Permissible uses for vacant two-story building on Crosby Street expanded to include restaurant and bar. The owner of a vacant two-story building at 54 Crosby Street in SoHo applied to BSA for a use variance to permit a bar or restaurant on the building’s ground floor. The 4,535 sq.ft. building sits on a lot twenty feet wide and is built to less than half of the available floor area. The building was formerly used as a sculptor’s residence and studio, and its M1-5B manufacturing zoning does not permit commercial uses below the second floor.

The owner argued that the narrow building made a conforming manufacturing use impractical. The owner claimed that the building’s narrow floor plates were inefficient for a warehouse use and that the absence of an elevator would make transferring goods between floors difficult. According to an analysis submitted by the owner, only five of the 150 surrounding lots had widths of less than 25 feet and are built to less than half of the zoning district’s maximum floor area. (more…)

HPD claimed that abandoned railway complicated the development of two lots. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development applied for use variances in order to construct a three-building affordable housing development on two vacant through-block lots zoned for manufacturing in the East Tremont section of the Bronx.

The Phipps Houses Group’s 141-unit project will include an eight-story residential building and a ten-story mixed-use building at 1155 East Tremont Avenue, and a ten-story mixed-use building located directly across the street at 1176 East Tremont Avenue. Both lots were previously occupied by the elevated New York, Westchester, and Boston Interurban Railway. Remnants of the abandoned train trestle, including several in-ground concrete supports, remain on both lots.

HPD claimed that the trestle remnants, subsurface contamination, and the area’s high water table would constrain a viable manufacturing use for the site. HPD estimated that it would cost a combined $6.1 million to clean up the sites and remove the railway remnants. HPD also claimed that the requested variances were necessary in order to provide the minimum number of apartments needed to maintain the project’s financial viability and fulfill the agency’s programmatic goals. (more…)

Owner claimed that narrow lot could not accommodate a financially feasible manufacturing use. The owner of 133 Taaffe Place in Brooklyn applied to BSA for a use variance to construct a four-story, three-unit residential building on a vacant lot zoned for light manufacturing. The lot had once been occupied by a residential building that was demolished in 1994 due to fire damage. The owner’s initial proposal called for a 6,073 sq.ft. building with a fifteen- foot backyard on a lot 25 feet wide and 83 feet deep. During the hearing process, the owner reduced the plan to reflect a 4,571 sq.ft. building with a 30-foot backyard.

At BSA, the owner claimed the lot would not accommodate a conforming use because it was too narrow for a loading dock and too small for floor plates suitable for a commercial or manufacturing use that would provide a reasonable economic return. The owner submitted evidence demonstrating that conforming uses in the surrounding areas were located on larger lots. Five lots within 400 feet of the site had conforming uses and widths of 25 feet or less, but all five were deeper than the owner’s property. An adjacent property owner to the rear of the site expressed concerns about potential impacts from excavation work near the rear lot line.

BSA granted the variance. BSA found that because of the lot’s size, the owner could not develop a conforming use that would provide a reasonable return. Noting that the lot was surrounded by a mix of uses, including a residential building to the south and a mixed-use building to the north, BSA also found that an additional residential building would not alter the neighborhood’s character.

BSA: 133 Taaffe Place, Brooklyn (28- 09-BZ) (June 8, 2010) (Moshe M. Friedman, for owner).

Owner claimed that narrow lot adjacent to elevated rail line could not accommodate conforming manufacturing use. Hayden Hester applied for a use variance to construct a three-story residential building on a vacant lot at 1978 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. Hester’s proposal called for a 4,200 sq.ft building with five dwelling units on a lot twenty feet wide and zoned for light manufacturing. A Long Island Rail Road elevated rail line runs along Atlantic Avenue in front of the project site.

Hester claimed the narrow lot and the presence of the elevated rail line would constrain a viable manufacturing or commercial development. The lot’s width would result in inefficient, small floor plates, and the rail line would interfere with loading and unloading from Atlantic Avenue. Hester submitted evidence indicating that a residential structure had formerly occupied the site and that there had been no manufacturing or commercial use on the site in the past 100 years. Out of the 103 lots fronting the south side of Atlantic Avenue, only two had twenty-foot frontages and commercial uses. (more…)

Opponents of Central Synagogue’s enlargement cited concerns about location of entrance for synagogue’s breakfast for the homeless program. Central Synagogue applied to BSA for a variance to build a two-story addition on top of its nine-story Community House at 123 East 55th Street, which is across the street from the synagogue’s sanctuary. The Community House is one of four tax lots that were merged into a single 17,321 sq.ft. zoning lot. The other buildings on the zoning lot include the 36- story Fitzpatrick Hotel to the east of the Community House and a five-story townhouse to its west.

The synagogue’s plan included adding 7,129 sq.ft. of floor area to the existing building, potentially reconfiguring its front entrance, and adding new side windows. The synagogue needed a variance because the plan would exceed the maximum floor area and violate height and setback regulations. Because of the shared zoning lot, Central Synagogue needed consent from all the owners on the lot in order to file its application. Central Synagogue was unable to obtain consent from the hotel, so it also requested that BSA waive its consent rule. (more…)