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…)

Rendering of the originally-proposed eleven-story building at 1010 Pacific Street. Image Credit: Studio V Architecture/CPC.

City Planning modified the proposed rezoning so the development would better conform with the vision for the neighborhood, which is currently undergoing a land use study. On May 2, 2019, the City Council Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises voted to approve an application for a rezoning that will facilitate the development of a new nine-story, mixed-use building in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. The applicant initially sought to rezone an area comprised of approximately 12 lots on the northeastern portion of a block bounded by Pacific Street to the north, Dean Street to the south, Classon Avenue to the east, and Grand Avenue to the west from a manufacturing district, M1-1, to a mixed residential and commercial district, R7D/C2-4. The applicant’s proposed rezoning would have facilitated the development of an eleven-story residential building with a commercial space and a community facility on the ground floor at 1010 Pacific Street. On April 8, 2019, the City Planning Commission voted to approve the rezoning after modifying it from an R7D/C2-4 district to an R7A/C2-4 district, limiting the building to nine stories. (read more…)

Council Member Rafael Espinal sponsored the bill to halt sign violation fees. Image Credit: Official NYC Council Photo by John McCarten

Small business owners faced fines upwards of $15,000. In response to public outcry and community concerns on the hardships imposed on local businesses, on January 9, 2019, the New York City Council passed new legislation that would temporarily stop fines from violations issued to small businesses for failing to conform to their sign permits or those who did not have the proper permits at all. The Department usually gets 900 complaints a year, but that number doubled in 2018. By law, when the Department of Buildings is referred complaints through 311, they have to send an inspector out to the property. (read more…)