NYC Building Where Crane Collapsed Should Never Have Been Approved

In a tense city council hearing occurring now, buildings commissioner Patricia Lancaster just admitted under withering questioning from councilwoman Jessica Lappin (D-Manhattan) that the building on E.51st street where the crane collapse last month killed 7 did not meet zoning requirements and should not have been approved.

Apparently, members of the community and the local community board tried several times to address DOB about this.

"That is beyond shocking," Lappin said. "What does it take?"

I'm somewhat surprised by this because the building was approved despite layers of oversight from the local community board, the City Planning Commission, and the Department of Buildings. How none of these groups could find anything wrong with the zoning suggests that none bothered to look to see whether the building was properly zoned or that it was out of variance with the zoning for the location.

It's no wonder that local community members and the community board are pissed by this, but where was the local community board when the plan was approved by them? If the zoning was out of whack at the time the plans were in front of the community board, they could have killed the plan then.

Something is definitely fishy here.