» Community Board 7 Gives a Wag of the Finger to Riverside Center

Community Board 7 Gives a Wag of the Finger to Riverside Center

Monday, July 26th, 2010

riverside-center Community Board 7 held a special meeting on Thursday night to exclusively discuss the eight-acre Extell Development project, Riverside Center (59th to 61st, west of West End Avenue), and members were sure to express their dissatisfaction with Extell’s current plans. The New York Observer reports that the board voted 36 to 2 to disapprove of the current plan unless Extell includes the board’s “modifications.” Those modifications were many, including more commitments to school space and affordable housing, a “less dense” design that eliminates an entire building in the plan, full funding of the school going to Extell rather than both the developer and the School Construction Authority, and a substantial contribution from Extell to fund the costly relocation of the highway underground. While the four-hour debate left the board feeling overall satisfied, Extell expressed frustration, citing an argument that CB7 is ignoring the difficulty for any developer to be able to fulfill the financial requests. Regardless of the outcome of Thursday’s meeting, the plans are moving to the next step, heading to the City Planning Commission and City Council for further scrutiny. Check out the Observer article to see a rundown of Thursday’s CB7 meeting.