The RIRA Column
Margie Smith, Vice President
Roosevelt Island Residents Assn.
e-mail: MSmith@quintennium.com

Once again you're getting the second string writing the RIRA column. Every once in a while Steve lets me take a turn at it. I wanted to start this week by clarifying some information in Steve's last column. In an attempt at levity, since it was The WIRE's April Fool's Day edition, he gave a whole list of things that RIOC was supposedly going to approve at their next meeting. For those of you who didn't realize he was joking, here's a clarification: the Youth Center did not get the space they need to accept their $1.6 million grant; the tennis courts will not be open at the end of this month; the barbecue and picnic areas will not be relocated to the open Southtown area; there will be no private security service to replace Public Safety; the RIOC Board will continue to be populated by appointees of Governor Pataki; operations will not be moved to professional management; the Public Information Officer John Melia has not resigned and will continue to collect his $90,000+ salary; details of the private investigation of Rob Ryan's shenanigans will continue to remain a secret; and the Board will not consider the implementation of Governor Pataki's alleged request to convert the RIOC Board from a wholly appointed board to one elected by the residents.

On another subject, the Octagon battle is still in the hands of the court, but I think it's important for anyone interested in the proceedings to know some of the history. If you've been following the articles in The WIRE, you know that the judge is questioning why we waited so long to go to court since we certainly saw this coming for a while. The answer is really simple. With any kind of development you have three options. First, you can try to negotiate with the developer. The residents did this but after every interaction the project got wider and higher. The original plan was for an "L" shaped building with 400 apartments that was six stories high. The current plan makes it look like a "J" which takes up more room. It's now 500 apartments instead of 400 and it's thirteen stories instead of six. Obviously, negotiating didn't work. Next, you can try legislation. We worked with our legislators for several years and finally got an Open Spaces Bill passed that says, in effect, that there can be no development for other than park purposes. onthat site or on any of our other parks. RIOC and the developers tried to get Assemblymember Pete Grannis to amend the law to allow for the Octagon development, but he wouldn't do it. So RIOC decided that the law was vague enough to allow the project. That left us with the last resort, which is to file an Article 78 to stop the construction. Many projects come and go after being in the planning stages for years, like the Eldercare Facility, the Marriott Hotel at Southpoint, and others. Until final approval is given for the project, there's nothing that can be done legally. Once that approval is given, the public has four months to file an Article 78 to halt the project. Because of this, developers, immediately upon getting final approval, break ground knowing that judges are averse to forcing them to take down a building that's already being erected.

It costs a lot of money to go up against the State. This community doesn't have that kind of money so, as soon as the project was approved, we began to try to find lawyers who would take the case for free (pro bono). It's impossible to have pro bono lawyers on standby "in case" we have to file a suit. That's why it took us several weeks to find representation. We were extremely lucky to get Dan Quart to take the case and we got additional help from Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office and more from Columbia University. We filed well within the legal timeframe. The fact that the developers chose to start building immediately, rather than to wait for the outcome of the case is a risk they chose to take. How much of a risk it really is has been questioned by many people. I guess time will tell. We'll keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.

On a lighter note, when you're passing the Trellis and the Deli you'll see two new light posts. These are being tested by RIOC for suitability. Drop RIOC (hberman@rioc.com) and Steve Marcus (SteveAtRIRA@verizon.net) an e-mail and let them know how you like them, since RIOC is planning to install many more.