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From left: 200 Amsterdam Avenue, New York City Council Member Ben Kallos and 430 East 58th Street (Credit: Google Maps, Getty Images)

Council member seeks to halve height of 430 West 58th Street

Last Thursday, a judge issued an extraordinary court order requiring the deconstruction of 20-some floors on a Upper West Side condo tower. While the developers have already announced plans to appeal, the decision has renewed hopes for opponents of similar supertall towers elsewhere in Manhattan.

City Council Member Ben Kallos, whose district covers much of Midtown East and the Upper East Side, told the New York Post that his office is going to file a motion to reargue a zoning exemption for Gamma Real Estate’s 430 East 58th Street, using the UWS decision as a basis.

“We’re relying on the judiciary to enforce the law even if the Department of Buildings or the developers don’t think it applies to them,” Kallos said. The council member would like to see the condo tower’s height reduced from 847 feet to less than 400, an even more drastic reduction than that facing 200 Amsterdam Avenue.

"People want to be able to send a tweet saying they're in favor of a bill or opposed to a bill or think a bill needs to [be] changed in a certain way and have that be in the official record," Kallos, chair of the city's Governmental Operations Committee, told Fast Co.

Manhattan Parks Commissioner Bill Castro, Councilmember Ben Kallos, Rockefeller University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne, Minna Elias (on behalf of Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney), and Deputy Borough President Matthew Washington celebrate the repairs to the seawall near Rockefeller University and the revitalization project of the East River Esplanade.

Following child care funding cuts in the Final Executive Budget affecting thousands of working families, Council Candidate Ben Kallos joined Executive Director of DC 1707 Raglan George, Jr. at the “One Man One March,” along with Mabel Everett, President of Local 205 Day Care Employees, to call on Mayor Bloomberg to restore funding to help provide for New York City’s children, single parents and families living in poverty.