“Clearly there are a lot of very good public goods being planned for this site - no change in the playground size, three news schools, permanent affordable housing, but that comes at the cost of a building that is 724 feet tall. You may call it 68 stories but in linear terms that’s 72 tall. That’s almost as tall as the Time Warner Center,” - City Planning Commissioner Anna Hayes Levin, May 10, 2017
"How does that kind of height make sense at this location?"
Marx Brothers Playground site - 96th Street and Second Avenue. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is finally moving out of the playground after "temporarily" occupying 0.5 acres of the 1.5 acre park since 2007. The MTA paid $11 million to the Parks Department as mitigation for allowing the public park to be used as a staging area during Second Avenue Subway construction. They also paid the salaries of Parks Dept. Playground Associates at several area playgrounds. The MTA is legally required to restore the playground. (Photos: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates) Click on images to enlarge.
But now the De blasio administration is claiming the Parks Department has no juristiction over the 1.5 acre park even though the city is attempting to Alienate the park land with the help of the State legislature. The city is trying to build a one billion dollar development at the request of the City Council Speaker. The Educational Construction Fund (ECF) has come up with a scheme to dramatical increase the size currently allowed. The massive tower would cast shadows as far as Central Park according to project documents.
The Department of City Planning voted to appove the controversial plan on Wednesday morning.
Proposed East 96th Street & 2nd Avenue. A rendering depicting just a few floors of the massive, 760 foot residential tower. This irresponsible development would be built on Marx Brothers Playground critics say. The community is demanding that the playground be restored to its original location at 96th Street & 2nd Avenue, and a sensible plan be developed.
Manhattan
By Geoffrey Croft
The plan would hand over Marx Brothers Playground to a developer to build a massive 760 foot tower with 1100 apartments, three schools, and retail space on the corner of 96th Street and 2nd Avenue, a project the community refers to as The WALL.
At 760 feet it would be the tallest building north of 60th st. and taller than any building in the other four boroughs. A height area residents say would be egregiously out of context with the community.
Since it is illegal to build on public parkland for non-park purposes and since parks do not have zoning, the city is attempting to get around this by having New York State legislators temporally seize (Alienate) the park to allow development by creating commercial zoning.
This would set a very bad precedent, one that could open the floodgates and, at a minimum allow the development of not only every single one of the approximately 250 Parks Department Jointly Operated Parks properties it shares with the DOE throughout the city, but ALL parks could be subjected to development if this proposed legislation is passed.
Literally NO Public land would be safe.
The massive 1.1 million square foot project would encompass an entire city block.
Open Sky. The site on May 10, 2017 - without the massive development. The alienation of a public park in order to generate development rights is a circumvention of the Zoning Resolution’s regulations that preclude public parks from having development rights. When re-build under the new proposal the playground would be in the shade for most of the day.
The Speaker has partnered with the Educational Construction Fund.
The original 2012 plan envisioned only one school - Co-Op Tech which is already on the block. ECF already had a signed agreement with developer AvalonBay according to the head of the ECF who says the scope of the project changed dramatically in 2013 when City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito insisted that three schools be built there.
“A lot of the factors changed over the last three years at the request of the Speaker’s office we were asked to move the two additional high schools into the parcel so that changed the design obviously,” said Jennifer Maldonado - Executive Director of Educational Construction Fund/Special Assistant to Deputy Chancellor testified before the City Planning Commission on May 10th.
According to ECF the plan would also allow the Julia de Burgos Cultural Center, a long time important project of the Speaker's, to expand. The center, located on Lexington Avenue and 105th Street, currently shares space with Heritage, one of the two new schools the Speaker is hoping to move to 96th Street.
"The use of the entire building by the Cultural Center is a strong priority for Speaker Mark-Viverito," ECF wrote to City Planning in a 92 page response obtained by NYC Park Advocates.
Neighbors who live on 96th Street and south are also furious because they say they have been left out of the discussion and point out that most of the impacts will be felt there.
The project is already making its make through ULURP.
The 2004 parkland alienation language that allowed the MTA to use the park for building the Second Avenue Subway explicitly stated that upon completion of construction, "the lands shall continue to be used for park purposes."
However this administration has other ideas. They have gotten the State to introduce Alienation legislation to block that.
"Construction of the second avenue subway is completed and the city of New York would now like to turn over the block on which the playground is located to the New York City Educational Construction Fund to permit the construction of a combined occupancy structure."
After a ten year absence, the community expected the city to being rebuilding the city playground later this year after the MTA vacated the property in September. The land was used as a staging area to build the Second Avenue subway during this time.
According to the new plan after all 1.5 acres of parkland are seized and developed the land between buildings would be rebuilt for use as a public park.
The residential tower is not anticipated to be finished by 2023 which means the community’s playground and heavily used artificial turf field - much of which will now be shaded by a massive tower for a good portion of the day - would not be available at least an additional five years.
Under the terms of the 2004 parkland alienation bill the MTA is legally required to restore the playground.
However on May 10th, Jennifer Maldonado testified before City Planning that there was no money for Marx Brothers Playground.
“The playground is not budgeted either," she said. "This is not on the parks budget plan…”
According to ECF they, along with AvalonBay will contribute approximately $ 8 million for the renovation and upgrading of Marx Brothers Playground.
A Walk In The Park asked the Parks Department what the status of the MTA funding was. Requests have not yet been returned.
The De Blasio administration is now claiming the 1.5 acre park isn't even Parks Department property. The massive 760 foot tower being spearheaded by the Education Construction Fund through the city planning depends on a State Parkland Alienation legislation to achieve its goal.
Adding to the theatre of the absurd the City is now claiming the park is in fact not a park and does not belong to the Parks Department and development is already permitted under its current zoning.
In its 92 page, at times laughable response to City Planning, the City repeatedly asserts that Marx Brothers Playground is not parkland. But it is covering its bases.
“Although the Marx Brothers Playground is not and has never been parkland, the City and ECF have determinted that in connection with the Proposed Project, it si prodent to obtain new legislation.
Keeping It All In The Family. The designer of the proposed new park, Stephen Whitehouse, a former chief of planning for the Parks Department claims in his letter to City Planning that the new park location - beside the 760 feet building - is safer because they plan on raising the park a foot higher in order to get it out of the 100-year flood zone. For the past sixty plus years the playground has been safely dry on Second Avenue.
Jennifer Maldonado - Executive Director of the Educational Construction Fund/Special Assistant to Deputy Chancellor testifed at City Planning on May 10, 2017. The original plan she said called for one school but according to Maldonado Speaker Viverito dramatically changed the scope of the project when she insisted three schools be build on the site. Under the plan ECF would float a bond to pay for the school construction. (Photos: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates) Click on images to enlarge.
