since the 1960s, there is no current height limit for developments in Sutton Place. The zoning was normal at the time, but now serves as a loophole that threatens the fabric of the quaint neighborhood.

"ERFA’s justification – and mission -- continues to be to right the wrong of an aberration in the ‘61 zoning law which allowed unlimited building heights on the side streets of our community. The new zoning plan will block the development of mega-towers in the East River Fifties," an ERFA spokesperson told Patch in an email.

The threat became all too real for the neighborhood when developer Joseph Beninati's Bauhouse Group scooped up a three-building site on East 58th Street and planned to build a 950-foot residential tower, more than double the height of the tallest existing building int he neighborhood.

Beninati no longer owns the property, but it's still the site of a planned development. Development firm Gamma Real Estate is planning to build a tower called Sutton 58 on the site, and has painted the ERFA's rezoning application as a targeted crusade against the development.

"We are disappointed by the New York City Planning Commission’s decision to certify and consider a revised application from the East River Fifties Alliance, as this new application demonstrates – even more clearly than the last – that this is not, and never has been, about thoughtful community planning," Jon Kalikow of Gamma Real Estate told Patch.

The City Planning Commission could vote on the application as soon as its Nov. 1 meeting. The plan previously received endorsements from Community Board 6 and many local elected officials including Borough President Gale Brewer.

Photo courtesy East River Fifties Association