E. Siders bid to block plan for blood bank

Upper East Side residents opposed to a rezoning that would allow the New York Blood Center to expand its headquarters have requested a temporary restraining order over a crucial vote scheduled Tuesday in the City Council.

The request, lodged Monday in Manhattan Supreme Court, aims to preemptively nullify the Council vote if it is decided by a simple majority.

The board of condo managers at 301 E. 66th St. contends that any full Council vote on the rezoning should have to be passed by a three-fourths majority because they claim a formal protest submitted by residents triggered a City Charter provision requiring a higher vote threshold in such situations.

“Absent emergency injunctive relief,” the Council would be depriving its members of “a meaningful opportunity to comprehend the impact and efficacy of their vote,” the board asserted in court filings Monday.

The Blood Center rezoning has been cause for intense controversy in recent weeks.

Mayor de Blasio has championed the land-use change as a way to help cement the city’s future as a hub for life sciences.

But opponents argue that the change would amount to a giveaway to the blood bank and its developer partner, Longfellow Real Estate Partners.

Councilman Ben Kallos, who represents the neighborhood that would be impacted, opposes the deal and has argued that de Blasio’s sizable debt to the law firm representing the Blood Center, Kramer Levin Naftalis, essentially amounts to leverage that can be used against him in the deal.

Kallos has also called for a three-fourths majority as a condition for the Council measure to pass.

Kallos noted Monday that an unrelated bill of his that would impose stricter requirements on companies like Airbnb was pulled from the Council’s agenda that same day, but he would not say whether or not he thought it was done in retaliation for the court filing.

“I’ve received no communication on why they pulled it,” he said.

A spokesman for Council Speaker Corey Johnson did not immediately respond to questions.

Opponents of the rezoning remained hopeful Monday afternoon that a judge would weigh in on the matter before the end of the day, according to the group’s spokesman.