City pols vowed on Friday to pass a new law to prevent developers from having a separate “poor door” entrance for low-income residents within mostly-luxury apartment complexes.
The outrage came after the city’s Department of Housing and Preservation Development earlier this week OK’d a project at 40 Riverside Blvd. on the Upper West Side that has a separate entrance for poorer residents in set-aside “affordable” units.
Officials in the progressive Mayor de Blasio administration said construction of the Bloomberg-era project was too far along to allow them to slam the brakes — but some City Council members begged to differ.
“This developer must go back, seal the one door and make it so that all residents go through the same door,” said Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal (D-Manhattan), who represents the area.
She said her office has received hundreds of letters of complaints about the poor door, with one saying, “What’s next, is there going to be two water fountains?”
The 33-story high-rise planned by Extell Development Co. will have 219 units overlooking the Hudson waterfront and 55 affordable units in a back part of the building that faces the street.
Inclusionary zoning regulations — which give developers bonuses if they set aside a proportion of units as “affordable” — have always allowed for a separate building for the low-income component.
But it wasn’t until the regulations were changed in 2009 that the separation was allowed to be done on the same site — and even in what most people would perceive to be the same building.
Manhattan Borough President Gail Brewer acknowledged it was too late to do anything legislatively to stop the Riverside poor door because it was approved under an existing zoning law.
But she said she plans to propose legislation to change the law to prohibit segregated entrances for future mixed-housing developments — something with which the administration says it’s on board.
“The previous administration changed the law to enable this kind of development. We fundamentally disagree with that approach, and we are in the process of changing it to reflect our values and priorities,” said de Blasio spokesman Wiley Norvell.
“We want to make sure future affordable-housing projects treat all families equitably.”
That said, officials noted that projects already approved for separate entrances — and far along in construction — would still likely be OK’d by HPD.
Extell declined comment.