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Transportation & Environment
Tishman Speyer application for a temporary StreetSeat on Vanderbilt Avenue between 44th and 45th Streets at their 200 Park Avenue (MetLife Building) property
At the regularly scheduled monthly Community Board Five meeting on Thursday, June 13, 2019, the following resolution passed with a vote of 40 in favor; 0 opposed; 1 abstaining:
WHEREAS, The Applicant, Tishman Speyer Properties and The Irvine Company, seek to install a 6-foot-by-40-foot temporary, seasonal “StreetSeat” in front of 200 Park Avenue, between 44th and 45th Streets on the east side Vanderbilt Avenue, with open seating for the public; and
WHEREAS, The site in question is a no-travel lane currently demarcated as a “No Standing” zone; and
WHEREAS, The Applicant is conducting a renovation of a larger lobby and the exterior sidewalk/facade of 200 Park Avenue (the “MetLife Building”) from November 2018 through November 2020, and proposes the StreetSeat as an addition of public space earmarked for pedestrians in a crowded district marked by insufficient open space; and
WHEREAS, The 2017 East Midtown Rezoning envisioned a more pedestrian-friendly Vanderbilt Avenue, including the planned pedestrian plaza a block south of this site between 42nd and 43rd Street; and
WHEREAS, The Applicant proposes to model the spaces after the existing StreetSeat template and program allowed across the city by the Department of Transportation, including a full application process and Community Board approval, of which 18 were approved and maintained during the 2018 calendar year; and
WHEREAS, The Applicant proposes a typical StreetSeat configuration, including two 20-foot segments, flush with the curb, with temporary materials to create moveable seating in the space, clearly marked with paint separated from other street parking by concrete wheel stop bars and flexible deliniators and from traffic by planters and stainless steel cables; and
WHEREAS, Each location will be marked with signage to indicate it is open to the public for anyone to use, with no alcohol or smoking allowed; and WHEREAS, No commercial activity will be allowed in the proposed space; and
WHEREAS, The Applicant is committed to, and responsible for, cleaning and "resetting" the spaces every night through a maintenance agreement with the Department of Transportation; and
WHEREAS, The Applicant intends to maintain this space on the typical schedule for a StreetSeat with a season of March through the end of November; and
WHEREAS, The Applicant owns the entire frontage of 200 Park Avenue in front of which the StreetSeat will sit; and
WHEREAS, The Grand Central Partnership is aware of the application and has no objection; therefore be it
RESOLVED, Community Board Five recommends approval of Tishman Speyer’s Application to the Department of Transportation for the installation of a seasonal StreetSeat in front of 200 Park Avenue.