Notes from the Neighborhood: Roadblock for JHL Plans

Last month, opponents of the new Jewish Home Lifecare (JHL) facility planned for West 97th Street were disappointed when the Department of City Planning declined to require JHL to submit its plans to the Uniform Land Use Review Process (ULURP). Community Board 7 had voted strongly in favor of requiring this review, which would have given the community more time and greater opportunity to respond to the plan to construct a 20-story tower on what is now the parking lot of the Park West Village apartment complex. This week, however, opponents won a temporary victory in the form of a court injunction to stop Park West Village from commandeering tenants' parking spaces to prepare for construction. Maggi Peyton, president of the Park West Village tenants' association and outspoken opponent of the new building, filed suit along with other plaintiffs against JHL and Park West Village, along with 60 others, claiming that relocating their parking spaces to what they argue would be a less convenient and safe location is a violation of the rent regulated leases that specifically include them. A judge agreed that their case is likely to succeed and issued an injunction preventing the developers from any actions or modifications to the parking lot while the case is still pending. The developers and Park West Village will now need to go through the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal in order to seek a modification to the tenants' lease riders regarding parking spaces.