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A controversial 18-story tower will rise over Clinton Hill, despite the community’s frantic efforts to quash the project, and a lawmaker’s push to make such towers illegal.

The high-rise at the heart of the brouhaha is 163 Washington Ave., between Myrtle and Park avenues, a tower that will top off nearly six times higher than neighboring houses.

Due to the persistence of their complaints, neighbors succeeded in convincing the Department of Buildings to halt construction so the agency could review the self-certified plans. The hope was that construction could be delayed until the downzoning of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, which is expected to go through in July. That downzoning will bar such towers on traditionally low-rise blocks like Washington Avenue.

But the city’s “stop-work” order expired last week, said agency spokeswoman Kate Lindquist. “The general contractor … can begin work at any time.”

And so he has. One neighbor told The Stoop that workers are toiling at a fevered pace, “as though their lives depended on it.” As long as the foundation is completed — and certified as such by the Department of Buildings — the tower is considered underway and no longer bound by future zoning.

Residents predict the new tower will pierce the fabric of the neighborhood.

“We’re stoop-sitters, not doorman-building people,” said Jane Zusi, an opponent of the plan. Zusi and her neighbors had tried to knock down the developer’s plans with every tool in the activist kit: protests, the help of elected officials, complaints to 311 about neighboring buildings damaged during construction, and the creation of unscientific renderings that emphasize how the tall building would overwhelm the block. But it’s come to naught.

Now that a work has resumed, the developer will almost certainly be able to complete the foundation in time.

“The idea of losing by two to three weeks is so galling, it’s mind-numbing,” said Zusi. “I keep thinking, maybe there will a miracle. But I’m not sure that anything other than an act of god will stop this building.”

Councilwoman Letitia James (D–Fort Greene) still holds out hope, and is planning to meet with Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster this week.

“We still believe there are issues with their public space requirements as well as some of the damage that has occurred on the block,” James told The Stoop.

The developer did not answer requests for comment.

©2007 The Brooklyn Paper