316-08-BZ APPLICANT – Greenberg Traurig, LLP, by Deirdre Carson, Esq., for Learning Spring School, owner. SUBJECT – Application July 3, 2019 – Amendment of a previously approved Variance (§72-21) to permit a change in the previously approved site plan to reflect a proposed merger of the school site with an adjacent parcel. C1-5/R9A zoning district. PREMISES AFFECTED – 345-349 Second Avenue 20th Street, Block 901, Lot 26, aka 247-249 East Borough of Manhattan. COMMUNITY BOARD #6M Application granted. ACTION OF THE BOARD – THE VOTE TO GRANT – Affirmative: Chair Perlmutter, Vice-Chair Chanda, Commissioner Ottley-Brown, Commissioner Sheta, and Commissioner Scibetta………………………………5 Negative:………………………………………………0 THE RESOLUTION – WHEREAS, this is an application for an amendment to a variance, previously granted by the Board, to change the Board-approved site plan to permit the merger of the subject zoning lot with an adjacent parcel, thereby creating an entirely new zoning lot and facilitating the transfer of the School’s unused floor area; and WHEREAS, a public hearing was held on this application on November 26, 2019, after due notice by publication in The City Record, and then to decision on the same date; and WHEREAS, Commissioner Scibetta performed an inspection of the site and surrounding neighborhood; and WHEREAS, the subject site is located on the northwest corner of Second Avenue and East 20th Street, in an R9A (C1-5) zoning district, in Manhattan; and WHEREAS, the site has approximately 62 feet of frontage along Second Avenue, 79 feet of frontage along East 20th Street, 4,898 square feet of lot area and is occupied by a three-story and eight-story community-facility building with 27,492 square feet of floor area (5.61 FAR) used as a school (the “School”); and WHEREAS, the Board has exercised jurisdiction over the subject site since May 12, 2009, when, under the subject calendar number, the Board granted a variance to permit the development of the subject building on condition that the bulk parameters of the building be a 38’-3” street wall height on the northern 20’-0” of the subject site’s frontage along Second Avenue, as illustrated on the Board-approved drawings; that any change in the use, occupancy, or operator of the School requires review and approval by the Board; that issuance of a permanent certificate of occupancy be conditioned on the issuance by the Department of Environmental Protection of a Notice of Satisfaction or Notice of No Objection for the Remedial Closure Report; that a composite window–wall attenuation to 316-08-BZ chart and associated deeds; and WHEREAS, third, the applicant states that, at the time of the Board’s grant, the School could not have foreseen a market for use of the subject site’s unused floor area because the subject site and adjacent parcel have remained relatively unchanged, while the proposed zoning-lot merger instead reflects a then- unanticipated eventuality that has arisen as circumstances have changed; and WHEREAS, fourth, the applicant states that, because the School is a non-profit institution, financial hardship was not relevant to the Board’s grant, which instead considered the constraints that as-of-right development would pose to the School’s programmatic needs separate from any financial rationale; and WHEREAS, fifth, the applicant states that this application would not undermine any of the Board’s findings because the School contemplated and affirmed—both during the original application and today—that its unused floor area was and is not necessary to enable the School’s to meet its programmatic needs; and WHEREAS, last, the applicant states that no changes to the School’s building are proposed in this application; and WHEREAS, at hearing, the Board requested and received confirmation that the School was aware that any future application to the Board for any increase in the maximum permitted floor area beyond that allowed by applicable zoning regulations would be considered a
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