A moneyed Upper East Side family is looking to build an indoor pool in the cellar of their posh residence — but their neighbors aren’t exactly having a splash.
Plans are in place — but work hasn’t yet begun — to construct a private underground swimming pool on a tony block near Fifth Avenue. The owners of the double-wide townhouse at 15-17 E. 77th St., which they bought in May 2023 for $30 million, have filed plans to gut-renovate and expand their luxury lair — whose total dollar estimate is not available.
The next-door neighbors are trying to halt the pool part of the project, fearing that the extensive excavation necessary — nearly a year of jackhammering into the notoriously unyielding bedrock known as Manhattan schist — will cause irreparable harm to their health and home.
The law allows for a construction project to encroach upon an adjacent property — with proper protections, such as scaffolding and a licensing agreement for access. But after months of negotiations, the parties remain at loggerheads…