Five-story residential building okayed

Variance will allow new residential building on irregularly-shaped, shallow lot. BSA approved a use variance for the construction of a fivestory residential building with 13 residential units and seven parking spaces in an M1-1 zoning district. The building will be located on a 15,840 sq. ft. vacant lot on the west side of Havemeyer Street between Metropolitan Avenue and Hope Street in Brooklyn. The original proposal called for a taller, bulkier building, which was reduced … <Read More>


Permits extended due to substantial progress on foundations

Work to continue on 19 and 13- story buildings in recently rezoned Bronx neighborhood. On December 7, 2004, BSA granted two permit extensions, allowing work to continue on two new developments that will exceed the height limitations set by the City Council’s September 2004 approved rezoning in the Bronx.

On September 28, 2004, the City Council rezoned a 30-block area of Central Riverdale and Spuyten Duyvil, which restricted new buildings to six or seven-story heights. … <Read More>


Hudson Yards Applications Approved; Sent to Council

New development potential of 26 million sq.ft. of office space and 13.6 million sq.ft. of residential; 24 acres of parks, a subway extension, and a new boulevard approved. On November 22, 2004, the Commission approved the Bloomberg Administration’s major urban planning initiative for Manhattan’s Hudson Yards, the area bounded by West 30th and West 43rd Streets, running from Seventh and Eighth Avenues to Twelfth Avenue.

The ten applications before the Commission would achieve a comprehensive … <Read More>


Watchtower’s full-block project approved

Watchtower reduced height to gain approval of complex. On December 2, 2004, following extensive negotiations between the developer and Council Members Leticia James and David Yassky, the City Council approved the 736,400 sq.ft. development proposed by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc., subject to a height reduction. The modification, which reduced the street-wall heights of the Front Street buildings to 82 ft. and a maximum height of 110 ft. away from … <Read More>


Use variance for mini-storage facility denied

Site now used for b us parking lot. Enopac Holding LLC, which since 1995 operated a parking lot for 150- 180 school buses on its property located at 6055 -6065 Strickland Avenue in Brooklyn, sought a use variance from the BSA to allow the construction of six mini-storage buildings on the property. Although the site historically contained several heavy and light industrial uses, including a waste treatment facility, the City rezoned the area in 1996 … <Read More>


Claim of spot zoning and taking at Seaport rebuffed

Down-zoning in South Street Seaport upheld. Peck Slip Assoc. LLC, the owner of a surface parking lot at 250 Water Street, sued the City seeking to invalidate City Council’s down-zoning of the South Street Seaport area on a claim that the rezoning made 250 Water Street impossible to develop.

In April 2003, the City Council approved a South Street Seaport down-zoning, reducing the permitted height and mass of all future development in a l O-block … <Read More>