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Residents fight Tudor City development

By David Freedlander | dfreedlander@am-ny.com

April 24, 2008

Residents of 5 Tudor City Place in the Tudor City neighborhood of Manhattan are opposed to the Solow Project along the East Waterfront. The Solow Project is a massive residential/commerical project and its buildings are expected to block the beautiful East River view of the residents of 5 Tudor City. (Dennis W. Ho, Dennis W. Ho / April 23, 2008)

Fearful that their urban Eden will be buried under darkness and dirt, residents of bucolic Tudor City announced a lawsuit Wednesday to block one of the city's largest development projects.

The suit alleges that the City Council and the City Planning Commission approved developer Sheldon Solow's $4 billion plan for the former Con Ed site on the East River against the stated wishes of the local community board.

The plan calls for seven massive towers along the East River, with the tallest topping out at 595 feet, and will add 3,000 apartments, 1 million square feet of commercial space and 69,000 square feet of retail to the neighborhood.

But Tudor City, built in the 1920s by the developer Fred French to keep middle class New Yorkers from fleeing to the suburbs, would be cast under tall shadows once the project is completed.

Residents also fear that they will be overwhelmed by dust and grime during the two to three years of construction. Because the area is landmarked, residents said they had to receive special permission from the Landmarks Preservation Commission in order to replace their iron window frames with sturdier ones that can keep out noise and dirt.

"The planning commission says they are interested in community-based planning, but it's pure bunk," said Edan Unterman, president of the East Midtown Coalition, an umbrella organization of community groups. "They have been arrogant from beginning to end. It is very important to people to have a say in how their neighborhood looks and whether or not developers can come in and change it."

Residents of the complex, located between 40th and 43rd streets and First and Second avenues -- allege that the planning commission "arbitrarily and capriciously" disregarded the community's plan for the site despite publicly extolling the benefits of community-based planning.

"The planning department pays lip service to community-based planning and then they spit in the face of community based planning," said Evelyn Konrad, the lawyer bringing the suit. "We spent all these years with all these city agencies trying to set up guidelines about how this area should be, and then a decision gets made hastily and in private that sets it all aside."

The planning commission declined to comment, as did City Councilman Daniel Garodnick (D-Manhattan), who represents the area and had been praised for shepherding the project through.

In a statement, Michael Gross, a spokesman for Solow's East River Realty Company, said, "The ERRC development was overwhelmingly approved by the City Planning Commission and unanimously approved by the City Council after an extensive public review process. We are confident that it will be affirmed by the courts."

In the 1970s the area was sold to Harry Helmsley -- the city's mega developer of yesteryear -- who tried to build huge towers in some of the area's green spaces, but was overruled according to 35-year resident Vivian Gilbert, by "old women lying down in front of trucks."

Gilbert is president of the board of directors of 5 Tudor Place, which is bringing the suit, and she sees parallels from that fight to today's battle.

"People really care for this area, and they don't want to see it ruined," she said. "And once it's gone, it's gone forever."

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Not in my backyard!

When neighborhoods take on City Hall and developers, they often get results. Some notable case studies:

Willets Point

10 business and landowners announce a suit against city right before the Planning Commission began the land review process to rezone the area. The suit charges the city with decades of neglect of the neighborhood.

Status: Pending

Riverside South

A coalition of community groups sued Donald Trump in 1993 to stop construction of a mega-development on the west side. Status: Whatever Trump wants, Trump seems to get, though he had to sell a few years later.

125th Street in Harlem

Vote People, a community group in the neighborhood, dredged up an obscure 110-year-old law that said that City Council had to approve the rezoning of the area by a three-quarter vote, rather than by simple majority.

Status: After the community wrestled a series of concessions from the Planning Department, the council approved the matter by unanimous vote, rendering the issue moot.