By Leslie Albrecht
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — After months of angry protests about Riverside Center, a billion dollar, five-building development on the Upper West Side, residents will get a chance this week to formally voice their concerns at a public hearing.
The blowback against Extell Development Company’s proposal reached a fever pitch recently when Huffington Post blogger Marta Hallowell called on Tina Fey, Alan Gilbert, Wynton Marsalis, Alex Rodriguez and Alec Baldwin to join in the fight and push for more parks, affordable housing and schools at the controversial development.
The entertainers could take Hallowell up on that offer Tuesday night when Community Board 7 hosts a public hearing on Riverside Center at 6:30 p.m. at 250 W. 87th Street.
Community groups have been sounding the alarm about the proposed development, which will include 2,500 housing units on the 8.2-acre parcel bound by W. 59th and W. 61st streets and West End Avenue and Riverside Boulevard.
Among other demands, Community Board 7 wants Extell to remove one of the five buildings it’s planning for the site and a guarantee that 20 percent of the square footage for residential units will be set aside permanently for affordable housing.
Plans to develop the site have been in the works since the early 1990s.
Extell says the project will result in a well-designed mixed-use district that will bring neighborhood retail and open space to the waterfront area.
Extell president Gary Barnett said at a public meeting earlier this month that Extell could make only so many concessions before the project becomes impossible to build.
