Opponents asked that owner re-use existing four-story building. Jack Ancona proposed to demolish a four-story, 3,375-square-foot building at 132 West 26th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, replacing it with a twelve-story, 135-foot retail and residential project. Because the lot retained its manufacturing zoning, the proposal required a use variance.

Ancona claimed that his site’s narrow 18-foot, 9-inch width made it unique and rendered manufacturing uses impractical. Ancona provided documents showing only six other lots less than 20 feet in width within the immediate eight-block radius. Unlike his lot, the six lots were adjacent to one another and could, Ancona argued, be grouped into one large development lot. Ancona also claimed that 40 percent of the surrounding buildings contained residential use, largely stemming from illegal conversions in the 1980s and the City’s residential rezoning of large portions of West 24th and West 28th Streets between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. (read more…)