The Lower East Side’s skyline is getting higher.
The current development boom is pushing the envelope in a neighborhood that for decades was synonymous with low-rise tenement buildings. A spate of new projects is changing the scale and elevation of the area.
Members of Community Board 3, which roughly extends south from 14th Street to the Brooklyn Bridge east of the Bowery, are in a defensive crouch, and have created a zoning task force to address height and density concerns. The group seeks to adopt new land-use policies for approval by the city’s planning department.
The task force has so far offered few details on its proposals, which means new zoning regulations are months, if not years, away. The prevailing sentiment, though, is that change or rather, preservation is in the offing.
“If people were perfectly happy with what exists, they wouldn’t need a task force to look at changing the zoning,” was all the district manager of Community Board 3, Susan Stetzer, would say on the matter.
The catchphrase for residents wanting to scale down development is “contextual zoning,” which would mean new development in scale with the existing buildings.
Developers Jason Pomeranc and his brothers Michael and Lawrence, owners of the $25 million 60 Thompson hotel in Soho, are the most recent builders to run afoul of neighborhood sentiments. Their planned 19-story hotel project, to be called Allen Street, located between Houston and Stanton streets, will reflect the extent of change in Lower East Side real estate as it touts 32 luxury condos, spa and pool.
While luxury is becoming commonplace in the Lower East Side there are, after all, new developments like the seven-story 154 Attorney Street, which features the area’s first doorman building, as well as a roof deck and cabana the height of the proposed hotel has concerned residents most, according to community activists.
Rumors of the W Hotel chain’s interest in the area are another source of concern for neighborhood residents, who worry their narrow streets would soon be too densely packed with traffic, said Prudential Douglas Elliman broker Phatavanh Boualaphanh. Calls to the hotel chain were not returned.
In the late 1980s, when the neighborhood was known as a warren of urban drug dens, much of the Lower East Side was zoned for commercial or mixed-use development, with little in the way of height restrictions. The residential R7 and R8 zoning designations translate into medium and high-density buildings.
But, until now, the only tall buildings in the area consisted mostly of the public housing built decades ago.
The tall developments under way in the Lower East Side are as-of-right developments, meaning they can be built without any changes in zoning. That leaves the planners hired by the community board with two options, according to land-use attorney Howard Goldman.
New zoning could either put limits on height and density, possibly adding quotas for affordable housing on as-of-right developments. The other option is to force developers to get board approval for each development that comes into the neighborhood.
The question for the neighborhood is striking the right balance between growth and preservation, Goldman, who represents developers, said.
“From a developer’s point of view, the real question is: Will their project be as-of-right or will it need discretionary approval process?” said Goldman. “The latter would turn off a lot of developers.”