Neighborhood Coalition Proposal is Most Comprehensive Zoning Plan Ever Submitted by a Community Group

The proposal would protect neighborhood aesthetics with height caps on new developments and provide additional benefits to affected communities.  On January 21, 2016, the Department of City Planning received a zoning proposal from the East River Fifties Alliance, a neighborhood coalition led by City Council members Ben Kallos and Daniel Garodnick, which is the most comprehensive residential re-zoning proposal to ever be submitted by a community group. The proposal seeks to safeguard the Upper East … <Read More>


Hope Knight Named as New City Planning Commissioner

Knight, president of the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation, fills vacancy on 13-member Commission.  On December 16, 2015 the City Council approved Hope Knight as the newest member of the City Planning Commission.  Ms. Knight was nominated by Mayor Bill de Blasio to fill the seat vacated by Bomee Jung when Ms. Jung resigned to take the position of Vice President of Energy and Sustainability with NYCHA.  Ms. Knight will serve out the remainder of … <Read More>


Plan by West End Collegiate Church to Develop Adjacent Lot Approved

Demolition of existing building and construction of new residential tower generally supported by community and preservationist organizations. On December 8 2015, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to approve two applications submitted by West End Collegiate Church for the redevelopment of adjoining properties. The sites are currently occupied by the Collegiate School, from whom the church repurchased the property when the school made a decision to relocate. The plan calls for the demolition of the existing … <Read More>


Special hearing on Backlogged Items Devoted to Staten Island Properties

Items at issue included a former retirement community for sailors, a Colonial-era stone farmhouse, a lighthouse, and the Vanderbilt family mausoleum. On October 22, 2015, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held the second of four special hearings to address the backlog of items calendared before 2012 but never brought to a vote on designation. The hearing consisted of three batches, of seven to eleven items each, all located in Staten Island. Twenty-six items in total were … <Read More>


Extension to Mount Morris Park Historic District Designated

Commission decided to retain boundaries as originally presented, after considering questions raised at July hearing. On September 22 2015, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to designate the Mount Morris Park Historic District Extension, composed of the 276 properties on six blocks. The new district adjoins and shares a development history with the existing Mount Morris Park Historic District, designated in 1971.


NYCHA Announces First Infill Locations: Plans to Build 1,000 New Housing Units

Boerum Hill, Upper East Side developments to be developed under NextGeneration Neighborhoods program.  On September 10, 2015, the New York City Housing Authority announced that it will launch its NextGeneration Neighborhoods program at its Wyckoff Gardens and Holmes Towers sites, which are located in the Boerum Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn and the Upper East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, respectively.  NextGen Neighborhoods, a NextGen NYCHA program, aims to build new residential units—50% affordable and 50% market-rate—on … <Read More>