A new project proposed for the Meatpacking District doesn’t seem as if it should be particularly controversial. It is being spearheaded by the city, which has a clear desire to build housing on the property. At least half of the units should be affordable, which would help address one of the biggest sources of opposition that usually springs up around major new real estate developments. And the neighborhood is represented by Councilman Erik Bottcher, a typically outspoken advocate for pro-housing causes.
But it seems to be facing a tougher-than-expected battle — including resistance from Bottcher himself — due to one of the oldest complaints in the book: The building is too tall. This argument may have seemed destined for the trash heap given the widespread acknowledgment of the city’s housing shortage and the need for apartment buildings of all sizes. However, if the Meatpacking District project, which is likely to rise more than 45 stories, is any indication, developers and city officials should not assume objections over issues including height and shadows will ever disappear.
Fights over too-tall buildings are nothing new even in New York, where skyscrapers are arguably the third-most famous thing about the city, behind only the Statue of Liberty and Pizza Rat. Recent years have seen high-profile battles over the heights of such buildings as the luxury condo at 200 Amsterdam Ave. and the New York Blood Center project on the Upper East Side. It even took several tries at the state level to lift the city’s longstanding cap on residential density, which effectively limited how tall new apartment buildings could be. Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed getting rid of it in 2022 and 2023, but it did not actually make it into the final budget deal until last year.
That deal, combined with the city’s passing of its own major package of housing reforms, known as City of Yes, in December, highlighted what was arguably the most significant year for New York housing policy in recent history. And although the City of Yes debate in particular did include strong pushback over subjects including parking requirements and affordable housing, height did not emerge as a major point of contention.
That brief détente appears to be over now, though, at least in the Meatpacking District. The city released its request for proposals for the Little West 12th Street site on Wednesday and would like any project to include up to 600 residential units. This would require the tower to stand more than 500 feet tall, according to the city’s Economic Development Corp. Prominent local organization Village Preservation has called it “ludicrously oversized,” while the normally pro-development Bottcher has called it “obviously out of scale for the Meatpacking District” and asked the city to pause the development process.
This resistance certainly does not doom the project. The city did indeed issue its RFP despite Bottcher’s objections and said it hopes to have the whole project finished by the end of 2027, indicating it remains confident in its prospects. The building may ultimately end up shorter, but even if it doesn’t and Bottcher remains opposed, the council could just approve it anyway, as it did with the aforementioned Blood Center project. Former local Councilman Ben Kallos insisted that building was too tall up until the final vote, but the council still voted in favor of it — the only recent notable instance of the body overriding its tradition of “member deference.”
The height argument is like a villain from a slasher movie franchise: It just won’t die. However, it is unlikely to kill the Meatpacking District project.
