This developer isn’t building amity with its Amity Street
neighbors!
Cobble Hillers tore into the builder constructing a
seven-structure complex on the old Long Island College Hospital campus for
proposing to erect a brick wall along Amity Street that will partially block
one of its forthcoming high-rises to passersby.
“The least you could do is try to make this barricade
inviting to the community,” said Alex Harris, who lives on Hicks Street between
Kane and Degraw streets. “This feels extremely exclusive to walk by everyday.”
Brooklyn-based real-estate firm Fortis Property Group
proposed building the nine-foot-high barrier along roughly 50 feet of Amity
Street sidewalk between Henry and Clinton streets, to enclose the private
courtyard with a swimming-pool and garden it plans to build for residents of
its 15-story condo tower on Henry Street between Pacific and Amity Streets,
dubbed 5 River Park.
That tower is one of the seven buildings Fortis is currently
constructing as part of its controversial River Park complex — which it is
erecting under existing zoning law after abandoning an attempt to rezone the
site to make way for an even larger development in 2016. And the proposed wall
surrounding the high-rise, which must be approved by the community board and
the Landmarks Preservation Commission because the bit of Amity Street it would
run along sits within the protected Cobble Hill Historic District, would
seamlessly blend in with its surroundings, the architect of 5 River Park told
members of the civic panel.
“We believe it’s a contextual wall that reflects the
character of the neighborhood,” Douglas Romines said during an Oct. 25 meeting
of Community Board 6’s Land Use and Landmarks Committee.
But many of the locals, along with some Cobble Hill pols,
strongly disagreed, and the local Assemblywoman accused the developer of trying
to sneak its barricade past the board by first seeking approval from the
landmarks commission, so that it would be harder for the panel to reject the
proposal.
“The developer went first to LPC with the hope it would
simply be able to get approval without going through the community board,” said
Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon (D–Cobble Hill). “It is unacceptable.”
Simon and Councilman Brad Lander (D–Cobble Hill) issued
statements urging the committee to pan Fortis’s request — which it did nearly
unanimously, along with demanding the builder restore a wrought-iron fence on
the property that its workers allegedly ripped out without permission, and
requesting the city look over the developer’s plans for its on-site pool.
And any future wall that Fortis may propose should be opaque
enough to let passersby peek in from the sidewalk, instead of entirely blocking
neighbors’ view, according to Lander.
“If something’s going to be added to the community, I think
something that shows the garden might be great — at least provide visual
enhancement,” he said.
Following the meeting, Fortis bigwigs pulled their current
wall proposal, and now plan to revise it using the board’s feedback, according
to a rep.
“We withdrew the application and are working with the
community to reissue a design with community input,” said Dale Laplace.
And two days before the locals clashed with the developer
over the barricade it wants to put outside 5 River Park, Fortis honchos hosted
a swanky liquor-soaked party on Amity Street featuring two bars, hors
d’oeuvres, and a live band to launch sales of the condos inside the luxury
tower — the first to rise within the builder’s larger complex rising on land by
Atlantic Avenue and Hicks, Columbia, and Pacific streets.
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