PS 163 in Manhattan. Image credit: Citylaw.

Non-profit developer sought to build residence for the elderly in Manhattan adjacent to a public school. In 2012, Jewish Home Lifecare, a non-profit providing health care services, applied to the New York State Department of Health for a permit to construct a residential facility for the elderly and disabled to be located on West 97th Street in Manhattan next door to P.S. 163. After Lifecare submitted an environmental assessment statement and an environmental impact statement, pursuant to the State Environmental Quality Review Act, the Health Department approved the facility. Parents from P.S. 163 and nearby tenants objected and filed an article 78 petition seeking to annul the Health Department’s approval. The parents and tenants claimed that the Health Department had failed to address adequately the risks of exposure to hazardous materials and noise-levels.

Image credit: LPC.

Some commissioners lamented loss of Music Room and house museum character, but acknowledged those issues were outside of Landmark’s purview, and found impact on the exterior fell within bounds of appropriateness. On June 26, 2018, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to award the Frick collection a certificate of appropriateness to allow for an expansion that will improve circulation, increase exhibition, education and conservation space, and create a café. The individual City landmark was built for industrialist Henry Clay Frick by Carrere & Hastings in 1914. After the deaths of Frick and his wife, the mansion at 895 Fifth Avenue, was converted into a museum based around Frick’s art collection. The conversion and expansion were overseen by architect John Russell Pope, and include the construction of a library adjoining the museum.

1601 DeKalb Avenue. Image credit: CPC.

Applicant faces uphill battle to turn parking lot into residential building. On June 13, 2018, the City Planning Commission held a public hearing on an application by Camber Property Group for rezoning at 1601 DeKalb Avenue in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The rezoning will facilitate the construction of a new residential building. The rezoning will affect three lots owned by Camber and seven lots not owned by the applicant. The new building, however, will be constructed on the three lots owned by Camber, which is currently a parking lot.

2 Furman Street in Brooklyn seen from the Brooklyn Promenade. Image credit: CityLaw.

Development corporation constructed buildings in Brooklyn Bridge Park that blocked view of the Brooklyn Bridge from the Brooklyn Promenade. In 2005 Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation and Empire State Development Corporation adopted a general project plan for Brooklyn Bridge Park that included the development of a hotel, restaurant, and residential units upland of Brooklyn’s Pier 1. Community members demanded during the initial environmental review that the new buildings not block the view of the Brooklyn Bridge from the Brooklyn Promenade.  The final environmental impact statement limited the northern building to a height of 100 feet and the southern building to a height of 55 feet. 

Balton Commons. Image credit: CPC.

Multi-use building off 125^th Street will add affordable housing, retail, and community space. On June 13, 2018, the City Planning Commission held a public hearing on an application submitted by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development for the designation of property located at 263-267 West 126^th Street in Harlem as an Urban Development Action Area. The development will build a seven-story building containing residential, community facility, and commercial space. The development, named Balton Commons, is led by the development team comprised of Harlem-based M/WBE affordable housing developers, Lemor Realty Corp. and Apex Building Company, Inc., and Silicon Harlem, a Harlem-based organization focused on technology and innovation leadership in education.

600 West 161st Street in Manhattan. Image credit: CityLaw.

Building Owner added apartments and lacked new certificate of occupancy. GVS Properties LLC owned a 10-story residential building at 600 West 161st Street in Manhattan. In 1970, GVS Properties received a certificate of occupancy that permitted 53 apartments in the building. In 2014 GVS Properties applied for a certificate of occupancy to validate alterations to the building which had increased the number of apartments to 60. Buildings refused to grant the certificate of occupancy because the apartments did not have two exits in case of a fire. Subsequently, nineteen tenants in the building refused to pay rent, asserting that the building did not have a valid certificate of occupancy.  GVS Properties sued the tenants for the rent.