Modified West Harlem Rezoning Plan on its Way to Council Vote [Update: Plan Approved by Full Council]

See below for update.

Council Member Jackson obtains compromise between City’s proposal and community concerns. On October 25, 2012, the City Council’s Land Use Committee approved a modified version of the Department of City Planning’s West Harlem Rezoning proposal. The proposal would impact 90 blocks generally bounded by West 155th Street to the north, West 126th Street to the south, Bradhurst Avenue to the east, and Riverside Drive to the west. The rezoning would … <Read More>


Landmarks Approves Modifications to Seaport’s Pier 17 Redevelopment Plan

Modified plan would split redeveloped Pier 17 into two components, with signage added to roof and for the complex’s commercial tenants. On October 23, 2012, Landmarks agreed to amend a previously issued binding report for a plan to redevelop Pier 17 in the South Street Seaport Historic District.  Landmarks in May 2012 initially approved the Howard Hughes Corporation and the New York City Economic Development Corporation’s plan to demolish the existing Pier 17 structure and … <Read More>


Court of Appeals Affirms Order for Supplemental Environmental Review for Public Schools Built on Contaminated Site

Community Group sued the School Construction Authority seeking a long-term maintenance and monitoring protocol for the Mott Haven School site. The Mott Haven school campus site, consisting of four public schools, was formerly a railroad yard in the South Bronx. The site contained soil and ground water that were significantly contaminated, and the site needed to be remediated before the campus could be built. The campus opened in 2010.

The New York State Department of … <Read More>


City Council Tweaks Six-Acre Seward Park Redevelopment Plan Proposed for Area Along Delancey Street

The City agreed to increase number of housing units from 900 to 1,000 and set aside space for on-site public school. On October 11, 2012 the City Council modified and approved the City’s Seward Park Mixed-Use Development Project. The 1.65 million-square-foot project will impact nine City-owned lots on the north and south sides of Delancey Street between Ludlow and Clinton Streets in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The City envisions the development of six new … <Read More>


Landmarks Approved Revised Design for Narrow South Street Seaport Residential Building

Through-block building will have separate residential components with different facades on Front Street and Water Street. On October 16, 2012, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved Andreas Giacoumis’s revised plan to develop a residential building on a vacant through-block lot with twenty feet of frontage on Front Street and twelve-and-a-half-feet of frontage on Water Street in the South Street Seaport Historic District.

The project, designed by Darrin Krumpus of BORO Architects, will include two different … <Read More>


Appellate Court Upholds BSA Approval of Rooftop Additions

Tenant objected to BSA’s interpretation of Multiple Dwelling Law that legalized sixth-floor additions to East Village tenements. In October 2006, Ben Shaoul, the owner of two adjacent five-story tenements located at 514 and 516 East 6th Street in the East Village, filed an application with the City’s Department of Buildings seeking an alteration permit to add two floors to each building. The proposal did not comply with the fire safety requirements of the Multiple … <Read More>