In February of last year, Danish architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) unveiled the truly spectacular design for its much-anticipated New York debut, a massive residential complex that spans the area of an entire Manhattan city block. The project’s dynamic pyramidal form is the result of BIG’s patented design formula: synthesizing two distictive but familiar urban design concepts into one form, to reap the benefit of both in tandem. In this case, BIG took the vertical skyscraper and all its benefits for high-density living and married it to the European perimeter block, the built-up city block that encloses a semi-private central space, a model long associated with mixed-use and mixed-income development.

The hybrid concept and form made BIG’s West57 an exhilarating prospect for New York (interestingly, the same design concept can be teased out in the recently completed Via Verde low-income housing complex in the Bronx). But just last week, in the midst of a months-long public review process, the neighborhood’s community board unanimously voted against the new 740-unit building. The board claimed that the anticipated rezoning would, contrary to its noble design principles, be potentially damaging for a neighborhood struggling to defend against a creeping excess of luxury housing.

“My own feeling, and the feeling of the board, is that we’d like this project to succeed,” said JD Nolan, chair of Community Board 4’s land-use committee, to the New York Observer. “Nevertheless, this is a rezoning, and the public should benefit as well as the developer.” The community board’s demur hinges largely on the developer Durst Fetner’s inability to ensure its proposed 150 units of affordable housing for more than 35 years. The developers, represented at last week’s meeting by Helena Durst, claimed that their 99-year land lease on the property prohibits them from guaranteeing permanent affordable housing. Nonetheless, the board, whose vote will figure strongly in the final decision on whether or not to build, stressed the need for renegotiations.

Nolan and the board’s forthright resistance to rezoning for luxury development trickled down to issues with the design as well. Nolan expressed strong objections to the seemingly excessive number of parking spots factored into West57 and the two-way driveway that would cut through the site and allow for “curb side drop off” in a fashion Nolan drolly associated with Dubai. Constructive criticism aside, Nolan took the opportunity to advocate for a new art space to occupy a local community facility also developed by Durst. “This [neighborhood] has always been a place for actors, artists, stage hands,” Nolan told the Observer. “They need housing they can afford, they need places they can perform. Without them, it’s not the kind of New York I want to live in.” If West57 does not keep these parties in mind, there’s a chance New York will have to wait a little longer for BIG to arrive.