Community Board Rejects Riverside Center Plan

community board 7 adopted its plan for the riverside center development last night, essentially voting down extell corporation's proposal.

community board 7's plan, which members voted to approve 36 to two, calls on extell to drastically reduce their 5-building project to 2.4 million square feet, eliminate an entire building, nix plans for an auto show room and other measures.

the community board's vote, however, is advisory. borough president scott stringer will now weigh in on extell's plans. then the city planning commission will vote on the proposal. the city council gets the final say in approving the project.

"we want to make some changes that'll benefit everyone," said mel wymore, board 7's chair. "we're hoping the borough president and the city council will back us up 100 percent."

george arzt, spokesperson for extell, released a statement following the vote. "while we recognize the board's hard work, they clearly do not recognize the difficulty in developing projects in this uniquely challenging economic environment," arzt said. "however, this is just the beginning of a long process. we look forward to the next round of the process."