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CityLand tracks these applications through the review process to a final decision. The majority of these decisions are available on the Center for New York City Law’s CityAdmin database (found at www.CityAdmin.org).

To view the New Filings and Decisions chart for June 2017, click here.

Rendering of proposed 51-story tower at 200 Amsterdam Avenue. Image credit: Elkus Manfredi Architects

City Council Member and community celebrate after the Department of Buildings halt the construction of an Upper West Side tower. In September 2016, developer SJP Properties filed building plans with the Department of Buildings for the construction of a new 51-story building located at 200 Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The plans filed detailed a 642 foot tower containing 583,294 square feet of residential space and 3,016 square feet of floor area on the ground floor for a medical office.

In May 2017, the Committee for Environmentally Sound Development, a local organization that represents residents of the Lincoln Towers community and the surrounding area, filed a zoning challenge with Buildings arguing that the project was not compliant with zoning law requirements. Both City Council Member Helen Rosenthal and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer signed onto the challenge.

The main issue raised involved the weirdly-shaped zoning lot that was created to generate enough air-rights for proposed building. The proposed footprint would be a little over 10,000 square feet while the zoning lot is about 100,000 square feet and reaches throughout the city block. The challenge argued that the zoning district, R8, required a substantial amount of Open Space and that the open space provided did not qualify as Open Space under the Zoning Resolution. The complaint also listed rear yard obstructions and mechanical spaces on the top floors as violations of the Zoning Resolution.

On July 11, 2017, Buildings issued a notice of objections and an intent to revoke the permits in order to verify the open space ratio and that the zoning lot was properly formed. The full audit ordered by the agency will halt the current construction of the site.

Image credit: DCP

Process underway for a zoning text amendment to require a City Planning Commission Special Permit for new self-storage facilities within the City’s industrial business zones. In May 2017, the City Planning Commission sent out for consideration, as part of the ULURP process, a proposed zoning text amendment to limit the proliferation of self-storage in Industrial Business Zones. The amendment is currently being considered by the 27 Community Boards that would be affected by the amendment.

62 Greene Street, Manhattan. Image credit: GoogleMaps

The City Planning Commission approved the conversion of a Greene Street ground floor into retail space. On June 21, 2017, the City Planning Commission issued a favorable report on an application from 62 Greene Owners Corporation, owner of 62 Greene Street in Manhattan’s SoHo Cast-Iron Historic District. The application sought a special permit to modify use regulations of Section 42-14(D)(2)(a) of the Zoning Resolution to allow retail uses on portions of the ground floor and cellar of the existing five-story building.

Rendering of the proposed building at 841 St. Nicholas Avenue. Image credit: LPC

Seven-story building would have dance studio space at the ground floor. On June 27, 2017, Landmarks considered and approved a proposal for a new development on a vacant lot at 841 St. Nicholas Avenue, at the corner of 152nd Street, in the Hamilton Heights/Sugar Hill Northwest Historic District. The site was acquired by BRP Development Company from the Dance Theater of Harlem in 2016. A deed restriction on the property, limiting its use to non-profit cultural organizations, was controversially lifted in the same year.

Rendering of the proposed redevelopment at 50 Nevins Street. Image credit: DCP

The proposed rezoning would facilitate the expansion of a mental health treatment facility to include low-income affordable units for individuals and families. On June 21, 2017, the City Planning Commission held a public hearing on an application for multiple land use actions to facilitate the enlargement and reconstruction of an existing eight-story building by integrating a 10-story horizontal expansion onto an abutting parking lot and three-story addition to the northern portion of the existing building. The applicants, the Institute for Community Living, proposed the a zoning map and zoning text amendment at the site, located on the southwest corner of the intersection of Nevins Street and Schermerhorn Street in the Downtown Brooklyn neighborhood.