Owner claimed that lot, which is occupied by a one-story building that could not be safely enlarged, was underutilized. 71 Laight Street LLC applied to BSA for a variance to build a six-story, eighteen-unit residential building with twelve accessory parking spaces at 412 Greenwich Street in Manhattan’s Tribeca North Historic District. The site is occupied by a one-story freight-loading structure built in 1956 and currently used for parking, which the owner would demolish in order to construct the new building.

The owner initially proposed a 55,055 sq.ft., six-story building with a penthouse and unrestricted ground-floor retail uses. The proposed building would replicate the massing and design of an adjacent warehouse building at 401 Washington Street that was built in 1906. The proposal included a cast aluminum facade etched with a brick pattern mimicking the warehouse’s red-brick facade. The owner received approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission for the Morris Adjmi-designed project in September 2008. 5 CityLand 140 (Oct. 15, 2008). (more…)

BSA ruled that owner made sufficient progress on construction prior to downzoning. In late 2008, Buildings issued permits to Selvakumar Rajaratnam to construct two four-story buildings with seven dwelling units each at 37-45 and 37-47 98th Street in North Corona, Queens. On March 24, 2009, the City Council approved the North Corona 2 rezoning, which rezoned the site from R6B to R5A, and rendered the proposed buildings out-of-compliance with maximum permitted floor area, number of units, and height, setback, yard, and parking requirements. Because the buildings’ foundations had not been completed by the enactment date, the permits lapsed. Rajaratnam filed an appeal with BSA to complete construction.

At a hearing, Rajaratnam submitted affidavits and photographs demonstrating that he had completed 100 percent of the shoring, 40 percent of the excavation, and 49 percent of the foundation work prior to the rezoning. Rajaratnam claimed that he had spent $134,279 on the project prior to the rezoning, which accounted for eleven percent of the project’s $1,198,193 budget. Rajaratnam said that in order to comply with the new zoning, he would need to reduce the number of residential units in the proposed buildings from fourteen to two, which would result in a 77 percent decrease in annual rental income. Queens Community Board 3 opposed the application. (more…)

Twelve-story, 101,243 sq.ft. East 95th Street school required BSA approval. Trevor Day School, a private school with four Manhattan locations, applied to BSA for a special permit and variance to construct a 12-story combined middle and high school at 312 East 95th Street. The building design called for a four-story, 84-foot tall base with 10,300 sq.ft. floor plates. It would rise an additional eight stories, each with 6,200 sq.ft. floor plates, to a total height of 204 feet. Since the site’s C8-4 zoning prohibited the school use as-of-right, Trevor’s plan required a special permit. The 101,243 sq.ft. building design required a variance to exceed both the maximum floor area by 33,299 sq.ft., and the maximum tower lot coverage, and to provide an eight-inch rear yard as opposed to the 20-foot requirement.

At BSA, Trevor’s representative stated that it was unable to provide adequate classroom space in its current middle school and high school, citing a study that found Trevor’s average classroom area per student at 30 percent less than other independent middle and high schools in the City. (more…)

Applicant claimed that a conforming residential development would not yield a reasonable return given the lot’s irregular shape, location, and sloping grade. Joseph Maza applied to BSA for a variance to build a one-story commercial building with 21 accessory parking spaces at 4553 Arthur Kill Road in Charleston, a Staten Island neighborhood located just north of the Outerbridge Crossing. The site was located within the Special South Richmond Development District, a district established in 1975 to guide the development of the southern portion of Staten Island. The proposal required a variance since Maza intended the building to be occupied by retail stores, which are prohibited within the R3-2 residential zoning district.

Maza claimed that the lot’s irregular triangle shape made it difficult to construct a conforming residential development, and that the lot’s 15-ft. upward slope, beginning at its Arthur Kill Road frontage, would increase sewer line installation costs. The proposed commercial development avoided these added costs since an on-site septic system would be utilized, eliminating the need for a new 700-ft. sewer line. Maza also claimed that a nearby 87,000 sq.ft. bus depot would render the site unmarketable for residential use given the depot’s task of servicing several hundred buses daily, seven days a week. The depot, Maza added, would increase traffic around Arthur Kill Road, a 60- ft. wide arterial road that provided access to New Jersey by way of the Outerbridge Crossing. The traffic-choked road, which touched the site, would further lessen the prospect of successfully marketing a conforming residential development. (more…)

Local residents claimed that all open space on a multiple building zoning lot must be accessible to all occupants of the zoning lot. 808 Columbus Avenue LLC obtained a permit from Buildings to construct a 29-story, mixed-use building within Park West Village on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The new building would share a zoning lot with three 16-story residential buildings located on a superblock bounded by West 100th Street on the north, Columbus Avenue on the west, West 97th Street on the south, and Central Park West on the east. Local residents challenged the permit approval, but Buildings’ Manhattan Borough Commissioner upheld the permit. The residents appealed to BSA seeking to revoke the permit.

The residents claimed that open space requirements of the Zoning Resolution had been violated because some of the proposed building’s open space would not be accessible to residents living in the other three buildings within the zoning lot. The residents also claimed that the 56,000 sq. ft. Whole Foods supermarket slated for the first floor and cellar should have been classified as a variety or department store rather than a food store because of its proposed size, location, and delivery requirements. Variety stores could not exceed 10,000 sq. ft. and department stores were prohibited in the C1-5 district. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer argued that Buildings had recently classified a Costco store in Queens as a department store, and that, like Whole Foods, Costco primarily sold food and food-related items. The residents also asserted that an environmental review of the project’s potential impacts was required before Buildings could issue a permit. (more…)