Manhattan’s Toy Center to become apartments

Rezoning will allow Chelsea’s International Toy Center to be converted for residential use. 200 Fifth, LLC applied to rezone 200 Fifth Avenue and 1107 Broadway in Chelsea, Manhattan, to allow conversion of manufacturing/commercial buildings to residences with an expected 500 units. The buildings, located between Sixth Avenue and Broadway, along West 23rd and 25th Streets, are home to The International Toy Center and nearly 300 toy companies, many of which have been tenants since 1938. … <Read More>


Two Queens neighborhoods down-zoned

Middle Village and Glendale rezoned to allow in-context residential development. The Planning Commission approved another outer-borough rezoning intended to preserve established scale, protect low-rise character, and curb inconsistent development in residential neighborhoods. A majority of the rezoned area, 105 blocks along Metropolitan Avenue and the Long Island Railroad, will be predominantly rezoned R4-1 to allow only one- and two-family dwellings. Another 60-block area, bounded by Juniper Valley Road, Juniper Boulevard South, 78th Avenue, and 80th … <Read More>


Two Bronx neighborhoods down-zoned

Pelham Bay and Westchester Square residents concerned that developers would move in after adjacent neighborhood was down-zoned. After the City down-zoned Throgs Neck in September 2004, 1 CityLand 4 (Oct. 15, 2004), residents of Pelham Bay and Westchester Square complained that the new limits on development in Throgs Neck would send developers north and westward into their communities, spurring over-development. While both communities are predominately developed with detached housing, the current zoning permits large apartment … <Read More>


718-space garage approved adjacent to High Line

Garage will be part of large mixed-use project. HLP Properties LLC sought a special permit for a 718- space public parking garage on a Chelsea site spanning an entire city block between West 17th and West 18th Streets and Tenth and Eleventh Avenues. Access to the garage would be located on West 17th Street, a one-way westbound street. The 76,400- square-foot site currently contains a surface parking lot used primarily by the United States Drug … <Read More>


Manhattanville’s 197-a plan goes forward

Community Board 9 and Columbia University presented different rezoning plans for Manhattanville. At the Planning Commission’s review session on October 1 7, 2005, the Commission determined that Manhattan Community Board 9’s independent 1 97-a plan for the future rezoning and development of Manhattanville met threshold standards. The plan culminated over 12 years of work by the Board. Under the City Charter and Rules, before environmental review of the 1 97-a plan can commence, the Commission … <Read More>


Commission votes to end commercial option

Twenty-one areas to lose commercial zoning overlay. In 2003, Mayor Michael Bloomberg formed the Staten Island Growth Management Task Force to examine over-development in the borough. The Task Force’s recommendations resulted in new zoning controls adopted in 2004 restricting the size and density of Staten Island residential development. A loophole remained for lots within residential zones that were also subject to commercial district overlays. Along with allowing commercial uses on these lots, the commercial overlays … <Read More>