Community First Development Coalition

Community First Development Coalition, the group that has organized to fight the tower planned for Independence Plaza at Greenwich and Jay, presented the broad outlines of a plan last night, and showed some renderings that give more shape to the development.

You can see a full outline here on the plan, but in short, the owners of Independence Plaza, Vornado Realty Trust and Stellar Management, have floated the idea with the city to build a 940-foot tower on what is an underdeveloped site on their property — a tower that was never built. The plans would demolish the existing townhouses and retail at that location (shown in red in the drawing below), and replace them with new commercial buildings along the street wall as well as the residential tower (show in yellow).

Community First Development Coalition

Community First Development Coalition

The group’s primary concern is to fight the tower, but their more long-term issue is to rezone the area of Tribeca that allows for towers of any height — shown below in purple on the zoning map. That area is zoned as C6-4, which the city describes as areas “typically mapped within the city’s major business districts,” and with a floor area ratio among the highest in the city: 10.0 or 15.0. There are no height limits in these zones.

“This is not just about one tower,” said Richard Corman, a member of the organization’s board. “It’s the beginning of a change for the whole neighborhood. This is a precedent.”

The three options they are exploring now to fight the tower are litigation, policy changes and and expansion of the historic district — which in this case would just protect the row of Federal houses on Harrison. (Those are individual landmarks already, but they are outside the Tribeca West Historic District.)

And the sites they have identified for future huge development are:

• New York State Insurance Fund site on Church and Duane (I always thought this building should be landmarked! It is my favorite.)
• 40 Worth Street (the commercial building with Arcade Bakery, which is, as far as I know, not for sale)
• PS 234 site (they gave an example of a school on 57th Street that was built into a tower)
• BMCC site from Chambers to Harrison (there have been discussions in the past — in 2011 or so — of Related buying this site and moving the college to Midtown)

Community First Development Coalition

Board member Eric Anderson, who is working on the zoning issues, said the group is exploring more long-term zoning changes that would incorporate height limits, even if the area is rezoned for increased density. The idea, he said, is to avoid a Billionaires Row that Central Park South now has.

Councilman Chris Marte said the city has not heard from the applicant — Vornado and Stellar — since spring, when they first presented these plans. In the meantime, his office is trying to determine if indeed they can develop the site as of right, or if they have to go through the city’s land use process, which requires a vote from the City Council.

“We understand the need for housing and development, but the character of the neighborhood matters,” said Richard Corman. “We will be dealing with one tower after another and then it will be too late.”