City Council Approves Condo Upzoning for St. Vincent’s East Campus
 Last week the City Council’s Land Use Committee approved a revised plan to upzone the St. Vincent’s Hospital’s East Campus to allow Rudin Management’s development of 350 condos on the site. GVSHP had argued strongly against upzoning the site to grant the special zoning privileges which had been originally afforded to the hospital to a condo development.
The one main change to the prior Rudin plan was the announcement that the Reiss Building on West 12th Street would be preserved. GVSHP (among many others) had long argued that demolition of the Reiss building was inappropriate. However, a similar recent rezoning approved by the City Council and City Planning Commission has resulted in the near-total demolition of the Whitehall Storage Warehouse at 150 Charles Street, which was similarly required to be “preserved.” In that case the Commission and the Council have said that the demolition is consistent with the zoning approvals for “preservation and re-use” of the building. GVSHP has therefore asked Speaker Quinn for clarification as to exactly what sort of preservation would be required in this case, and what sort of mechanisms exist for enforcing any such requirements – read the letter HERE. We are awaiting a response.
The Council also announced that as part of the agreement to allow the $900 million Rudin condo development to move ahead, Rudin would donate $1 million to arts programs in local schools and $1 million to legal services to preserve affordable housing in the area.
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