Ain’t no sunshine for these folks.
A ventilation tower for the chronically delayed and overbudget Second Avenue Subway is about to leave the angry owners of 28 Upper East Side apartments in the dark.
Residents learned this year that the planned 75-foot-tall structure, which will have two 20-foot-tall water towers, is going up right next to the east- and south-facing windows at 233 E. 69th St., a co-op building.
The tower — meant to evacuate smoke and provide emergency exits — is slated for completion next year.
“I’m losing four of seven windows, and I’m furious,” said fourth-floor resident Jolene Appleman, 50, who has lived there for 12 years.
“They’re inconsiderate and incompetent,” she said, adding that windows in her bathroom, dining room, kitchen and extra bedroom will be completely blocked off.
Residents also say property values will drop once the tower goes up. Units there have sold for $600,000 to $1.5 million.
“They shouldn’t take away my ability to sell my place,” Appleman said. “I’m not going to live here forever.”
The structure will replace two apartment buildings on the corner of East 69th Street and Second Avenue that the MTA plans to knock down.
Those are separated from No. 233 by about 20 feet — but the massive above-ground ventilation facility for the East 72nd Street subway station will come right up to the property line.
“The air will be blocked. Ventilation will be blocked in the apartment,” fumed Lawrence Levit, a fifth-floor resident who will have four windows completely sealed off and another three obstructed.
One of the soon-to-be sealed-off windows will be in his 16-year-old daughter’s bedroom, Levit said.
“We don’t know what’s going to be ventilated and where it’s going,” said Levit, an attorney. “And with the wind, it could blow back into the building.
“Having smoke blown into the apartment is a safety concern.”
The MTA argued that, legally, the windows never should have been there in the first place, since city zoning laws allow anyone who owns the land to build right up to the property line.
“Since our lot coverage and building height is in line with zoning regulations, no compensation is due to owners of adjacent properties with illegal lot line windows,” agency spokesman Jeremy Soffin said.