UES Neighbors Renew Fight Against Hospital Expansion

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — An Upper East Side group opposing the construction of a new tower at Lenox Hill Hospital filed an amended lawsuit Thursday after relaunching its fundraising efforts for its continued legal fight.

The group, led by a nonprofit called The Committee to Protect Our Lenox Hill Neighborhood, first filed a lawsuit in December that argues city officials unlawfully approved the $2 billion project, and named both the City and Northwell Health as defendants.

On Thursday, the group filed an amended petition and complaint to its lawsuit, which argues the redevelopment — which has a construction timeline of eight years and a rise of 370 feet over Lexington Avenue — would disrupt the surrounding neighborhood.

The amended petition includes a few affidavits and other documents that were not initially included in the first version of the lawsuit.

However, the primary argument in the lawsuit remains the same. In the petition, the plaintiffs accuse the city of "illegal spot-zoning," which is when a city gives a single property special zoning rules that don’t match the surrounding neighborhood’s zoning.

In the petition, the plaintiffs write that "the proposed project would have devastating consequences to community character, urban planning and design, and public safety," adding that Northwell’s project "would afford no corresponding public benefit whatsoever to the community."

The plan to build out Lenox Hill Hospital was approved in August, when the City Council unanimously voted to rezone a portion of East 77th Street to make way for the expansion, after a heated public review period that lasted most of the spring and summer.

With the new plan, the hospital will transform all patient rooms into single-bed rooms, update operating rooms, and add a new center specifically for labor and delivery patients, hospital officials said.

The latest plan also creates an ambulance bay within the building's footprint to reduce traffic on the street, and includes a community benefits package that would pour $25 million into the 77th Street 6 train subway station as well as $2.5 million for neighborhood beautification and tree maintenance.

Northwell previously told Patch that it can't discuss active litigation, but that the project "underwent an exhaustive, years-long public review process" and that the plan is "a responsible and necessary investment to modernize a 160-year-old hospital campus to ensure it can continue to provide quality care for New Yorkers for generations to come."

Some neighbors disagree.

"We understand that there is a legal process to be followed but Northwell's response to our complaints, even before the lawsuit was first filed in December, has been deafening," Stephanie Reckler, the executive committee member at the Committee to Protect Our Lenox Hill Neighborhood, told Patch. She relaunched the group's fundraiser on GoFundMe on March 10.

According to Reckler, the group is looking to fundraise $100,000, at which point an anonymous supporter will kick in an extra $50,000. She told Patch that the organization is already two-thirds of the way there.

Following the resubmitted lawsuit, the hospital is expected to respond to the updated filing in May, with a potential judicial decision or oral arguments anticipated in June, Zack Fink, the director of external affairs at Davidoff Hutcher and Citron, which is representing the group, told Patch.

"Bring it on, Northwell," Reckler said.

For questions, email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.