Donna Park, Executive Director of St. Vincent's Comprehensive Cancer Center, gave an overview of the Center where the monthly meeting was being held.  She provided some of the highlights of the Center including its patient-centered focus with 90% of care patients receive provided at the Center; 24-hour treatment availability; clinical research; and supportive care programs such as herbalists, social workers, psychiatrists, support groups, yoga, and reiki.

She related that the Cancer Center receives high patient satisfaction for individualized cancer care- from treating specific cancer to emotional and psychological support. It houses all the latest hardware and software supported by a data enter and is connected to the hospital including lab tests, scans and is looking to integrate electronic medical records in the next few years.  Most insurance plans are accepted as well as a financial assistance program, so the patient's financial situation is never an issue.  Dr. Michael Fannuchi, the new medical director of the Cancer Center, was also introduced to the group. 

The session was then turned over to Shelly Friedman, of Friedman & Gotbaum, LLP, St. Vincent's land use counsel.  Mr. Friedman indicated that the approvals to be sought would involve both the Landmarks Preservation Commission, because the properties were located in the Greenwich Village Historic District, and the City Planning Commission, because development of a new hospital would require several actions from the Commission.  Mr. Friedman led a discussion of the zoning and land use issues based on the Community Working Group's preference to examine it at this meeting instead of Landmarks issues.  Mr. Friedman introduced as an observer Ms. Vivian Awner from the Department of City Planning, who serves as DCP's liaison to Community Board 2.  He also recommended that persons interested in a further understanding of the zoning issues that he would be discussing purchase DCP's recently revised Zoning Handbook.

Mr. Friedman explained that the Zoning Resolution assigns every property in the City to a zoning district.  It then provides rules that govern both allowable uses and allowable "bulk" (i.e., amount of floor area, height, setbacks, yards) within each district.  The critical issue of how much floor area can be built is governed by the Floor Area Ratio applicable in each district.   The Floor Area Ratio, or "FAR," is a product of the lot area of the site times a numerical value assigned in the Zoning Resolution.  Thus, if a 100' by 100' lot is located in a zoning district with an FAR 5 allowance, the site can be developed to a maximum of 50,000 sf of zoning floor area (100 x 100 = 10,000 x 5 = 50,000).  Zoning districts generally in Manhattan are organized to permit larger buildings on the avenues and smaller buildings on the mid-blocks, and the St. Vincent's Hospital main campus is similarly zoned. The 7th Ave portion of the site is zoned C2-6 which permits an FAR of 6.5 and the midblock is zoned R6 which permits an FAR of 4.8.  The O'Toole site is also zoned C2-6 (FAR 6.5) and the Triangle site is zoned C2-7 (FAR 10).

Mr. Friedman stated that perhaps the most serious problem in dealing with the various new hospital scenarios is that the R6, established when the current Zoning Resolution was adopted in 1961, failed to take into consideration the fact that most of the St. Vincent's buildings on the main campus, constructed before 1961, were already significantly larger than the FAR 4.8 allotted to them. For instance, four of the midblock buildings, zoned R6 (FAR 4.8), were already built to FAR 9.6, FAR 8.6, FAR 7.13 and FAR 6.25 as of the date the zoning was enacted. 

Mr. Friedman explained that R6 was not a zoning district applicable to a major comprehensive care hospital.  He distributed a chart of Manhattan hospitals (copy attached) which showed that almost all other hospitals in Manhattan were zoned to FAR 10 and in some cases more due to special actions such as -- in the case of the hospitals along the FDR Drive from 59th to 72nd Street -- the purchase of millions of square feet of additional floor area from over the Drive. At FAR 4.8, St. Vincent's had the lowest allowable FAR of any Manhattan hospital.

In 1976 when the Coleman building was planned, rather than address its original R6 mistake, the City permitted Coleman to be built utilizing a Large Scale Community Facility Designation.  Mr. Friedman reported that these LSCFDs have been used successfully by a number of major Manhattan hospitals to provide long-range land use planning for development of a multi-building campus.  They are intended to provide for future growth.  He presented a chart showing many of the LSCFDs for hospitals in Manhattan, some of them over 30 years old and still providing significant master planning guidance. Mr. Friedman explained how the LSCFD utilized to construct Coleman was exhausted the day it was adopted, and has limited the options for the hospital since. 

Mr. Friedman indicated that the all of the land use actions likely to be requested could be traced to rectifying these two past mistakes. In brief, they involve lifting the LSCFD and applying for re-zonings that would most likely be greater than the underlying R6 but call for less zoning floor area than contained in the overbuilt existing buildings.  He offered to elaborate on these options at a future meeting.

In response to a question about affects on the community, it was discussed that in terms of the project, St. Vincent's will be asking the Department of City Planning to delete the LSCFD, to look at the underlying issue of the problem -- the R6 zoning -- and plan for an underlying zoning regulation that would be needed in order to build the hospital. The plan requires the elimination of the 1979 LSCFD and creation of a new LSCFD to treat the Triangle and O'Toole sites as a single zoning lot so that floor area on the Triangle could be transferred to the O'Toole site.  In further discussion regarding air rights, it was clarified that the hospital would not be double counting the Triangle. 

Mr. Friedman concluded that whatever is eventually proposed for the hospital and redevelopment will require significant approvals from City Planning and Landmarks, public input and environmental reviews. The Community Working Group is the nucleus of that public input.  The process will require as much transparency as possible and will be helpful to the overall process.  In terms of preservation of any buildings on the existing campus, it was pointed out that by law, that will be fully reviewed at the Landmarks Commission.  

One participant asked about the effect of the subway on O'Toole and whether conversations had begun with the MTA.  While conversations have not begun, it was noted that the subway line runs adjacent to but not under O'Toole. As plans move forward and become more definitive, conversations with the MTA will take place.  While there will have to be special structural engineering work done to isolate vibrations and electromagnetic interference between the subway and a new hospital, there are many medical buildings that have been built adjacent to or above subway lines.  In terms of location of the emergency room, St. Vincent's is looking at the 12th Street side of 7th Avenue, but has not committed yet to a plan. 

In response to discussions about developing a new hospital in historic Greenwich Village, one participant noted she could appreciate people's concerns, but comparing a private development condo to a hospital is like comparing apples and oranges. She stated that the current Large Scale Community Facility Designation is in place because it services the community and the CWG should not lose site of the fact that this is not only for this community, it is for the surrounding communities.  She believed that it was a public health question and also a part of the infrastructure of this entire city.

In terms of whether all of the rooms will be single-bedded, St. Vincent's stated that the goal would be to make as many as could possibly be fit. Some of the limitations are in the height of the ceilings -- patient rooms require 12-foot ceilings for the ductwork to deliver air.  Once all of the space programming is completed and all of the diagnostic areas are confirmed, it was reported that an engineering program would be completed that confirms how much air must be delivered to the building, and how it can be done.  

The presentation of the green hospital technologies was tabled until the next meeting of the Community Working Group.