The zoning variance process is for suckers! A timely developer—even one who spends an incredibly long time period just getting a hotel's doors open—doesn't have time to look at things like zoning restrictions. They just put a building up and then apologize for the fait accompli later. "Oh shit! Were we not supposed to build that high?" That appears to be the tack taken by the owners of The Nolitan—the hastily erected and slowly opened hotel at 30 Kenmare Street. BoweryBoogie notes that the owners are scheduled to appear before Manhattan Community Board 2's land use committee to ask for after-the-fact-permission to build higher than zoning allowed using materials that don't meet special district requirements.
You see, 30 Kenmare resides in the Special Little Italy District, a swath of real estate that allows for construction no higher than eighty-five feet. And then there's the stipulation [PDF] that "exterior materials of the front wall shall be predominantly of masonry.
· Nolitan Seeking to Legazlie Its Illegal Height in Special Little Italy District [BoweryBoogie]
· Nolitan coverage [Curbed]
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