Yesterday, we posted about what the impact of the Narrow Streets Zoning Text Amendment would be on the 360 Smith Street project (aka Oliver House aka the former Heavy Metal Building). By late yesterday afternoon, we knew: it was hit with a Stop Work Order because the plans don’t conform to the news zoning and the foundation was only 20 percent complete, so it doesn’t qualify for vesting under the old zoning. And so it looks like Oliver House will be shrinking from 70 feet to 55 feet, which is what residents have been fighting for for more than a year. The complaint that led to the DOB inspection was logged at 11:49AM yesterday: “CALLER STATES THAT NEW ZONING LAW HAS BEEN ESTABLISH YESTERDAY FOR CARROLL GARDEN AREA THEY ARE BUILDING UP TO 70 FT WHEN IN THISARE YOU ONLY ALLOW TO GO AS FAR AS 55 FEET PLEASE INSPECT.” An inspector found that only 20 percent of the foundation was complete and that the building was not vested under the old zoning. He issued a Stop Work Order, except for a railing to be placed around the excavation. The developer presumably will appeal to the Board of Standards and Appeals to try to get “vested” under the old zoning, which is a possibility.
That Was Fast #1: 360 Smith Street Comes to a Grinding Halt
July 25th, 2008 · 6 Comments
Tags: Carroll Gardens
6 responses so far ↓
1 angela // Jul 25, 2008 at 9:43 am
Does this change the subway entrance closing date?
2 ColinHT // Jul 25, 2008 at 10:59 am
I am so proud to be a Carroll Gardener! This is amazing news.
3 sebb // Jul 25, 2008 at 1:16 pm
CG way to GO
4 CG resident // Jul 25, 2008 at 5:24 pm
This is fantastic!!!
5 jimmy // Jul 27, 2008 at 8:40 pm
You guys are clowns. Grow up and get a life and stop worrying about developers, who by the way make the neighborhood so much better
6 jon // Jul 29, 2008 at 11:32 am
While I was convinced this project was going to be ugly and obnoxious, and I was pretty po’ed that they were shutting down the station entrance on 2nd Place, I feel it sucks for the developer. Not that we should feel sorry for developers, but they spent significant time and money getting permits, securing funding, renting equipment, hiring laborers, and now they have to halt instantly? Again, I don’t love real estate developers, but they must be losing a significant amount of money daily because the city council couldn’t get their sh*t together and deal with this when they should have. These developers are basically small-medium business, who hire large numbers of workers and now because of city council incompetence, there’s a lot of uncertainty for many people.
Also, Bill DeBlasio likes to paint himself as some sort of hero here, but where was he when people were trying to get this sopped before it started? I’m sure if the developers had lined his pockets like he wanted, he would have waited to deal with this particular building until it was too late.
Overall, I’m happy the station is staying open for now, but I think this is bad practice for dealing with businesses. I blame DeBlasio and the worthless city council for creating so much chaos on this one.