TESTIMONY
Jerry Johnson and Eric Knowles from Fox Rothschild on the Rezoning of East 94th Street for a Mixed-Use Development
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8 min
Jerry Johnson and Eric Knowles discuss the proposal for rezoning East 94th Street in Manhattan to construct a mixed-use building with approximately 450 housing units, 113 of which will be permanently affordable.
- They represent LM East 94 LLC, a venture between Friedland Properties and the Chapman Group, aiming to transform a site reflecting Yorkville's industrial past.
- The development plans include a mix of studios, one, two, and three-bedroom apartments, with ADA compliance, potential retail, and community facilities.
- The proposal features green initiatives, such as a green roof and stormwater retention methods, enhancing the streetscape with new street trees and eliminating curb cuts.
- The rezoning requests include changing from an M14 district to a C28 and C4-6 district, facilitating the project while preserving the neighborhood's character.
- A zoning text amendment is proposed to ensure 25% of the residential floor area is affordable under the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) program.
Jerry Johnson
0:46:09
Hi.
0:46:09
My name is Jerry Johnson.
0:46:11
I'm with Fox Roth Child, and we're a land use counsel to the applicant, and who led Oh,
Eric Knowles
0:46:17
Eric Knowles, Fox Roth Child as well.
Jerry Johnson
0:46:20
Next slide.
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The applicant here is LM East 94 LLC.
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Which is a venture between Friedland Properties And the Chapman Group, both entities with deep roots in in New York City and the Upper East Side.
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Should this rezoning be approved?
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The proposed building would be a 385,000 square foot building with approximately 450 2 units of housing, a 113 of which will be permanently affordable pursuant to option 1 of the NIH program.
0:46:54
Next slide.
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This is a land use map showing the area around the site.
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The area in question is an m 14 zoning district on the north side of East 94 Street midway between Second Avenue And Third Avenue.
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The site itself is a vestige of the former industrial past of the Yorkville neighborhood.
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And as you can see surrounding the shaded area, which is the rezoning area, all the land uses, mixed use, and some minor commercial.
0:47:25
And we believe that the proposed change to a mixed use district is appropriate in this location.
0:47:32
I wanted to just talk about the development site or in the rezoning area itself.
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If you're going from west to east, there are 6 properties.
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The first three which are on the west side are occupied currently by a five story commercial building, a four story community facility building, which is a gym for a local parochial school, and a five story walk up apartment building that's occupied and I believe rent regulated.
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Then you get to the the three sites that are owned by our our client, which is a vacant five story walk up apartment building, and two parking garages, one 314 story with some automotive uses as well as parking.
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Those three sites will be redeveloped for the base of the new building utilizing air rights hopefully from the 3 other buildings that are to remain.
0:48:19
Next slide.
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So we believe this rezoning both in terms of density and the use is appropriate for this tran transit rich area.
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We have multiple two subway lines and multiple bus lines operating near the site.
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And and it's also gonna provide 450 potential new housing units for the area, which has had low production recently and high income rents compared to the rest of the city.
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As well as a low incidence of new affordable units.
0:48:55
On next slide, please.
0:48:57
So I'd like to talk to about basically the building form in this location.
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This slide shows an aerial looking from North Southwest across the site from 97th Street on the right side to East 90th Street on the left side.
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And as you can see, this area of the upper east side is characteristic of of towers located both on the avenues and mid block.
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And so our proposed building we believe in this area is an appropriate building form and density for the area.
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You can see it a little bit hard, but the area to be rezoned is outlined in yellow.
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The area that will contain the new building is outlined in red, and the area that is not outlined in red will actually have light in their easements over it, which will preserve the open space above those existing buildings to remain in perpetuity for the benefit of all the surrounding properties.
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Next slide.
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This is another image of just showing you the towers located between nineties Street and 97th Street in Second And Third Avenue.
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I'd like to point out that the the area, it's number 17 on the upper right.
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Is the Avalon Bay development, which has been approved, but is not yet been constructed.
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Next slide.
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So this is another image looking south sorry.
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From the south looking north, showing the proposed building superimposed within the existing built environment.
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And again, we believe that the building form is appropriate in this location as well as the uses We believe it will provide a number of new residential units as well as affordable units, and we believe it's appropriate due to the transit rich nature of the area.
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Next slide.
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And I'd like to turn it over to my colleague, Garrett Knowles, to finish the presentation.
Eric Knowles
0:50:55
Thanks, Jerry.
0:50:56
So just to continue on the development self, we'll contain a mix of studios, 1 bedrooms, 2 Bedrooms, and 3 Bedroom Apartments.
0:51:03
While that mix is not solidified yet as we're still in in early in the design process.
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We do believe that about 50 to 55% will be one bedrooms with the remainder being studios, twos, and threes.
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The building will be 88 compliant.
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It's going to have a ground floor seller uses will be retail and our community facility.
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Again, it's quite early in the process in terms of design, but we have been in discussions with day care and potential child service tenants, and they've been very good conversations so far.
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And we you know, hope to continue those conversations and think that it's a potentially viable option in a portion of the ground floor.
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The new development will result in a new streetscape, new street trees, the elimination of the garages and the curb cuts.
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And the applicant is also continuing to consider green measures such as green roof vegetative planters or underground detention for stormwater retention.
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And again, early in the design process, but we think some of those or some, you know, combination can be viable, but it's still something that we're working through to to nail down.
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And finally, as I mentioned earlier by the council member, we do have a signed agreement with 3rd party PGA for when the building is operational.
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Next slide.
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So just going back to what Jerry was saying about the lighten areas, means that shaded area to the left of the building, will be open and unobstructed in perpetuity.
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So the the the 3 existing buildings will be capped as part of this agreement with the owners to transfer the floor area.
0:52:39
And Greg, those lighten areas have been so about 61 feet.
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I think is what it's showing there.
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Above, there will be no future development, which is a consistent kind of makeup between the towers and lower scale buildings in this area, you know, a a larger tower next to a smaller scale building preserving that air.
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Back towards 95th Street.
0:53:02
Next slide, please.
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And here's just an illustrative ground floor plan.
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Again, have not come to any agreements or leases with any potential tenants, but we do think community uses and service providers are viable here and we want to continue those negotiations in full.
0:53:24
To full potential.
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Next slide, please.
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Here's just the sections of the building and an elevation looking north.
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Next slide.
0:53:36
And then just to to recap what the actions are.
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1st, seeking the setting up change, from an M14 district, as Jerry mentioned, a a vestige of the old manufacturing history of the area to a C28 which would encompass the development site in the C4 6, which would encompass the air rights parcels.
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And the the rationale for the the 2 different districts is that the C4 6 would mount over the airized parcels, and that has a higher commercial FAR of 3.4.
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So it maintains a more compliant condition in terms of both of the 3 buildings that are going to remain.
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While the C28 would be mapped over the development site, that has lower commercial f a r of only 2.
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So it prevents the ability to build a commercial tower in that location, but they do have the same maximum residential f a r, so zoning allows to transfer Florida from one site to the other for residential purposes.
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And then the other action would be the zoning text amendment to NIH The proposal would be MAH option 1, so 25 percent of the residential floor area would be affordable, and that's an average AMI of 6% and that's about 113 apartments, primarily affordable.
0:54:52
And so with that, we will take any questions from counsel.
0:54:56
Thank you.
