By Leslie Albrecht
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — Community Board 7 holds a special meeting Thursday night to weigh in on Extell Development Company's Riverside Center development, a five-building complex in the works since the 1990s.
Riverside Center, reportedly the largest on the Upper West Side since Lincoln Center, has drawn criticism from residents, who worry it will crowd already strained schools and create an exclusive enclave for the rich.
The mixed use development would bring 2,500 residences, stores, an auto showroom, a movie theater, an underground parking garage and open space to an 8.2-acre parcel between 61st Street and 59th Street and West End Avenue and Riverside Boulevard.
Community Board 7 has spent the last several months crafting its own vision for the site. They're asking Extell to remove one of the buildings and make at least 20 percent of the housing permanently affordable.
The community board's input is only advisory; the City Council has final say on the project.
They community board meets at 6:30 p.m. at Goddard Riverside Center, 593 Columbus Ave. at W. 88th Street.
The public is invited to attend, but the board won't hear testimony on the project.
