Assemblymember Richard Gottfried (D-Chelsea, Midtown) will be testifying this Wednesday before the NYC Department of City Planning on a proposed text amendment that would close the “mechanical voids” zoning loophole.
The amendment was first proposed earlier this year, after the NYC Department of Buildings revoked the Extell Corporation’s permit for a proposed new high-rise at 30 West 60th Street. Extell’s proposal included a “mechanical void”, or a floor taken up entirely by machinery. Due to a loophole in New York’s zoning law, the floor would not count towards the building’s total height, enabling it to be built far higher than it would otherwise.
The proposed zoning text amendment would prevent such a stunt from being pulled in the future. Gottfried said that while the amendment won’t be sufficient to fix the problem on its own, it’s a step in the right direction.
“Although I don’t believe the proposed zoning text amendment is comprehensive enough, and still allows too much leeway for developers to insert an excessive number of voids into high-rise buildings, I think it’s a good start,” said Gottfried.
Since the Extell incident, Gottfried has been making his own attempts to close the loophole. Last month, he and Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal (D-Central Park, Lincoln Square) co-sponsored a bill (A.5206) which would mandate mechanical voids that exceed 20′ in height or constitute at least 5 percent of the building’s total height are counted towards the building’s Floor-Area ratio.
“These moves by the City and State will help guard against overdevelopment in all the City and on the Upper West Side and in the Central Park West Historic District, where there are two buildings being built with this loophole,” said Gottfried.
