A rendering of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering/CUNY-Hunter College development, seen from 74th Street facing FDR Drive. Image credit: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

Court held City did not act arbitrarily; parkland-for-floor area was not illegal quid pro quo.  On October 9, 2013, the City Council approved an application by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and The City University of New York/Hunter College for development of a former New York City Department of Sanitation garage.  (See CityLand’s past coverage here.)  Residents for Reasonable Development petitioned for injunctive and declarative relief, arguing the environmental impact statement failed to consider Hunter’s expansion as well as Sloan-Kettering’s or a residential use of the area, and that granting additional floor area for new public space was an illegal quid pro quo.

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A rendering of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering/CUNY-Hunter College development, seen from 74th Street facing FDR Drive. Image credit: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

Upper East Side community group did not meet burden of proof that City acted arbitrarily.  On July 28, 2014, the New York Supreme Court in Manhattan denied petitions for declarative and injunctive relief against the proposed expansion of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital.  The petitions were brought by the Residents for Reasonable Development and several Upper East Side residents acting individually.  The petitioners argued that the institutional uses of the project were incompatible with the largely residential area, and that approvals by the City Planning Commission and City Council were granted without consideration to the general welfare.

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