Following an audit by the Department of Buildings, the building permits for OPUS NY, a new music and performance venue under construction at 531 E. 13th St., were recently revoked. The reason was “insufficient response” to D.O.B.’s letter of intent to revoke, said Susan Stetzer, Community Board 3’s district manager.
“The theater space they are planning is Use Group 12 — entertainment space,” said Stetzer. “This area is not zoned for entertainment space. The size of the space is a criteria — but I don’t know how much smaller it would have to be [to be legal]. The residents’ concerns regarding 200 people waiting to get into a performance while 200 people are leaving — on a residential side street zoned for local retail stores, were right on — it is not zoned for this.
“However, the applicant self-certified that plans met regulations,” Stetzer said. “Either the applicant’s architect was misrepresenting compliance or not knowledgeable enough of zoning regulations.” Stetzer said the applicant might try to comply by changing plans.
Jennifer Givner, a Buildings spokesperson, said it appeared work was stopped on Aug. 16 after an inspection found work being done contrary to filed plans and also the lack of a tenant safety plan on file. A tenant safety plan involves such things as insuring there is safe egress for tenants living in the building during the work.
