Developer Used Wrong Zoning Map : Tall Order--Trim Building 12 Stories

How do you erect a 19-story building in New York City?

Start with a 31-story structure. Discover that zoning prohibits a building that tall. Lose a three-year court fight. And receive an order to lop off 12 stories.

Welcome to 108 East 96th St., the $7.2-million high-rise set to shrink this month in the final act of a showdown between local activists and its developer, Parkview Associates. David defeated Goliath recently when the city ruled that the 31-story edifice must lose its top dozen floors.

Faces $10-Million Loss

The decision will cost the developer about $10 million, leaving the building owners a little queasy as they ponder continuing their fight to save those stories.

“We’re going to take a while to digest this decision,” Jay A. Segal, attorney for Parkview Associates, said.

In addition, the city has dealt with a second Manhattan building found to be too tall. The 811-foot CitySpire project on West 54th Street is 14 feet higher than allowed by zoning ordinances.

But officials spared the building a steel haircut. Developer Ian Bruce Eichner reached a compromise agreement in which he will build a $2.5-million dance studio in return for a variance.

Structure Unoccupied

Parkview’s $10-million loss includes the cost of chopping off the illegal floors, the income from the lost apartments and the cost of the building’s extended vacancy. The structure remains unoccupied; it was to have opened in late 1986.

The odds do not look good for Parkview, which has unsuccessfully taken its fight to preserve the high-rise to the city, a local court, a state court and the U.S. Supreme Court.

The city rejected a Parkview proposal to build about 40 low-income apartments for the elderly in East Harlem in return for a zoning variance leaving the building intact.

Parkview has until April 27 to appeal its most recent defeat; the developer’s last option is a lawsuit against the city charging that the too-tall ruling was arbitrary and capricious, Segal said.

Should Parkview decide not to appeal, the demolition will begin shortly after that date, city Buildings Department spokesman Vahe Tiryakian said.

Have 30 Days to Appeal

“They have 30 days to appeal, and we’re obliged to give ‘em that,” Tiryakian said. “We’ll have to wait and see what happens.”

While the developers worry about the cost of destroying 12 floors, many residents of the well-to-do area could not be happier about the unanimous decision by the city Board of Standards and Appeals.

“We’re really very, very pleased. We feel that, after this almost three-year battle, this was the right result,” said Genie Rice, president of the local community group Civitas.

It was Rice who first noticed that the 31-story building violated a 1973 regulation putting a 19-floor limit on the area’s skyline. Developer Albert Ginsburg, in getting a permit for the structure, used an incorrect zoning map.

Building Largely Finished

When the error was discovered in 1986, workers had already completed the building’s concrete superstructure, installed elevator shafts to the 27th floor and finished wiring and plumbing for the first 24 stories.