The General Theological Seminary presented scaled-down plans to replace the four-story Sherrill Hall on Ninth Avenue between 20th and 21st Streets to a public forum held by Community Board 4 last night at the Hudson Guild at 119 Ninth Avenue.

A committee of the board will vote on the plans tomorrow night and the full board on February 7 after which they will be considered by the Landmarks Preservation Commission because the site is within the Chelsea Historic District.

The seminary had informally presented plans for a 17-story mixed-use building to replace Sherrill Hall, which was erected in 1959 and designed by O'Connor & Kilham and is in need of repairs and which has been considered out of context architecturally with the seminary's architecture and grounds, which are known as the Close.

The new building was to contain about 75 co-op apartments that were to be developed in a venture with The Brodsky Organization, which has agreed to pay the seminary about $39 million to develop the property if plans are approved. The seminary would repay The Brodsky Organization about $24 million for erecting a new five-story administrative building on 20th Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues. The remainder of the Brodsky funds would be dedicated to preserving the existing campus.

The 17-story plan, designed by the Polshek Partnership, was opposed by Community Board 4 and many community activists on the grounds that its height broached the 75-story height limit of the historic district, which does not include several buildings nearby that are considerably higher.

The new plan lowers the building's height to 15 stories facing the avenue and 13 stories facing the gardens of the seminary, which occupies the block between Ninth and Tenth Avenues and 20th and 21st Streets.

The new building would also prove about 15,000 square feet for seminary library uses, 4,000 square of retail space and underground parking for about 90 cars.

The seminary's buildings enclose attractive gardens and the seminary's block has about 240,000 square feet of unused air-rights and the proposed buildings would use only about 185,000 square feet of them.

Lisa Rodriguez of the Polshek Partnership told a standing room attendees at the meeting that the Ninth Avenue building was not only lower, but slimmer and was also setback on a five-story base 32 feet on the north end and 50 feet at the south end. She said that reduction in size was made possible by the decision to create a second new building on one of the seminary's tennis courts mid-block on 20th Street. That building has been designed by Beyer Blinder Bell.

Ms. Rodriguez also told the gathering that the design of the Ninth Avenue building had been modified to make it have more masonry than the previous design that was mostly glass.

The Very Rev. Ward B. Ewing, Dean and President of the seminary, said the seminary was willing to have the unused air rights from the project, about 50,000 square feet, be used to create affordable housing in the community. He noted that the creation of the historic district and a recent rezoning in the area reduced its available undeveloped air rights by about half and has made it almost impossible to find a site to transfer the air rights for affordable housing.

Many people attending the meeting wore labels that read "75 feet is the limit."

Claudia Dreyfus, speaking in opposition, said the project was "quite ugly," adding that neighbors "are not about to be guilt-tripped" into approving a project that "punches a hole in the historic district."

Joshua David, a founder of the Friends of the High Line, spoke in support of the project, stating that "if we lose institutions here it won't be long before....opulent gated homes closed to us."