Battle Over Controversial Upper West Side Synagogue Development Goes Back Before Board

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — The city Board of Standards and Appeals is once again serving as a battleground for an Upper West Side congregation and neighborhood preservationists.

Congregation Shearith Israel received approval from the board to construct a nine story, mixed-use development adjacent to its synagogue in 2008. Fast forward eight years — the site is still a hole and the congregation is back in front of the board seeking approval for an amended plan so they can continue construction.

The congregation and preservation group Landmarks West traded barbs in front of the board during a public hearing Friday. Preservationists argued that the congregation should have to seek re-approval by the Department of Buildings (DOB), and the congregation argued that their plan was a necessity to carry out its programs such as Hebrew school and bar and bat mitzvah services.

David Rosenberg, a lawyer for Landmark West, argued that the congregation's current plan violates the 2008 resolution passed by the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA). Rosenberg cited that plans presented by the congregation to the DOB in 2013 were rejected and the project stalled on the basis that they did not comply with the 2008 ruling.

Those plans called for a building that would contain facilities such as a banquet hall and Hebrew school classrooms. But the building would also include floors of luxury condominiums, which will bring in a lot of revenue for the congregation.

"There was no way in the world that anyone in the world could interpret them as complying," Rosenberg said.

Because the current plans do not comply with the 2008 BSA ruling, Rosenberg argued that the congregation's current proposal is not an alteration to plans, but an entirely new plan.

"There's no reason why this application should skip all the steps that everybody else has to comply with and come here and say, 'Oh it's just a minor tweaking,'" Rosenberg said. "It's not fair to other people who play by the rules, go before the Department of Buildings, get a determination and come here for a resolution."

In order to get special zoning rules, the congregation told the BSA in 2008 that it needed to construct a building with 15 classrooms for educational programming such as its Hebrew school. But in plans filed to the DOB the floor plans listed only three classrooms and several rooms identified as offices.

Alan Sugarman, a lawyer representing a resident of West 70th Street called the move a blatant "bait and switch," where the congregation exaggerated its programmatic needs for lax zoning restrictions. Sugarman argued that when Jewish day school Beit Rabban relocated from Congregation Shearith Israel to a new space, the planned classrooms were removed from the plan.

But Congregation Shearith Israel representatives stated their programmatic needs are the same now as they were in 2008, even with the relocation of Beit Rabban.

Rabbi Meir Y. Soloveichik said that without the new development the congregation's synagogue is not handicap accessible and that families that have bar and bat mitzvah services at the synagogue are forced to find another venue for the post-service celebration. The congregation's executive director, Barbara Reiss, said that the congregation is also reaching out to other Jewish day schools to fill the space once occupied by Beir Rabban.

The BSA did not make a ruling on the congregation's application during the public hearing Friday, but the board's chair seem to give credence to the arguments of the preservation groups.

"You know you have serious opposition," BSA Chair Margery Perlmutter told the congregation toward the end of the hearing.

Members of Community Board 7 — which represents the Upper West Side — will discuss the Shearith Israel development Wednesday, Oct. 19 during a land use committee meeting. In September the full board voted against Shearith Israel due to a lack of information provided by the congregation.

Community Board 7 can only advise the BSA, which has not yet indicated when they will take a final vote on approval.

Photo: Google Maps street view circa May 2016