Judge: Do Two Bridges review
BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
The Two Bridges megaproject
does not get a pass from
the city’s ULURP public
review process.
That was the ruling by
a State Supreme Court
justice, who on Thursday
decided in favor of
a lawsuit on the Lower
East Side megaproject
fi led by the New York
City Council and Manhattan
Borough President
Gale Brewer.
The Two Bridges
megaproject includes an
80-story building by JDS
Development Group, 62-
and 69-story towers by L+M
Development Partners and the
CIM Group, and a 63-story tower
by Starrett Group.
Three years ago, Department of City
Planning staff said that the proposed
projects in Two Bridges, between the
Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges —
which would rise as tall as 80 stories —
were merely “minor modifi cations” to
the site’s existing large-scale residential
development, or L.S.R.D., zoning.
Last December, the City Planning
Commission voted to green-light the
three-tower project. City Planning
plugged the projects’ benefi ts,
emphasizing nearly 700 of its
2,775 units would be affordable.
Brewer and the City
Council sued the de
Blasio administration,
holding that the “minor
modifi cation” argument
was absurd, and that the
project must go through
the city’s Uniform Land
Use Review Procedure
a.k.a. ULURP.
Brewer, Speaker Corey
Johnson and Councilmember
Margaret Chin issued a
joint press release with statements
on Justice Arthur Engoron’s
ruling.
The court found that “The irreparable
harm here is twofold. First,
a community will be drastically altered
without having had its proper say. Second,
and arguably more important, allowing
this project to proceed without
the City Council’s imprimatur would
distort the city’s carefully crafted system
of checks and balances. ... Without
ULURP, the city’s Legislature is cut out
of the picture entirely.”
The project site is located in Chin’s
Lower Manhattan Council District 1.
“For three years, we have rallied and
petitioned,” Chin said. “As a fi nal step,
we sued... . Judge Engoron’s decision
vindicates our efforts and...empowers
the voices of those most impacted by
the displacement and gentrifi cation of
the proposed megatowers.”
However, local community groups
that have been battling the project —
and who have also fi led their own lawsuit
against it — expressed skepticism
that Thursday’s ruling would, in the
end, matter. The groups, Lower East
Side Organized Neighbors (LESON),
and the Coalition to Protect Chinatown
and the Lower East Side, released a
hard-hitting statement on the judge’s
decision to proceed with a ULURP, and
slammed Chin as ineffective in fi ghting
the towers. They decried as “cheap buyouts”
the infrastructure improvements
that the developers have promised.
“The infl ux of thousands of new
residents will overburden any structural
investments,” they said. “Even
more serious is the massive displacement
that will be caused by over 2,000
market-rate units.”
Court says 14th St. car ban can start
BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
A judge who temporarily blocked
the 14th St. busway from going
forward a month ago, on
Tuesday gave the embattled scheme the
green light.
State Supreme Court Justice Eileen
Rakower ruled that the city can put its
novel Transit and Truck Priority lanes
plan into effect. In doing so, she found
against a community lawsuit by a broad
coalition of Village and Chelsea block
associations and large residential co-op
buildings.
Under the city’s plan — now set to
go into effect Monday — only buses
and trucks with at least three axles will
be allowed to use 14th St. as a through
street between Third and Ninth Aves.
daily from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Delivery vehicles and residents will
be able to drive onto the street for
drop-offs or pickups, but have to take
the next available right turn. Residents
will also be able to drive onto the street
for parking. The fi rst of its kind in
New York City, the traffi c plan is being
called an 18-month “pilot project.”
Many opponents fear the 14th St.
car ban will push displaced traffi c onto
their nearby side streets. Meanwhile,
14th St. residents are concerned about
maintaining curbside building access.
PHOTO BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
On June 5, Borough President
Gale Brewer with Councilmember
Margaret Chin, demanded the Two
Bridges plan go through ULURP.
Last week, a judge agreed.
But the city says the scheme will speed
up buses during the hours it’s needed
the most.
Select Bus Service — along with a
reduction in the number of bus stops
— went into effect on the M14 route a
month ago in another effort to get the
buses moving faster.
Tim Minton, a spokesperson for the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority,
assured that speed and effi ciency
would be increased.
“This ruling is a win for 27,000 daily
bus riders who can get to work and
where they need to go faster,” he said.
“Speedier rides mean more reliability,
better service and added convenience.
We thank the New York City Department
of Transportation for its dedication
to implementing a more effi cient
design on 14th St.”
A D.O.T. spokesperson added, “Today’s
ruling allows us to move ahead to
improve bus service along the corridor.
We are beginning work immediately
and Transit and Truck Priority will go
into effect Mon., Aug. 12.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted his excitement
at the plan’s court win:
“JUST IN: We prevailed in our legal
fi ght to speed up buses on 14th Street!
With this hurdle clear, @NYC_DOT
is moving ahead with fi nal roadwork
so we can get New Yorkers moving on
one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares.
Let’s get this DONE!”
The plaintiffs were represented by
attorney Arthur Schwartz, the Village’s
male Democratic district leader, who
did the case pro bono. Schwartz, who
lives on W. 12th St., was also an individual
plaintiff in the suit.
Schwartz, in a group e-mail to the
opponents, wrote: “We think the judge
made three errors. The fi rst is that she
allowed D.O.T. to assert that they took
suffi cient consideration of environmental
factors, without any proof. Second,
she did not make them explain why they
need the restrictions to stretch from 5
a.m. to 10 p.m., when the bus speed
problems D.O.T. described were only
between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., and 5 p.m.
and 7 p.m. Third, she did not consider
at all how unsafe the 12th and 13th St.
bike lanes are; they are an invitation to
bicyclist injury.”
Crosstown bike lanes were added
on the two streets, anticipating a full
L-train shutdown, which never materialized
— but D.O.T. made them permanent
anyway.
“Over all,” Schwartz continued, “I
am horrifi ed that my block, 12th St.,
will now have 350 cars an hour going
down it (D.O.T. numbers); that’s one
car every 10 seconds on a residential
street.
Speaking after the ruling, Schwartz
said that Eric Beaton, D.O.T. deputy
commissioner for transportation planning
and management, submitted a
letter arguing that traffi c lights could
be controlled to ensure that the traffi c
would fl ow smoothly, somehow avoiding
vibrations that could harm fragile
historic Village and Chelsea buildings.
Schwartz said the judge deemed this
the “hard look” she had asked the city
agencies to do last month.
Schwartz added that traffi c data and
times were only presented for morning
and evening rush hours — so the argument
wasn’t made why the no-cars plan
should exist at other times.
“It may be one of the reasons we appeal,”
he noted.
The attorney also bristled at transit
advocates who call the antis wealthy.
“Most of the people in the block associations
are not rich at all,” he said.
“They tend to be an older group. They
are in rent-regulated apartments.”
After all the hoopla, ultimately, the
plan would only result in the crosstown
buses running a couple of minutes faster,
the attorney charged.
“The goal is to make the buses go 2.1
minutes faster in the morning — 2.1
eastbound, 2.9 minutes westbound,
something like that,” he said. “It was in
Beaton’s affi davit.”
Schneps Media DEX August 8 - August 21, 2019 3