Residents Regroup to Derail Tower on Site 5B "Is there anyone in the room willing to take a leadership role in trying to stop this building?" Community Board 1 Chair Madelyn Wils called out from the stage of the P.S. 234 auditorium.   Several of the 70 or so Tribeca residents at the June 20 gathering raised their hands. Yet again, an effort to derail an office tower on Site 5B had begun. Wils and the community board had sounded the alarm that Edward J. Minskoff was pushing to get his proposed office tower off the ground, on a two-block site bounded by Warren, Greenwich, Murray and West streets, and across the street from P.S. 234. According to Wils, Minskoff was pressuring the city to go forward with his plan, a 600-foot-high tower that he unveiled a year ago after the city designated him as the site’s developer. Those plans were called into question after Sept. 11, but regained life in May when Minskoff launched a marketing campaign for an anchor tenant. Wils said opponents should not look to City Hall for support. "There was a time when the deputy mayor [Daniel Doctoroff] was more empathetic," she said. "That has changed." On the stage, Wils and George Olsen, P.S. 234 PTA president, stood with two boards, one showing the tower as Minskoff proposed it, the other an alternate concept prepared last year by consultants for Save Our Space, a community group that organized last year against the project. Their plan called for restoring Washington Street through the middle of the site, from Warren and Murray streets, and erecting two buildings, with a low-rise structure on the Greenwich Street side the same height as the Greenwich Court apartments across the street. That alternative is being looked at in the environmental impact study that Minskoff must conduct before proceeding through a six month review process. The study is expected to be released soon. In the meantime, Olsen said he and other residents plan to gear up this summer for a major organizing effort in September. He said he will ask the P.S. 234 PTA to allocate $10,000 toward the fight. Anna Switzer, the school’s principal, noted that she has joined fights against projects on the site for years, but in light of Sept. 11 she called this "the worst possible time" for such a large building to go up. "I find it astonishing," she said. "What these kids have been through—it is so fragile in this building." Minskoff, however, views the area as an extension of the financial district, pointing to nearby office buildings as well as the zoning for his site. "We’re building an as-of-right development.," Minskoff said. "And if Madelyn objects to it, I respect her, we all have our opinions and she can voice her opinion. We’re going to go through the process and we’re hopeful to be successful." Wils said she looks forward to the time when the right building succeeds. "One day something will get built there," she said, "and it may be better if something [does] get built there so we don’t have to keep looking at the site and worrying." The Minskoff project will be discussed at a public meeting of Community Board 1’s Site 5B Task Force and Tribeca Committee on July 11 (at 49-51 Chambers St., Room 709, at 5:30 p.m.), Read "Minskoff Determined to Build His Tower" (posted June 3)