Locals File Suit to Derail Lenox Hill Hospital Overhaul Approval
A contentious $2 billion makeover of the Upper East Side hospital received city approval in August. The Committee to Protect Lenox Hill, a group of local residents that have persistently opposed the project, have now filed suit against the city.
| 11 Dec 2025 | 06:12
A rendering of the planned $2 billion overhaul of Lenox Hill Hospital, which was approved by city officials this summer. A local advocacy group is now suing them, alleging zoning violations. (
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The proposed overhaul was lowered in height multiple times. The original plan called for a height over 500 feet with an apartment tower. The apartment tower was scrapped plans now call for a 376 foot tall tower (
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A group of persistent local residents opposed to a $2 billion overhaul of Lenox Hill Hospital have sued an array of government officials, arguing that they violated zoning laws by approving the plan back in August.
The defendants in the suit include the City Council, the Planning Commission, City Hall, and Lenox Hill Hospital itself (plus its parent company, Northwell Health). Northwell is seeking to essentially reorient the building’s current 10-building campus, centered on E. 77th St., around one tall 376-ft.-tall tower.
The project is only slated to bring 25 new beds online at the hospital, although it would boost the amount of single-occupancy rooms for patients, which Northwell believes will modernize the facility. It would take an estimated nine years to finish construction, and its project height has been shaved down—multiple times—from an original proposal, which soared past 500 ft.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs, who have united under the banner of a nonprofit advocacy group known as The Committee to Protect Lenox Hill, pointedly state that “vacate and annul the unlawful and unprecedented zoning approvals granted by the City to Northwell to construct a massive new facility.”
Among other things, the plaintiffs allege that the “process of” the project’s approval “constitute[s] clear violations of the State Environmental Quality Review Act...and the City Environmental Quality Review.”
Specifically, they claim that the “Final Environmental Impact Statement” for the project had “mischaracterized or flat-out misrepresented” certain environmental risks.
The plaintiffs take pointed issue with the zoning variances granted to Northwell for the project, which they say “do not promote public health, safety and general welfare.”
“The result, if not reversed, would comprise illegal spot zoning by conferring upon Northwell a unique and singular advantage unavailable to other property owners in the neighborhood, and would afford no corresponding public benefit whatsoever to the community,” the suit continues.
According to Cornell Law, spot zoning “refers to when a piece of property or groups of property have special zoning laws applied to them that differ from the zoning laws surrounding them.”
City Council Member Keith Powers, who is being replaced by Virginia Maloney when his term expires at year end, took credit for shaving down the project’s height to is current 376 ft.; he ultimately gave his thumbs-up to the overhaul, which was located in his district, when it came up for a final vote on August 14. Powers is not expressly named in the lawsuit, although the city council is.
Maloney, who did not vote on the project, had expressed concerns about the project’s height to Our Town before it was approved.
Powers appears to be well on his way to take the seat vacated by Harvey Epstein in State Assembly District 74, which does notably not contain the hot-button issue of Lenox Hill hospital. The Democratic county committee awarded him the party’s nomination on Dec. 10. He’ll face voters, as an expected shoo-in, in an election expected to set for sometime in Feb.
Reached for comment, a spokesperson for Northwell Health defended the overhaul: “As per policy, Northwell does not comment on active litigation. However, we stand firmly by our proposal for the modernization and redevelopment of Lenox Hill Hospital. The project underwent an exhaustive, years-long public review process that included extensive engagement with the community, elected officials and city agencies.”