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Land Use, Housing & Zoning
570 5th Avenue, an Application for Draft Scope of Work for a Zoning Text Amendment and Special Permits Pursuant to the Zoning for Accessibility Section of the Zoning Resolution
At the regularly scheduled monthly Community Board Five meeting on Thursday, January 13, 2022, the following resolution passed with a vote of 34 in favor; 0 opposed; 1 abstaining; 1 present not entitled to vote:
WHEREAS, 46/47 Owner LLC (the “Applicant”), an affiliate of Extell Development Company, proposes a development at 570 5th Avenue located on the west side of Fifth Avenue between West 46th and 47th Streets; and
WHEREAS, The proposed development site consists of 11 vacant tax lots and 2 tax lots that contain vacant buildings in the process of being demolished. The site has a lot area of 43,011 square feet, with approximately 150 feet of frontage on Fifth Avenue, 228 feet of frontage on West 46th Street, and 150 feet of frontage on West 47th Street; and
WHEREAS, The eastern portion of the site is located in a C5-3 (15 FAR) district within the Fifth Avenue Subdistrict of the Special Midtown and the western portion of the site is located in a C6-4.5 (12 FAR) district within the Special Midtown District. The zoning lot extends beyond the Proposed Development Site, and occupies most of the remainder of Block 1262; and
WHEREAS, The proposed development is for an office building with a maximum floor area of approximately 1,176,012 zsf, including approximately 1,162,559 zsf of office space (inclusive of an event space with approximately 20,000 sf), and approximately 13,453 zsf of retail space, with additional retail space located below grade; and
WHEREAS, The building would have its primary office entrance on Fifth Avenue, with retail entrances on each of Fifth Avenue, West 46th Street and West 47th Streets and the applicant anticipates this office configuration would have a height of approximately 860 feet; and
WHEREAS, An alternative development scenario would allow for a mixed-use building with hotel, residential and retail use in the event that market conditions are not favorable for office use with a maximum floor area of approximately 1,176,012 zsf, including approximately 800,866 zsf of hotel space, approximately 324,841 zsf of residential space, and approximately 50,305 zsf of retail space, with additional retail space located below grade and a total height of approximately 1,100 feet; and
WHEREAS, To permit the development of this building the applicant seeks a series of land use actions outlined below, including discretionary actions that are subject to City Environmental Quality Review (CEQR) and require the creation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The proposed actions would include a maximum building envelope of up to 1,100 feet that would accommodate both scenarios; and
WHEREAS, As part of this proposed development, the applicant would deliver a set of improvements to the Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street Station (E/M lines) that would result in the station becoming ADA accessible. These improvements would require excavation to a depth of approximately 85 feet below grade in order to provide a new street entrance on East 53rd Street east of Fifth Avenue; a new mezzanine area under East 53rd Street with fare control to accommodate a new street entrance and new access core; a new stair from mezzanine to upper platform and a new stair from upper platform to lower platform; an ADA elevator from street to upper and lower platform passageways; two escalators from mezzanine to upper platform; and a new access core between platforms and street level to accommodate escalators, elevators, and stairs. These improvements are included on the MTA’s Priority Improvement List under the East Midtown Rezoning and the MTA testified in favor of this applicant’s proposal; and
WHEREAS, The excavation for the elevator core would be undertaken and paid for as part of an easement from the Rolex building located at 665 Fifth Avenue to the MTA and would not count toward Extell’s investment towards the subway improvements; and
WHEREAS, Under the Zoning For Accessibility zoning text, the maximum bonus for improvements is capped at 20%, and as it applied to this site, at 440,000 zfa, and the applicant seeks 120,000 additional zfa beyond that for a total of 560,000 additional zfa; and
WHEREAS, To accomplish the Proposed Project, the Applicant is requesting a series of land use actions from the City Planning Commission including:
- Zoning text amendments, including amendments to Section 81-066.6, to permit exceeding the maximum 20% density bonus
- Special permit pursuant to Section 66-512 to permit:
(a) a floor area bonus for mass transit station improvements to the Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street Station
- Special permit pursuant to amended ZR Section 81-066 to permit modifications, including:
(a) the transfer of floor area across district boundaries,
(b) modifications to other bulk and use regulations, including but not limited to, the daylight evaluation/daylight compensation regulations (ZR 81-26 & 81-27),
(c) modifications to the maximum street wall height (ZR 81-43, 81-83, & 81-262[b]),
(d) modifications to the regulations governing major building entrances and maximum lobby widths on Fifth Avenue (ZR 81-42, 81-47[b][2] & 81-84[a]),
(e) modifications to the minimum retail space requirements applicable within the Fifth Avenue Subdistrict (ZR 81-82[b])
(f) modifications to pedestrian circulation space requirements (ZR 81-45 & 37-50),
(g) modifications to building entrance recess area requirements (ZR 37-53(b)),
(h) modifications to the location of floors that can be occupied by commercial uses (ZR 32-422),
(i) modifications to curb cut regulations (ZR 13-242, 81-44),
(j) modifications to parking regulations (ZR 81-84(b)) and screening requirements (ZR 13-221),
(k) modifications to the maximum signage area, height and illumination regulations within the Fifth Avenue Subdistrict (ZR 32-642 & 81-141)
- Special permit pursuant to ZR 74-802 to allow transient hotel use; and, therefore be it
RESOLVED, Community Board Five recommends denial for the proposed zoning authorization unless certain conditions are met:
The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) must include the following evaluation of the proposed development’s impact on:
- Use and overuse of existing community facilities including fire stations, emergency response systems and schools;
- All light sensitive resources;
- Transit and transportation including increased Bike Share traffic, vehicular traffic and congestion; of multi-modal transportation systems and subway ridership increases;
- Station paving improvements to accommodate visually impaired individuals especially at the track level where tactile surfaces need to be installed to indicate where car doors are located for safe train entry;
- Elevator redundancy by installing two elevators so that one is in service at any time while the other one may be out of service due to repairs;
- An affordable housing component for the residential use in the proposed option for a mixed-use development so lacking in CB5;
- Estimate the throughput of number of people that will be serviced by the proposed elevators and the increase in the number of people who can actually go through this subway station’;
- A full daylight evaluation and proposed mitigations if the building does not have a passing score;
- The financial value of the subway improvements undertaken by the applicant, compared to the financial value for the additional density the developer is receiving;
- The maintenance budget package paid by the developer for the proposed transit improvements, including the length of maintenance commitment, number of replacements for elevators and escalators.