with concessions to community, Pier 40 plan moves ahead

For months, preservationists and the Chelsea community fought against a proposal to redevelop the St. John’s Terminal at Washington Street between West Houston and Spring Streets. Their concerns included its 1.7-million-square-foot size, the potential influx of big box stores, additional traffic congestion and the amount of affordable housing. Most of all, the planned transfer of 200,000 square feet of air rights to the property from nearby Pier 40 led some to worry that the pier’s beloved recreational sports facility would be lost and that other historic buildings along the Hudson would be in danger of redevelopment.

In response, Council Member Corey Johnson negotiated a deal with the city and the St. John’s developers — Westbrook Partners and Atlas Capital — that addresses many of the community’s concerns. It was approved by the City Council’s zoning subcommittee Dec. 5.

The deal states that no subsequent air rights transfers be allowed within Community Board 2, protecting the neighborhood’s historic sites from future developers who might want towers overlooking the river. Johnson also succeeded in limiting the size of retailers — except a planned grocery store — at St. John’s to 10,000 square feet, eliminating the opportunity for large stores like Target or Lowes from moving in. He also sped up the process of establishing a South Village Historic District, which the Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously approved Dec. 13.

Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) called the vote a “huge victory” in an email to supporters, and thanked everyone who wrote letters and attended hearings. Some have criticized GVSHP’s approach to the Pier 40 project, saying the organization should have opposed it altogether, but Berman insisted that collaborating with the developers was better than having no say in the process. “Had the Council simply rejected the plan altogether, the developer could have gone back to building what the current zoning for the site allows with no approvals needed — a massive hotel/office/entertainment complex with no height limits for the new development whatsoever, no public space, no affordable housing,” he wrote.

Johnson is quoted in the Villager newspaper as praising the deal’s approval. “These are an extraordinary array of benefits,” Johnson said before the zoning subcommittee’s vote last Monday. “At each step along the way, this application got better and better, with more benefits for the community at each turn. I think we can now see a clear picture of how this development will integrate with the community, and how it can be a real asset to the West Side and to our city as a whole.”

The Hudson River Park Trust, which runs Pier 40 and its beloved neighborhood sports facility, will use the $100 million from the sale of its air rights to restore the pier’s crumbling pilings. Other benefits include a $14 million contribution to the pier from the city, a promise from the Department of Transportation to conduct a $1.5 million traffic study of the area and more one-bedroom units in the development’s senior affordable housing building.

The full City Council is expected to vote on the project on Dec. 15, at which point it will go to Mayor Bill de Blasio to be signed, completing the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure.

Madeleine Thompson can be reached at newsreporter@strausnews.com