Building battle grows over Chelsea garden

Chelsea Now photos by Jefferson Siegel

TOP: W. 21st St. tenant August Costa sits with his dog, Billie, in the backyard garden he’s tended to for the past 18 years. BOTTOM LEFT: The building at 351 W. 21st St. BOTTOM RIGHT: The trees shown here—estimated at 150 years old—are currently threatened by the building owner’s plans to add a rear extension.

By Patrick Hedlund

Standing among more than a dozen varieties of mature trees and blooming perennials in his backyard garden this week, August Costa recounted the nearly two decades he has spent tending to the lush landscape outside the basement apartment he rents on 21st St.

The verdant oasis—including berry-bearing aucuba, lilac, azalea and birch—has provided the lifelong Chelsea resident respite among the surrounding high-rises, as well as an outlet for his inherent love of gardening.

“It’s in my blood, for sure,” said Costa, an actor, adding his grandmother was a horticulturalist. “I’d do anything to save this garden.”

At least a portion of Costa’s green space has recently come under threat, as the newest owner of the four-story row house at 351 W. 21st St., between Eighth and Ninth Aves., introduced plans to renovate and expand the structure. The proposed work, which is currently up for consideration by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, would extend the existing rear of the building out another 10 to 20 feet—paving over at least a portion of the garden and threatening two towering ailanthus trees estimated at 150 years old. However, the entire lot where the 1847 structure sits is in the Chelsea Historic District, granting it some protections under the LPC.

Community Board 4 voted in favor of opposing owner Eran Varnai’s overhaul this week, after a recent Landmarks Task Force meeting pitted Costa and his fellow rent-stabilized tenants against their landlord regarding future renovations.

Varnai maintains that his plans, which had to be scaled back after past proposals to develop further into the rear yard were spurned by Landmarks, seek only to build what is allowable under city regulations. He added that attempts by residents and nearby neighbors to prevent his work only act to forestall the tenants’ inevitable eviction.

“I think that the one thing they’re fighting about is they know they’re going to lose their apartments,” said Varnai, who bought the property in 2004 and has owned others in the city since 1995. “They’re using whatever tool they can in order to prevent or delay my plans.”

Board 4 also deemed Varnai’s proposal “inappropriate”—including his plan to build a one-story rooftop addition—writing a letter to the LPC citing the historical significance of the building’s rear façade. Renovations would raze the house’s intact “tea-porch,” which are types of rear extensions “generally considered significant historic features of the building,” said Ed Kirkland, chairperson of Board 4’s Landmarks Task Force. “Is this preservation when almost nothing but the front is left?” he asked of the “gut renovation.”

In addition to finding fault with Varnai’s planned rooftop addition and demolition of the tea-porch, the board also commented on the trees and garden, of which the LPC ultimately has no jurisdiction.

“This space is largely intact and has been well cared for,” the letter stated. “It contains some fine large trees that will clearly be lost, among them two tall ones that frame the historic rear façade of this building. The considerable excavation required by this project will endanger others.”

Varnai claimed to Chelsea Now he would try to preserve as much of the garden as possible during renovations, including the possibility of relocating the trees farther back from the building. However, Costa noted, the trees’ roots most likely spread deep into the soil and into other neighbors’ yards, making it virtually impossible to uproot and replant them.

“Those trees would have to move either way,” said Varnai, who will have to appear before Landmarks again on May 20. “I highly doubt that anyone in New York City would stop development because of a tree.”

The building’s tenant association has also enlisted the help of law firm Himmelstein, McConnell, Gribben, Donoghue and Joseph, which specializes in rent-stabilization cases, to battle other aspects of the renovation. While the legal team will focus strictly on proposed demolition work, the issue goes hand-in-hand with Costa’s fight to protect the garden.

Tenant association members Rosana Chinchilla and Ulysses Young, who have lived in the building a combined 53 years, said that while they don’t personally use the garden, it’s an integral part of both the property and the Chelsea community.

“I think [the plan to renovate is] bad because there’s so little green space in New York City,” said Chinchilla, 46, whose rear window looks out on the garden. “It’s nice to have a backyard and trees instead of another brick wall.”

Young added his neighbor “made a beautiful thing” out of what was essentially a vacant lot when Costa moved in 18 years ago. At that time, Costa noted, the untended space was home to rats and drug addicts before he began investing his own time and money to spruce it up.

“I almost didn’t take it because it was going to be so much work,” Costa admitted, estimating he’s dipped as much as $60,000 into its upkeep over the years. “In hindsight, it’s healed me as much as I’ve healed it.”

Varnai claimed that he would retain as much of the green space as possible during construction, but he still faces stiff opposition from nearly everyone in the community. This includes actor/author Ethan Hawke, another neighbor who pledged to have his own legal team take the case on. Other nearby residents have expressed concern about what excavation will to do neighboring flora in the connecting rear gardens on the block, including a possibly 300-year-old sycamore on the lot line in Costa’s backyard.

“The tenants of the building have poisoned everyone in the area,” Varnai said. “People can say that they think we’re going to destroy it… if we wanted to destroy it, we could have done it.”

He added he is confident that his plan will go through, assuming the various city agencies give him the green light. “The project is going to get done,” he said. “Whatever happens ultimately is going to be much better than what is there.”

As for Costa, the garden continues to provide refuge from the bustle of city life—and he’s prepared to do anything to protect it.

“If I had to move out,” he said, “I would to save this garden.”