Condo suit doesn’t slow C.P.W. bike lane
BY ALEJANDRA
O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
An Upper West Sider condo
board hasn’t put the brakes on
the Central Park West protected
bike lane yet.
On Wed., July 31, Streetsblog reported,
Manhattan Supreme Court judge
Lynn Kotler denied a motion fi led by the
board of Century Condominium, at 25
Central Park West and E. 63rd St., on
July 30, that argued that the city did not
do its due diligence when studying the
bike lane’s impact and the resulting loss
of parking spaces.
But the battle isn’t over. The Department
of Transportation and the plaintiffs
will return to court on Aug. 20,
according to Curbed.
The Upper West Side’s Community
Board 7 approved the northbound protected
bike lane — which will run northbound
from W. 59th St. to W. 110th St.
— during a contentious July 2 meeting.
Opponents of the bike lane were mostly
residents upset by the fact that D.O.T.
will need to remove 400 parking spaces
from the eastern side of the avenue to
accommodate the 6-foot-wide lane,
plus a 7-foot-wide buffer zone.
The push for a protected Central Park
West bike lane started in 2018 after the
death of Madison Lyden, a 23-year-old
Australian tourist who was forced to
swerve her bike out of the existing unprotected
bike lane and into oncoming
traffi c and was hit by a garbage truck.
In the wake of Lyden’s death, Upper
West Siders, bicycle safety activists,
C.B. 7 and local politicians, including
Assemblymember Richard Gottfried
and Councilmember Helen Rosenthal,
called on D.O.T. to create a two-way
protected bike lane. In the end, D.O.T.
decided a two-way lane would be problematic
in its impacts on turning car
traffi c, and settled on a one-way protected
bike lane as the best way to accommodate
Void venting: Extell skyscraper slammed at B.S.A.
BY ALEJANDRA
O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
During a Board of Standards and
Appeals public hearing, opponents
of the Extell skyscraper
at 50 W. 66th St. challenged the building’s
merits.
Opponents included residents, advocates,
Community Board 7 members
and local politicians, including Manhattan
Borough President Gale Brewer and
City Councilmember Helen Rosenthal,
who both spoke out against the project.
A representative for Assemblymember
Linda Rosenthal read aloud a statement
against the building.
Upper West Side nonprofi t Landmark
At a June C.B. 7 Transportation Committee meeting, Reed Rubey, a member of Streetopia, held a photo of
Madison Jane Lyden, 23, who was killed by a garbage truck last year while cycling on Central Park West.
Lyden’s death spurred the push for a protected C.P.W. bike lane.
cyclists, drivers and buses.
“We are grateful for the judge’s decision
today that will allow us to move
forward with a design that will transform
Central Park West this summer,
and make our streets safer for everyone,”
Polly Trottenberg, the Department
of Transportation commissioner,
said in a statement. “With so many lives
being lost this year on our roadways,
and with the broad support of the community,
we are confi dent that we will
West! and The City Club of New
York are both fi ling appeals with the
B.S.A., arguing that it was inappropriate
to grant permits for the building
and that the project does not comply
with zoning regulations.
“This is the creep of Billionaires’
Row,” said Sean Korhsandi, executive
director of Landmark West!, who
added that the nonprofi t is not inherently
against development. “We are not
against density, we live in it. But this is
actually a building that is anti-density.”
According to Korhsandi, the building
will have only 127 units.
There are two major issues that opponents
cite. The fi rst is the developers’
use of mechanical voids to increase the
building’s height.
ultimately prevail in our efforts to build
this much-needed protected bike lane.”
Local politicians, cycling activists
and some residents are eager for work
to begin on the bike lane, in light of the
alarming spike in cyclist deaths that
have occurred in the city this year. So
far, through seven and a half months
this year, 18 people have died in cyclingrelated
accidents, nearly twice as many
as all of last year.
Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a state
Voids are meant to be spaces in
buildings used to house mechanical
equipment. But luxury developers recently
have been increasing the height
of these spaces, so that residential
units above them can be at even higher
elevations, fetching higher prices, as a
result. Opponents of the Extell project
questioned how much of the mechanical
space would actually be used to
house machinery.
The second issue is developers taking
advantage of the fact that the building
straddles two zoning lots, one facing
W. 66th St., where towers are permitted,
and the second facing W. 65th St.,
where they are not. Opponents argue
that the cobbling together of the zoning
lots violates “bulk packing” rules.
PHOTO BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
of emergency for bicycle safety in the
city and subsequently announced the
$58.4 million “Green Wave” plan to
enhance bike safety. The plan calls for
adding 30 miles of protected bike lanes
every year, with the goal of reaching 80
miles by the end of 2021. In addition,
80 new staff members will be hired
by the city to implement the plan and
the Police Department will ramp up
enforcement at 100 of the city’s most
accident-prone intersections.
In January, the Department of Buildings
threatened to revoke the project’s
permit because of concerns that the
building posed fi re-safety hazards.
After a review conducted by the Fire
Department, Extell submitted a revised
design that D.O.B. signed off on
in April. The previous plan called for a
160-foot-void, plus two additional 16-
foot mechanical fl oors. In the revised
plan the mechanical void is 176 feet in
height, but is broken into two-64-foot
mechanical spaces, plus a 48-foot void,
according to Gothamist.
At the end of the hearing, B.S.A.
Chairperson Margery Perlmutter said
that the B.S.A. could possibly decide
on the appeal as early as Sept. 10.
Schneps Media MEX August 8 - August 21, 2019 3