From The Villager
Make 'paradise' by building a park on the trucking lot!
By: Albert Amateau
April 04, 2001
Congressmember Jerrold Nadler, left, and state Senator Tom Duane, center, back, joined in an April 1 protest against a 17-story tower planned at Morton and West Sts.West Village neighborhood groups and elected officials weren't fooling around when they rallied on April 1 in the rain at the former Yellow Freight truck yard where a developer is proposing to build a 341-unit apartment complex with a high-rise tower.
Protestors were serious when they said the residential project planned by Jules Demchick of Carlisle Development for the square block between Washington and West Sts. from Morton to Leroy Sts. is far too big for the West Village neighborhood and would overshadow the new Hudson River Park along the river.
"This site would make a great park," was the phrase repeated by protestors including Congressmember Jerrold Nadler, Assemblymember Deborah Glick, state Senator Tom Duane and City Councilmember Christine Quinn.
The proposal calls for five-story buildings on Morton St. with townhouse residences on the first three floors and two floors of loft apartments. On Washington St., the proposal calls for six-story buildings wrapping around to the middle of Leroy St. A 17-story residential tower with a ground-floor restaurant would extend from the middle of Leroy St. wrapping around to the middle of West St. The remainder of West St. would be 15 stories tall. At the corner of West and Morton Sts. an entrance to the complex is planned through a central courtyard. In addition to the restaurant, the project would include small retail spaces on Leroy St. A 68-car garage beneath the central portion of the courtyard is also planned.
The project, with an address at 600 Washington St., is in an M1 light-manufacturing zone and requires a variance from the Board of Standards and Appeals to allow residential use and the 17-story tower. The B.S.A. was to hold a hearing on the variance at press time on April 3.
Katy Bordinaro of the West Village Houses Tenants Association told the April 1 rally that the project, designed by Costas Kondylis, would block circulation of light and air and would cast a morning shadow on the Hudson River Park. The West Village Houses are located across Morton St. from the project. The April 1 changeover to daylight-savings time prompted some protestors to appear in sun and clock costumes to emphasize the shadows they say the project would cast.
Quinn and Glick said a variance would be tantamount to "spot zoning" and would ignore the need of the whole neighborhood. Last month, Community Board 2 voted to oppose the project. District Leaders Arthur Schwartz and Aubrey Lees also attended the protest rally.
However, Demchick said this week that an earlier as-of-right proposal for a commercial development on the 62,000-sq.-ft. site would have been "more monolithic" than this project. "We're building on less than 22 percent of the site," he said.
"We've supplied information freely to the community from day one," Demchick said. "But we haven't responded to this protest because it's too confusing. How do you respond to people who want to turn the site into a park?"
In 1999, Demchick acquired the Yellow Freight truck yard and distribution center, which had been closed since 1997. A garage on the site has been demolished, "and we've remediated oil spills on the property," said Demchick. The state Department of Environmental Conservation has signed off on the clean-up, he said.
Over the last 100 years or so, the former wetland and landfill site was occupied by a metal-smelting plant, an elevated railroad and gas stations in addition to the truck yard. A Port Authority PATH tunnel under Morton St. crosses below the northern edge of the yard at West and Morton Sts - where the project will only have an entrance, no buildings.
Neighbors are also concerned about the effect of new construction on a neighborhood prone to flooding and sewer back-ups during heavy rain.
Among the groups at the April 1 rally were Joan Schechter of the Greenwich Village Chelsea Chamber of Commerce; Lisa LaFreda of Pat LaFreda Meats; Kathleen Faccini of the 111 Barrow St. Association; Rob Halle of GGH Enterprises; Jana Haimsohn and Richard Barrett of the Canal West Coalition; Zack Weinstein and Ellen Peterson Lewis of the Greenwich Village Community Task Force; Jo Hamilton of Save the Gansevoort Meat Market; Albert Bennett of the Morton St. Block Association; Livvie Mann of the Bedford Downing St. Block Association; Judy McCusker of 2 Bank St. Tenants Association; and S. W. Stout of Safe Washington St.
©The Villager 2003
