BY WINNIE MCCROY | At its June 1 meeting, Community Board 4 addressed a frequent topic of concern: the improper demolition of buildings throughout Manhattan’s West Side.
Concerned about the continued loss of affordable housing — including the destruction of properties within historic preservation districts — the board decided to press the city Department of Buildings to stop “rubber-stamping” demolition permits. Despite the urgency voiced by CB4 members, the DOB, in the wake of the board meeting, insisted it is aware of the problem and had recently taken steps to rectify it.
At the meeting, CB4 approved letters to the DOB regarding the improper demolition of 821 Ninth Avenue, between 54th and 55th Streets, and improper approvals for demolition of buildings at 859 Ninth Avenue and 401 West 56th Street, as well as at 317-319 West 35th Street.
“[The West 35th Street property] filed for demolition in March, and as of 5 p.m. this Tuesday, they were still approved for it, despite the fact that we asked for the approval to be rescinded,” said CB4’s Housing, Health & Human Services Committee co-chair Joe Restuccia. “They can’t demolish these buildings. We are asking [the DOB] to change their procedure, perhaps to appoint a special planner for the West Chelsea, Meatpacking, and Hudson Yards districts. As of now we have lost 83 units of affordable housing because people were bought out or pushed out.”
Restuccia stated that the DOB doesn’t always confirm whether the buildings are in protected zones before approving demolition requests.
Some board members, including Brad Pascarella, spoke about the possibility of the board targeting the professionals “rubber-stamping” these requests.
As much as anything else, board members were eager for these issues to be dealt with immediately and for an audit of all buildings in the special historic districts.
“This is such an epidemic right now,” said CB4 member Brett Firfer. “Can’t we try to leverage to get a moratorium until they get their house in order? Because every time they approve [a demolition], we don’t know if it’s legitimate. We need to do something extreme here. There should be no more demolitions until we fix the system.”
Board members thanked State Senator Brad Hoylman’s deputy chief of staff, Eli Szenes-Strauss, for addressing the demolition of buildings in his district and following up on their requests for intervention when properties in historic preservation districts were involved.
“Rick [Chandler, commissioner of the DOB] woke up this morning to a slew of complaints on this, because they persist in accepting applications for demolitions in historic districts,” said Szenes-Strauss.
CB4 member Christine Berthet raised a separate concern, pointing to her fear that without proper attention, many unused buildings could eventually become decrepit and have to be demolished in any event.
“We need a solution,” said Restuccia. “This is not a citywide problem for us. It’s our local problem. We’ve never seen this many illegally proposed demolitions in such a short time. The city has to seal up and close these buildings so they don’t become filthy and dangerous.”
Szenes-Strauss said, “Obviously, we need a proactive network of solutions. I imagine this will end up as patchwork of city and state legislation.”
“We can’t wait for legislation while these buildings are left open,” replied Berthet. “We need a next-day discussion to get us in there.”
CB4 Chair Delores Rubin echoed this sentiment, saying, “We need a larger spotlight on this issue. We need our elected officials to make enough noise to take this to the city. We’d like to start seeing some action.”
Elected leaders agreed, with Hoylman saying, “It’s unacceptable that years of hard work to create no-demolition districts are being de facto tossed aside. These are real people with real lives who are being displaced or losing the opportunity for future housing, and if DOB can’t implement a definitive solution, we’ll have to figure out how to mandate one. It’s a shame, but it’s the reality we’re facing.”
Later in the meeting, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer stated, “We need to have a database of up-to-date landmarked and protected places in all the boroughs.”
Rubin responded, “We appreciate your recognition on these DOB issues because we need to figure out a solution fast. We implore you to use whatever influence you have to stem the wave of illegal demolitions of our affordable housing stock.”
After the meeting, Brewer vowed that she would continue to be front and center fighting these illegal demolitions and other drastic renovations that destroy the West Side’s housing stock.
“Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen are seeing a pattern of inappropriate requests for demolition from landlords,” said Brewer, “whether we’re talking about historic buildings that are supposed to be protected by the landmarks law or we’re talking about rent-regulated housing that’s supposed to be protected by special zoning rules against harassment. Our city agencies need to do a better job enforcing our laws, and we need to be vigilant and fight back to protect both our historic resources and our dwindling affordable housing.”
CB4 members concluded their meeting with an agreement to send two letters to the DOB, one specifically dealing with the property at 317-319 West 35th Street and another more general letter asking the department to address the spate of improper demolition approvals going forward.
But all agreed with Rubin when she said, “We need to find a more drastic solution than writing a letter,” whether that meant involving the City Council or pressing the mayor’s office to give the matter his full-court press.
In response to follow-up questions after the meeting, DOB spokesperson Joseph Soldevere said that the department’s Buildings Information System already includes flags for buildings in landmarked areas.
“The department’s new risk management group recently mapped all blocks of special districts with demolition restrictions, to help our plan examiners more easily identify improper demolition applications,” Soldevere said.
