There are plans in the works to build what would be the tallest building by far on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. NY1 has obtained documents about an ongoing battle to try to bring affordable housing to the site.

However, the gap between what community leaders want and what the developer is offering is vast.

For many decades, ABC’s campus on the Upper West Side was a hub for news and entertainment seen around the country.

However, ABC sold its properties in the neighborhood a few years ago. And recently, the developer of the several parcels told Community Board 7 what he would like to see built.

“The 1,200-foot-tall building,” said Gary Barnett, Extell’s founder. “That’s what we’re planning to.”

What You Need To Know

Developer Gary Barnett of Extell has proposed a 1,200-foot residential tower on the former ABC campus, which would be the tallest building on the Upper West Side

The project’s current zoning does not require affordable housing, though community leaders are pushing for 30% of the space to be income-restricted

Extell’s initial offer included just 121 affordable units, most of them studios for seniors — far less than what the community board requested

The Department of City Planning has resisted rezoning the site, which would trigger mandatory affordable housing requirements

A 1,200-foot apartment building would be nearly the size of the Empire State Building. That would be significantly higher than the two tallest towers on the Upper West Side.

There’s not much that can be done to stop what could be the ninth-tallest building in Manhattan. But there’s a reason he was at that May meeting: to get community support.

“I do believe in affordable. I do think we can afford it in this deal with some help,” said Barnett. “And so, we’re ready to move forward.”

Affordable housing is the big standoff for this massive project, mirroring the problem facing the city.

The median rent in Manhattan has sharply risen about 8% from last September to this September, according to a report from Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel.

Making matters worse, rents are at a near-record level in the borough.

But the zoning for the former ABC campus does not require any affordable housing to be built and can go as high as 1,500 feet.

“Extell can do whatever they want,” said Council Member Gale Brewer, who represents the Upper West Side. “To their credit they’ve said let’s see what the neighborhood wants.”

Negotiations with Extell have been ongoing about affordable housing, she told NY1.

The first offer from Extell came this summer, according to documents NY1 has reviewed, was 121 units. Out of that, 103 were studios. Most of them would have been reserved for seniors.

The offer is about 7% to 10% of square footage being for affordable housing.

Brewer says she’d like to see that number at 30%.

“So we’re going to have to have a much longer discussion,” said Brewer.

Earlier this month, Community Board 7 approved a resolution to call for just 30% of the square footage, which could yield about 400 units, along with calling for the Department of City Planning to consider rezoning the property.

If that happened, it would trigger what’s called Mandatory Inclusionary Housing. That’s a 2016 policy that requires “any new building, enlargement or conversion above 10 units or 12,500 square feet must include a set percentage of permanently income-restricted affordable housing,” according to a city document.

“We look forward to reviewing Community Board 7’s resolution and working with all stakeholders on the future of this site,” said a DCP spokesperson in an email to NY1.

But in the spring, that possible rezoning was something the executive director of DCP told the community board it would not do.

“From a policy perspective, there’s a question about appropriateness,” said Edith Hsu-Chen at the time. “If government swoops in and rezones one property.”

The agency’s focus, she said then, is on rezoning entire areas. And in that same meeting, Gary Barnett was asked point-blank whether he would support rezoning.

His answer: no.

So without any changes, Extell is effectively free to do as it pleases — even walking away from any affordable housing negotiations.

“I’m glad to do it. At 30%,” said Brewer at that spring community board meeting to Barnett.

“Yeah. I’m not going to sit down. If that’s the starting point, I’m not sitting down,” Barnett responded.

But Brewer, in a later interview with NY1, said she’s confident Barnett is going to have to listen.

“I’m one of those people who never gives up. I’m like a dog with a bone. Also you should know he has many, many other proposals that are going to come before the City Planning Commission and I hope they will say to him, listen you will have to deal with us,” she said.

When asked if that means whether future projects that need city approval could be at risk if he isn’t willing to negotiate on this one, she responded: “That’s what I’m hoping for.”