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It seemed like a reasonable request after all, we are taxpayers, stakeholders and voters. Then I hit on a plan: why not invite City Planning Commissioner Marisa Lago to speak to our community about the commission’s vision for development throughout New York and what that means for our neighborhood. Even the mayor directed the City Planning Commission to address the issue of massive voids-empty spaces in the middle of buildings that serve no purpose other than to provide apartments above the void with spectacular views. The local community board is against it, as is our City Council member, Helen Rosenthal, and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer. There, the developer Extell is in the initial stages of erecting an out-of-scale 775-foot, 127-unit luxury apartment building, rising as high as a typical 80-story structure.Īs founder and president of the local block association, it has become my mission to try to understand the process whereby a building like this can be built as-of-right, meaning without community review or City Council approval. I love my neighborhood, a collection of pre-and post-war buildings that now must endure the filth and the racket of a midblock construction site that spans two residential streets-West 65th and 66th. These meetings have become central to my life over the past few years, beginning when we learned of the behemoth that was to rise to twice the height of any other building in the area. Yet the backhoes and cranes continued to operate, despite our requests that the Department of City Planning quickly expand disclosure rules so communities can review new local developments. Manhattan Community Board 7 has already passed resolutions and written countless letters stating its opposition to these new megastructures, which tower over everything in our residential neighborhood and threaten its character and quality of life. I’m also wondering whether the expression “out-of-context” can even apply to these buildings, given that the word “context” has its own meaning when applied to zoning. I’m sitting in a conference room above West 87th Street listening with disbelief to a debate about the difference between a “too tall” building and a “super tall” building in the context of our community.