The Importance of ULURP (Excuse me)

ULURP is the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure.  Here is a short blurb about it:

"Prior to 1976, the City Planning Commission reviewed only applications related to zoning, the city map and urban renewal and housing. In 1976, the list of applications subject to Commission review was enlarged and now includes, pursuant to the City Charter enacted in 1989, those itemsdescribed below. The Charter's intent in requiring ULURP was to establish a standardized procedure whereby applications affecting the land use of the city would be publicly reviewed. The Charter also established mandated time frames within which application review must take place. Key participants in the ULURP process are now the Department of City Planning (DCP) and the City Planning Commission (CPC), Community Boards, the Borough Presidents, the Borough Boards, the City Council and the Mayor."  For more detail see: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/luproc/ulpro.shtml#ccr

Right now, the proposed development does not require ULURP. It is important to get the DOE to agree to ULURP because it puts the decision making process in to the hands of other players including the Community Board, the Manhattan Borough Present and the City Council.

Helen Rosenthal, City Council Candidate in the NY Press

How The Department of Education Made New Schools A Cause of Community Anger

Written by NYPress on March 22, 2013. Posted in Opinion West Side Spirit, West Side Spirit.

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By now, most Upper West Siders are familiar with the City Department of Education’s decision to demolish one of our local schools, P.S. 191 or P.S. 199, to make way for luxury housing towers in already crowded neighborhoods. There are so many fundamental questions about how this proposal came to be, a lack of discussion about whether or not it’s ever acceptable to sell public assets to a private developer, and why this proposal was dropped on the Upper West Side with virtually no notice that it has put an indelible taint over the entire project.

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Meeting Tonight for City Council Candidates

Meet the Candidates for City Council, District 6, the seat being vacated by Hon. Gale Brewer.

Come and let your voices be heard about the PS 199 Development proposal.

The event will be on Thursday, March 28th, 2013, 7PM at

Council House
241 West 72nd Street
Between Broadway and West End Avenue

To date the following candidates have declare:

Mel Wymore
Helen Rosenthal
Marc Landis
Noah Gotbaum
Debra Cooper
Ken Biberiaj

How Tall will the Tower Be?

The sample drawings in the RFEI show a tower of 402 feet for a 38 floor building.  To put this in context, this is taller than 8 of the 11 towers in the Trump Complex along Riverside Boulevard.  A 50 story building example was also given that would be over 500 ft. high.

The RFEI states that the height can even be larger than the 50 story sample, "The developers should note that taller towers could be built than shown if smaller floor plates are utilized." (p. 62 of the RFEI)

For example, according to the Wall Street Journal, the tower to be built above P.S. 59/H.S. for Art and Design (the ECF's last project) is slated to be 715 ft. high

To see the drawing click here.

To see the height of neighborhood buildings click here.

Community Board 7 Resolution

On March 5th, 20113, Community Board 7 passed a resolution 34 to 0 concerning the proposed development of school properties including PS199.  This is the conclusion of the resolution:

"THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT Community Board 7/Manhattan calls on the Department of Education, the School Construction Authority and the Educational Construction Fund to:

1. Prior to the formulation and release of any RFP relating to these sites, conduct immediate, consistent and meaningful public outreach to all constituencies in the affected community and solicit public comment and concerns relating to all phases and aspects of the proposed redevelopment;
   
2. Provide a written commitment that the key aspects of any redevelopment proposal for these sites be subject to ULURP. "
   
   
   The full resolution can be found here.
   

Candidates Roundtable for Seniors

Meet City Council Candidates

Sunday April 7th at 11:30am, Lunch and Live Music

Club 76 - Senior Center

120 W. 76th St, 3rd Floor Ballroom

Neighborhood Facts - Density and Growth

Here are a few highlights from our research, see the full report here:

1.The overall population increased (Census Track 155) was 49.5% while NYC as a whole increased 2.1% and Manhattan increased 3.2%.

2. For the entire Lincoln Square area, the population change from the year 2000 to 2010 was 11.3% while NYC as a whole increased 2.1% and Manhattan increased 3.2%.

3. The 72nd Street Subway is the 14th busiest in Manhattan and of the busiest subways in Manhattan, the 72nd Street Subway had the largest percent usage increase from 2007 to 2011 at 11% increased utilization and the largest single year percent usage increase from 2010 to 2011 at 5.3% increased utilization. 

Check out our Document Library

We have created a library of important documents relating to the PS 199 project located at:

https://sites.google.com/site/199proposal/

Included are:

- REFI (Request for Expressions of Interest) for the Project from the Education Construction Fund: this gives the most details about what is being proposed including site development, school size and funding.

- ECF 2008 Environmental Report from East 57th Project:  This is a report about the last school construction project the ECF did.  It provides insight into the criteria for moving ahead.

- Sample Drawings of what the project will look like inrelation to surrounding buildings.

- Letters from Elected Officials

- PS199 Neighborhood Fact Sheet: This highlights some of the density and resource utilizations issues in the neighborhood.

Please take a look and if you have other documents that would be of interest to our community and this project please email us at 199demolition@gmail.com.

Meet the Candidates for City Council District 6

Meet the Candidates for City Council, District 6, the seat being vacated by Hon. Gale Brewer.

Come and let your voices be heard about the PS 199 Development proposal.

The event will be on Thursday, March 28th, 2013, 7PM at

Council House
241 West 72nd Street
Between Broadway and West End Avenue

To date the following candidates have declare:

Mel Wymore
Helen Rosenthal
Marc Landis
Noah Gotbaum
Debra Cooper
Ken Biberiaj

News from WestSideRag.com

EXCLUSIVE: THE CITY IS CONSIDERING PLANS TO DEMOLISH PS 199 AND PS 191 (UPDATED WITH CITY RESPONSE)

Posted on February 17, 2013 at 1:39 pm by West Sider

In somewhat shocking news, we have learned that the city has solicited and received proposals from developers to demolish PS 199 on West 70th Street and PS 191 on West 61st Street and build luxury towers on their sites. PS 199, an elementary school, is one of the most highly regarded and popular elementary schools in the entire city, and the building was designed by renowned architect Edward Durell Stone. Both schools have also had millions of dollars worth of renovations in recent years, which would be reduced to rubble.

The city would demolish the schools in order to allow developers to build large luxury apartment towers with new schools in them. The schools could be demolished as soon as 2015, according to a mother of students at PS 199 who attended a PTA meeting about the plans last week. Parents and school officials apparently were not briefed on the plans, which are already quite far along, until recently. The city clearly expects opposition to the plans (more on that below), and parents look like they might fight.

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