On December 30, 2022, Mayor Eric Adams announced the appointment of Shampa Chanda as the new Chair of the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) and Salvatore Scibetta as the new Vice Chair. The Board of Standards and Appeals hears individual applications for exceptions and changes to zoning regulations that may overly restrict specific properties where a broader change to the zoning text and map is unnecessary. (more…)

Mayor Bill de Blasio. Image credit: CityLand
On November 22, 2021, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the creation of a new pilot program to design and construct projects utilizing the NYC Climate Resiliency Design guidelines. The guidelines provide technical guidance for engineers and architects in the design of buildings, roads, sewer systems, public housing, and other forms of public infrastructure to anticipate worsening impacts from climate change including flooding, storm surge and intense heat. (more…)

Rendering of Archer Green, a new 100 percent affordable mixed-use development in Jamaica, Queens. Image Credit: NYCEDC
The addition furthers the City’s goal of financing 200,000 affordable households by the end of the de Blasio administration. On December 3, 2021, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) announced the creation of an additional 1,221 affordable homes between two completed projects in Queens and two projects that have broken ground in the Bronx and Brooklyn. (more…)

Image Credit: NYC DOT.
The public engagement process will continue into the new year. On November 18, 2021, the de Blasio administration announced the schedule for the Permanent Open Restaurant Program public engagement process. The proposed permanent open restaurant program will establish a new streamlined program for the creation, management and enforcement of sidewalk and roadway cafes operated by the Department of Transportation. (more…)

The “421-a Extended Affordability Program Rules” would provide a 10 to 15 year extension to eligible buildings enrolled in the program prior to its expiration. On March 14, 2016, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development proposed two agency rules to extend the 421-a real property tax exemption program for those who already had been benefiting from the program prior to its expiration in June 2015. The State authorized HPD to promulgate the new rules via State Law from June 26, 2015.
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