While an initial step toward final approval, the board’s decision is only advisory. The city’s Board of Standards and Appeals must still review the plan before it grants a permit, which is necessary because the tower is not on Fordham’s campus. The Federal Communications Commission must also give its OK. The tower, which will rise 160 feet above the top of the building, has already been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration. Fordham officials hope to commence with the construction of the tower by summer or early fall. Construction will require three three-day lifts of concrete, steel and other material from a crane on the street to the roof. The work within and on top of the building will take six months.

If the project gets final approval, the deal will end a decade-long tiff between Fordham and the New York Botanical Garden. As Fordham began to build a freestanding radio tower on its campus, the Garden objected, saying it obstructed bucolic views from its grounds. Ten years of lawsuits, hearings and unsuccessful negotiations followed until Montefiore offered the use of its building earlier this year.

Plant Committee in Formation

Community Board 7 announced that Norwood resident and community activist Lyn Pyle will be a member of the Facility Monitoring Committee being formed by the city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for the filtration plant construction in Van Cortlandt Park. According to a resolution passed by the City Council in 1999, “the FMC shall meet at least quarterly and shall advise DEP on all aspects of the design and construction of the filtration plant and all mitigation measures set forth in the” final environmental impact statement.

The resolution indicates that the FMC shall include the chairs of Bronx Community Boards 7, 8 and 12 or their designees. Pyle, a founder of the COVE youth center on Gates Place, was named as a designee.

Asked if the board’s designee could participate in FMC meetings if the chair were also present, DEP spokesman Charles Sturcken said, “Yeah, sure, but we don’t want mobs. If they both want to go, I’m sure that’s fine.”

Other members of the committee will include representatives of DEP, the Parks Department, and Council Member Oliver Koppell. At press time, Sturcken said he had not yet heard from any of the community boards. Koppell, however, already informed the DEP that he will assign staff member Joe Gordon, an engineer, to the committee.

Sturcken also said that DEP is creating a Web site that will include construction schedules and other details of the project.

Three lawsuits seeking to halt construction are still being heard in a state Supreme Court in Queens. However, there are no restraining orders in effect, and the DEP has already begun to prepare the site for construction, including the removal of trees along the 233rd Street exit off the Major Deegan.