Council Speaker Corey Johnson speaking at Center for CityLaw Breakfast at New York Law School. Image Credit: CityLaw.

The renovated community centers will provide after-school activities, arts programming, and job skills training. On July 11, 2019, Council Speaker Corey Johnson, Committee on General Welfare Chair Stephen Levin, Committee on Public Housing Chair Alicka Ampry-Samuel, and Council Member Brad Lander announced that the City’s Fiscal Year 2020 budget includes funding to reopen the Gowanus Houses Community Center. Speaker Johnson and Council Member Levin also unveiled capital funding in Fiscal Year 2020 budget for the expansion and renovation of the NYCHA Wyckoff Gardens Community Center. (read more…)

Illustrative Rendering of the envisioned street view. Image Credit: DCP.

Before reaching the City Council, the project received mixed support over concerns that the area was ill-equipped for the increased density. On June 26, 2019, City Council voted to approve with modifications an application that would help implement a major City-initiated plan to redevelop Staten Island’s Bay Street Corridor, which connects the St. George, Tompkinsville, and Stapleton neighborhoods. The comprehensive plan will redevelop the Bay Street Corridor into a walkable, transit-oriented community that provides housing, jobs, and local businesses. The plan had been in the making for over four years and is the result of a coordinated effort among various City agencies and the community. The development is projected to bring 1,000 new jobs, 1,300 new affordable homes, investments in parks, schools and sewers, and a new recreation center. To help implement the plan, the Department of City Planning, the Department of Administrative Services, and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development brought several actions subject to the public review process, ULURP. To read CityLand’s coverage on the earlier stages of the public review process, click here. (read more…)

Building on left demonstrates current issue with excessive mechanical voids. Image Credit: NYC CPC

Developers were using excessive mechanical spaces to increase the height of their buildings. On May 29, 2019, the City Council voted to adopt the Residential Tower Mechanical Voids Text Amendment with modifications. The Department of City Planning proposed the amendment in response to developers incorporating excessively tall mechanical floors – “mechanical voids” – in residential towers to increase their allowable height, as mechanical floors did not count toward the zoning floor area in the Zoning Resolution. This would result in towers with several floors of mostly empty space that would allow developers to build higher, increasing the values of the apartments on higher floors. In late 2018, Mayor Bill de Blasio asked the Department of City Planning (DCP) to investigate the mechanical voids problem and find a solution.

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Central Park. Image Credit: Google Maps.

The website provides information on the City’s 1,700 parks including park amenities and maintenance funding. On May 24, 2019, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and the City Council announced the launch of an interactive map of the City’s public parks. The map can be accessed on the Council’s Parks in NYC page, offering information on the City’s 1,700 parks including the location of 2,856 playgrounds, 557 basketball courts, 546 handball courts, 34 running tracks, 69 barbecue areas,112 food concessions, 136 dog runs, and 95 pools. The page also provides information on events taking place in parks across the five boroughs within the next 14 days. The information for the amenities locations and events locations can also be viewed as a list. (read more…)

Rendering of 1050 Pacific Street in Brooklyn. Image Credit: CPC.

The new building is intended to revitalize a largely vacant block along Pacific Street in Brooklyn. On May 2, 2019, the City Council Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises voted to approve a rezoning of the western portion of a block bounded by Pacific Street to the north, Dean Street to the south, Franklin Avenue to the east, and Classon Avenue to the west in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. The applicant proposed to rezone the area from a manufacturing district, M1-1, to a mixed-use residential and manufacturing district, M1-4/R7A. The rezoning will facilitate a new eight-story development at 1050 Pacific Street with 103 residential units and ground floor commercial space. The development is located a block away from 1010 Pacific Street and is also part of Brooklyn Community Board 8 and Department of City Planning’s M Crown study. (read more…)