Sutton Place Rezoning Passes City Council Committee

SUTTON PLACE, NY — A resident application to restrict over-development in Sutton Place was approved by City Council committees less than one week after picking up an endorsement from a key city commission.

The City Council committees on zoning and land use voted overwhelmingly to approve a rezoning application by the East River Fifties Alliance that would institute tower-on-a-base zoning rules for the Sutton Place neighborhood. The council also opted to remove a grandfathering provision added to the plan by the City Planning Commission, putting currently proposed developments in the neighborhood at risk.

The ERFA first submitted its original plan in 2016 and an updated version of the plan — which addressed many of the city's policy concerns — was certified for a CPC vote in October of this year.

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.

ERFA president Alan Kersh praised the City Council committees for approving the application and removing the grandfathering provision.

"Today’s action is a milestone in our citizen-led initiative to ensure that future development in our neighborhood is consistent with community character, and that our residential streets receive the same protections against out-of-scale development as other residential areas," Kersh said in a statement.

Opponents to the ERFA's zoning plan say it creates a dangerous precedent for spot-zoning in the city. Gamma Real Estate's Jonathan Kalikow has been one of the most outspoken critics of the plan. Gamma Real Estate, which is planning to develop a 700-foot-tall residential tower on a three-building site on East 58th Street. The site's previous owner, Joseph Beninati's Bauhouse Group, planned an even larger development for the site, which helped inspire the rezoning fight.

Kalikow has vowed to challenge the plan in the city's Board of Standards and Appeals.

“Led by Council Member Ben Kallos, today the Council Land Use Committee voted to put more than a hundred workers at our Sutton 58 project out of work, right before the holidays," Kalikow said in a statement.

"In the end, we are confident that the Board of Standards and Appeals will see that we have nearly completed our foundation, vest us under the current zoning, and therefore allow us to move forward. This illegal spot zoning will not stop our building from being built. The only impact of this charade is to cause Gamma financial harm from the delay and put innocent workers out on the street."

The full City Council will vote on the rezoning proposal during its Nov. 30 meeting.

Photo courtesy East River Fifties Alliance