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Jewish Home Lifecare land swap swindle
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November 10, 2009 - Jewish
Home Lifecare (JHL),
a non-profit eldercare facility, wants to swap its current campus on
West 106th Street with a private real estate developer in
exchange for a windfall payment and another parcel of land owned by
the Chetrit
Group, a co-developer
of Columbus Village.
The new location JHL has its
sights on is now open space on West 100th Street between Columbus and
Amsterdam Avenues. It's there that JHL has announced it intends
to construct a new, 22-story eldercare facility - on a site within the
overburdened Park West Village neighborhood that's yet to absorb the
full impact of Columbus Village, a new mega-real estate development
that's still under construction squarely in its midst.
The deal would represent a
monumental double-cross to Upper Westsiders.
As a corresponding result of the proposed land swap, the Chetrit Group would become entitled to build high-rise housing on the site of JHL's current 106th Street campus, which comes with an exemption (or "carve-out") from the zoning restrictions that govern new real estate development within the immediately surrounding neighborhood, known as Manhattan
Valley.
JHL had asked for the carve-out three years ago in its role as a community
anchor, whose plan for expansion would promote the public good.
But the land swap with the Chetrit Group would convert what was meant
to be a charitable benefit for the entire West Side community into a
lucrative profit grab - and at the parallel expense of Park West Villagers,
who would forfeit even more of their neighborhood's dwindling open
space at the other end of the bargain.
To everyone who cares deeply
about preserving the livability of the Upper
West Side, and
to everyone who wants to protect some of the last remaining open space
within the western superblock of Park West Village, the most recent
chapter in this continuing saga recorded a significant step toward protecting
the Manhattan Valley neighborhood. For this achievement, Westsiders
owe their gratitude to Councilmember Melissa
Mark-Viverito.
On October 6, the councilmember
announced that she would move boldly to restore the rightful contextual
zoning status of JHL's current 106th Street campus immediately
and to prevent a private real estate developer from profiting from an
advantage that was solely intended to benefit a non-profit eldercare
facility. Click here 
to read the press release from Councilmember Mark-Viverito's office and click here to read a news story from the Columbia Spectator.
This unexpected re-zoning initiative
is likely to have an immediate impact on whether the Chetrit Group and
JHL are able to go through with their proposed land swap deal after
all.
Yet, there is still cause for serious concern in Park West Village. As one neighborhood resident explained at the October community board meeting where Councilmember Mark-Viverito announced her intentions, "We do not see this as an unqualified victory," noting that a Manhattan Valley rezoning doesn't address the permanent disruption that Park West Village residents will face, should a high-rise medical institution eventually be built in their backyard as an unintended consequence of her actions.
Westsiders for Public Participation will remain, as always, accountable to every neighborhood stakeholder
so that every voice is heard. Please subscribe to our email updates here to be certain to receive full and accurate information about this rapidly evolving story.
