Seven Old Trees to be Cut for Micro-Apartment Building

The seven trees marked above will be cut down to make way for a micro-apartment development on a lot at the intersection of East 27th Street and Mt. Carmel Place in Manhattan. (Ivan Pentchoukov/Epoch Times)

NEW YORK—The city administration has planted more than 660,000 trees as part of the MillionTreesNYC project.

The city is also encouraging developers to build micro-apartment buildings, with a proposal selected in January for the first building to be constructed on East 27th St., between 1st and 2nd Avenues.

But when the trees get in the way of a micro-apartment development, the trees will have to go.

Seven trees will be cut down on the north side of a planned micro-apartment building at 335 E. 27th St., Kirk Goodrich, a representative from the Monadnock Development LLC, told Community Board 6 April 3. The trees are each about 7 stories tall. Each has been growing for more than 20 years, according a member of Community Board 6.

“We looked into this and it appears that those trees are privately owned. Since they are not street trees, nor are they inside of parks, we do not have jurisdiction over their potential removal,” said Philip Abramson, a representative from New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

According to maps provided by the developer and contrary to the parks’ department statement, the trees are within New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) land. The department of parks later emailed a correction to their statement confirming that the trees are on NYCHA property.

When Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a request for proposals for a micro-apartment building last year, the administration received 33 responses. The winning proposal came from the team of Monadnock Development LLC, Actors Fund Housing Development Corporation, nARCHITECTS, and Corcoran Sunshine Group.

The proposed building, MyMicroNY, will have 55 studio apartments ranging from 250 to 370 square feet each. The ground floor will feature 1,200 feet of community space and 575 feet of retail space.

The Department of City Planning certified the developer’s application to rezone the land on which the plot sits on April 8.

The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Community Board 6, and Monadnock Development LLC, did not return calls for comment. Eric Bunge, the lead architect for the project from nARCHITECTS, said he is not authorized to speak about the issue.