DIFFERENT POINTS OF VIEW
Fort Greene residents sue city for approving new 23-story tower
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Dozens of Fort Greene
locals sued the city’s
Landmarks Preservation
Committee on Dec. 3 for
green-lighting a 23-story
condo tower at 130 St. Felix
St., saying the body
was improperly infl uenced
by the developer’s
promise to include public
benefi ts — such as affordable
housing units and an
expansion for the nearby
Brooklyn Music School.
“This is nothing less
than an intrusive landgrab
in which the rationale
for modernizing the
adjacent Brooklyn Music
School and alleged ‘affordable’
condominiums
are matters that are not
permitted to infl uence
the LPC’s consideration,”
wrote the group under the
moniker Preserve BAMs
Historic District in a Dec.
11 release. “These are not
within their purview –
but seemingly have been
leveraged politically as
justifi cations for ratifying
the plans as ‘appropriate’
when there is overwhelming
evidence to the
contrary.”
Most of the group’s 52
members live in the adjacent
37-story Williamsburgh
Savings Bank
Tower, which is currently
signifi cantly taller than
any surrounding structure
— meaning the new
23-story condo could
block cityscape views
from some of the plaintiffs’
residencies.
Because the proposed
tower falls within the
Brooklyn Academy of
Music Historic District,
Manhattan-based builder
Gotham Development
needed special permission
to erect the tall structure
between Hanson
Place and Lafayette Avenue,
which LPC granted
on Aug. 4.
But in court, as The
Real Deal fi rst reported,
the group argued that the
LPC improperly approved
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the building by taking
into consideration the
plan for a 20,000 squarefoot
expansion of the
Brooklyn Music School,
along with roughly 36 out
of the 120 apartments that
would be earmarked for
below-market-rate rent.
Doing so would violate
the purview of the LPC,
which is supposed to consider
only the historical
and architectural worthiness
of buildings.
The Commission at
fi rst sent the developers
back to the drawing board
at a June hearing, citing
concerns from some panelists
that the building’s
glass facade was too imposing
on the mostly lowrise
brownstone block between
Hanson Place and
Lafayette Avenue, and
that its height made it
look like an extension of
the iconic Art Deco clock
tower.
The architects returned
to an Aug. 4 hearing
with plans that reduced
the height by
shrinking from 24 to 23
stories, making it visibly
lower than the main
shoulder of the 512-foot
former-bank tower, which
the panel approved.
The plaintiffs argue
that these changes were
only minor and surmise
that LPC was actually
swayed by the developer’s
sweeteners for the neighborhood,
not their redesign
of the building.
The opponents said
the new building would
still “substantially hide”
street views of the 1929
skyscraper from the south
and west, while “obliterating
all window views for
some occupants” of the
historic tower-cum-luxury
apartments.
“The proposed new
construction would be
devastating and, to use
the key word of the Landmarks
Preservation Law,
entirely ‘inappropriate,'”
the suit reads.
The proposed development at 130 St. Felix St, next to the
iconic Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower. FXCollaborative
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