BETTER BARRIER: City preservationists approved developer Fortis Property Group’s proposal to build a fence
along Amity Street outside its in-the-works 5 River Park tower. Romines Architecture
COURIER L 22 IFE, JAN. 25–31, 2019 DT
BY JULIANNE CUBA
City preservationists green-lit
a developer’s proposal to build
a fence separating the swanky
tower it is building on part of
Cobble Hill’s old Long Island
College Hospital campus from
passersby on Amity Street.
The Landmarks Preservation
Commission’s Jan. 15 approval
of builder Fortis Property
Group’s request came
weeks after members of Community
Board 6 approved the
plan, which calls for planting
an evergreen hedge between
two fences — a six-foot railing
in back, and a three-foot barrier
in front — along part of
Amity Street between Clinton
and Henry streets.
The plant-and-pole barricade
will separate less than
50 feet of sidewalk from the
private swimming pool and
garden Fortis bigwigs plan
to build outside their 15-story
Henry Street tower dubbed 5
River Park, which is the fi rst
of seven buildings rising as
part of the builder’s controversial
redevelopment of the
old hospital site.
But the developer must
build its shorter, front fence
with wrought iron — not the
steel it initially suggested
creating both barriers with.
And it must routinely
maintain the hedge between
the fencing, and ensure its
construction does not sully
the architecture and character
of the neighborhood, according
to a rep for the Landmarks
Commission, which
formally weighed in on the
plans because the tower sits
within the protected Cobble
Hill Historic District.
Fortis proposed erecting
the fence after pols and locals
on CB6 in October panned
its original plan to construct
a nine-foot wall along that
same stretch of Amity Street
— a structure some residents
blasted as exclusionary because
it would have starkly
cordoned off the condo-fi lled
high-rise’s luxe outdoor spaces
from passersby.
CB6 members, however,
unanimously approved the
scheme in December after
the builder swapped wall for
fence, on conditions including
that the railing’s highest point
rise no taller than six feet and
the evergreen hedge be maintained
in perpetuity.
Sales at the Henry Street
condo tower — which, along
with the rest of the seven-building
River Park complex, is going
up under existing zoning
law after Fortis in 2016 abandoned
an attempt to upzone
the larger development site
bounded by Atlantic Avenue
and Hicks, Columbia, and Pacifi
c streets — launched last
fall.
Steel of approval
City okays plan for steel-iron fence
outside C’Hill tower on old LICH site