Minerva Update

Minerva’s view of the Statue of Liberty may be safe:

A controversial condo that threatens to block the famed wave between the Statue of Liberty and a Green-Wood Cemetery icon suffered another setback last week when the local community board voted to downsize the project.

Developers hoped the 614 Seventh Ave. building would tower 70 feet in height, but Community Board 7 members voted to limit it to 50 feet, arguing that new city zoning regulations applied to the lot.

“The community didn’t feel it was appropriate to reward developers for bad behavior,” said Board 7 chair Randy Peers, adding developer Chaim Nussencweig’s project had been tagged with five active Buildings Department violations.

Nussencweig had struck a deal with Green-Wood Cemetery officials earlier this month to cut out a portion of the 38-unit condo to preserve the famed salute between the cemetery’s statue of Minerva and Lady Liberty.

Critics of the redesign called it a peephole that would save only a sliver of the current panoramic views of Red Hook, the harbor and parts of New Jersey.

New rules went into effect last November limiting the height of new buildings in Greenwood Heights, but projects with finished foundations aren’t subject to the new zoning.

The Buildings Dept. ruled later that month that the Seventh Ave. condo’s foundation hadn’t been finished and froze work on the project.

See also: “Greenwood Cemetery Vista Saved?”