Olivia Kelley recounts the latest trials for Congregation Shearith Israel’s long-toothed proposal to build five stories of condos atop their new community house. In Shearith Israel Project Nixed Again (linked), Kelley hones in on key points that LANDMARK WEST! has been making time and again. Quoting Attorney Michael Hiller, a lawyer retained by some of the affected neighbors, ‘The application as initially prepared is substantially different from what is being proposed now…the developers are passing this off as a minor modification — it’s a very substantial modification.’
Everyone is having a difficult time keeping up with the continual changes. The same article quotes new Community Board 7 Chair, Roberta Semer who, until recently, was on the Land Use Committee charged with reviewing the voluminous documentation. Although she ultimately sat out the deciding vote (since she is now Chair), she noted that among the documents flooding CB7, ‘I didn’t get a chance to review them, because we got them later in the day’.
In response, the Shearith Israel officials reportedly offered no comment. LANDMARK WEST! would be in support of an appropriate community house that met the congregation’s needs, satisfied the Landmark Preservation Commission’s guidelines of appropriateness and complied with underlying zoning.
Read the full article from the West Side Spirit HERE.