Community Board 7 has given Extell Development Company plenty to think about after presenting over 40 changes to the developer's plan for a new Riverside Center mixed-use community on the Upper West Side that it said will both improve the community and help the developer.

“We want to make changes that will benefit everyone,” said Mel Wymore, chair of Community Board 7.

Extell’s proposal for a five-building, mixed-use development on the Upper West Side calls for almost three million gross square feet of new development, spread among 2,500 residential units, retail spaces, an automobile showcase, movie theater, hotel and school. Extell also proposes 1,800 underground parking spaces and extensive public open space, with landscaping and a water scrim. The development would span 59th and 61st Streets, between West End Avenue and the West Side Highway.

Board 7’s changes are non-binding and form an advisory opinion that will be considered by City Planning and the City Council, which ultimately will approve, reject, or approve the project with modifications in the fall.

Detailed in an exhaustive 42-page report, proposed changes include the removal of building four, the 399,361 s/f central building on the southern portion of the complex. Board members said that the removal of building four from the plan would create more public open space in the area, reduce the project’s density and create a view corridor to the McKim, Mead, and White-designed IRT Powerhouse on 58th Street and Eleventh Avenue. Local preservationist groups such as Landmark West! and the Historic Districts Council have been pushing for landmark designation for the Powerhouse.

The Board also called for 30% affordable housing, measured by square feet, in the complex, with the option to locate some affordable housing off-site.

Affordable housing has been lost throughout the Upper West Side, said board members, and Extell should have the responsibility to give back to the community. Currently Extell is mandated to designate only 12% of the residential units as affordable, and these would return to market rate apartments after 20 years. City Planning chair Amanda Burden has also articulated support for more affordable housing in the project.

Board 7 also adopted a mandate that Extell strive for LEED Platinum certification for the project from the United States Green Building Council and hire a LEED consultant. LEED Platinum rating is the highest designation of environmental sustainability for a building, and only about a dozen projects in the city have met the stringent guidelines. These include the Durst Organization’s One Bryant Park and the Albanese Corporation’s Verdesian, a residential tower in Battery Park City. Extell has not indicated that the project would be aiming for LEED certification of any kind.

The report also called for a 151,598 s/f public school that would be completely funded by Extell, and built as the first building in the complex. The school would be large enough to accommodate 1,332 students, housing six sections of students from kindergarten through eighth grade. It also wants an outdoor, ground-level play space that would accommodate all the students - Extell has an 8,400 s/f play space in the current design.

Extell has only committed to a 75,000 s/f core and shell of a school, with the city’s School Construction Authority given the option to pay for an additional 75,000 s/f. But parents in the last two months have pushed heavily for a new, large school in the district, which has seen a surge in student growth that has been attributed to the numerous new residential towers in the area.

The School Construction Authority has not allocated any funding for new seats in the district for 2010 to 2014, according to the Board’s report, so it said that Extell’s funding would be crucial. Board 7 estimated that the school would cost $350 to $450 per square foot and total $53 to $68 million for the entire school.

Other changes include bringing the entire site “to grade,” or street level, reducing parking spaces from 1,800 to 1,000 and removing the proposed automobile dealership from the plan.

“We’re asking for an awful lot from this developer,” said one community board member, but others said that it was important to be strategic and encompass all of the community’s concerns.

Since the board’s opinion is advisory, Extell is not bound by any of the changes unless City Planning or the City Council adopts them.

There was also some dispute over density, but the board ultimately voted to mandate a 2.4 million square foot development, down from the nearly three million that Extell wants. Not everyone agreed with the change.

“I don’t think we should artificially limit this site, unless this extra density is going to create intolerable conditions,” said Thomas Vitullo-Martin, a board member, who opposed many of the changes that were endorsed by the board.

Extell was resistant to the board’s changes, citing the costs of developing the massive center that would be exacerbated by the changes.

“While we recognize the Board’s hard work, they clearly do not recognize the difficulty in developing projects in this uniquely-challenging economic environment. However, this is just the beginning of a long process. We look forward to the next round of the process,” said Extell spokesman George Arzt in a statement.

Community Board 7’s review period is now complete as part of the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), a months-long process that will ultimately decide the project‘s fate. Board 7’s report is the culmination of a 60 day review process that included a half-dozen public hearings, and borough president Scott Stringer’s office will have 30 days to weigh in on the project, before it goes to City Planning, and then the City Council.

“I am incredibly impressed with the document,” said Gale Brewer, the city council member who represents the Upper West Side. “Every aspect is well thought out.” She will vote on the project in the fall and said she supported each modification that was proposed.

As the last major undeveloped parcel on the Upper West Side, and one of the few open sites in all of Manhattan, the last few months have been only the tip of the iceberg. Riverside Center has been decades in the making.

The west side of Manhattan was historically rail yards, but began gradually transforming into a residential sector in the mid-20th century. After numerous failed development proposals from various groups, Donald Trump purchased the larger Riverside South plot, from 59th Street up to 72nd Street, for around $100 million in 1985. Two years later, Trump proposed a project known as “Television City,” kicking off an extensive review process that involved Community Board 7, City Planning and the City Council in a ULURP procedure identical to the one begun in 2010.

A restrictive declaration was approved in December 1992, limiting the “L, M, and N” portions of the greater Riverside South site - the current area between 59th and 61st Streets - to around 2.4 million square feet of development and 577 residential units.

But the project never happened. NBC, the prospective tenant for a new television station, decided to stay in Rockefeller Center, and the site remained barren. Trump sold parts of the site to Hong Kong investors, and in 2006, Extell purchased the undeveloped plot for $1.76 billion.

Extell hired French architect Christian de Portzamparc to redesign the site as a mixed-use complex with a substantial amount of public open space. Later features such as the water scrim would be added in the design phase, and other things were removed as the community weighed in.

“It was evolution,” said L. Stephen Hill of Goldstein Hill & West Architects, LLP, the executive architects for the project. “We’ve been talking to the community board for quite some time now.”

Extell scrapped the idea of a Costco big-box store in the development in October 2008 after community opposition. In March 2009, renderings of the project were unveiled, and a week later Extell also reduced the heights of three of the towers, although it also slightly increase the heights of the remaining two.

In May 2010, City Planning issued a supplemental environmental impact statement on the project, following extensive study and community feedback. It would certify the project, kicking off the ULURP process that will continue through the fall.

Although opposition to all development on the site has faded, there is no doubt that a project of such magnitude will dramatically change the neighborhood, and the community continues to have major concerns. The rise of many new residential buildings to the north of the site has already created an influx of new residents, and some fear that the Upper West Side will lose its identity under the heavy march of development.

“As we get bigger and bigger buildings, it gets harder and harder to get that community feel,” said Roberta Semer, a community board member.