Enrique Norten-designed 12- story condo building will feature 6 stories of glass penthouses. The City Council approved a text amendment and special permits to allow the enlargement and conversion to loft dwellings of an existing building located at One York Street in Manhattan. The approved text amendment establishes a new special permit to allow loft buildings to be enlarged up to a 5 FAR within the Tribeca Mixed Use District. The development also required special permits to allow community facility space and parking.

The 15,360 square-foot project site is bounded by Avenue of the Americas, St. John’s Lane, and Canal, Laight and York Streets. It currently contains two six-story buildings with commercial and residential use. The smaller building will be demolished and the second six-story structure will be enlarged and converted into 43 loft dwellings, 6,000 sq.ft. of commercial and retail use on the ground floor, 14,000 sq. ft. of community facility space, and a fully automated 47-space accessory parking garage. In total, the proposed building will rise to 12 stories amounting to 150 feet in height and 122,000 sq.ft. One of the current tenants, the Chinese American Planning Council, a not-for-profit organization providing social services to Asian Americans, will occupy the new community facility space. (more…)

Queens community rezoned at request of residents. On July 27, 2005, the City Council approved a 103-block rezoning in East Flushing. The proposed rezoning was initiated by the Planning Department in response to requests of the East Flushing Civic Association, the Off-Broadway Homeowners’ Association, Community Board 7 and a zoning task force created by Borough President Helen Marshall’s office. The groups raised concerns that the 1961 zoning did not reflect building patterns in the area and encouraged out-of-character development.

A majority of the rezoned areas, from 149th Street to 166th Street, had allowed as-of-right construction of large multi-family buildings in streets generally developed with single or two-family homes. These areas were down-zoned to districts restricting density to one and two-family structures (R2, R4-1 and R4A). Along East Flushing’s major thoroughfares, Northern Boulevard and Crocheron Avenue, the new zoning (R6B) would allow mixed-use development. The existing commercial overlay was extended to 159th Street, but its depth of coverage was decreased to prohibit commercial uses from encroaching on established residential streets. (more…)

Bridge will provide four traffic lanes, two bike paths, two walkways and a needed cross-town connection. The Department of Transportation sought a City Map amendment for the construction of a new East 153rd Street bridge in the Bronx to span the Metro North railroad tracks and reconnect the east-west linkage of East 153rd, between Morris Avenue and the Grand Concourse. DOT closed the original 1899 two-lane bridge in 1988, due to safety concerns, and demolished it in 1992. The new $40 million cable-stayed bridge, envisioned to be a showpiece for South Central Bronx, will have four traffic lanes, two bike lanes, and two sidewalks, and will require the widening of East 153rd Street to accommodate the added traffic lanes. The existing right-of-way will be expanded from 113 feet to 143.3 feet and two other portions of East 153rd Street, from Grand Concourse to Concourse Village West and from Concourse Village East to Morris Avenue, will be widened and realigned. DOT will acquire four privately-owned lots and demolish two buildings for the expansion of East 153rd Street.

At the Commission’s April 13, 2005 public hearing, only a DOT representative appeared. The Commission unanimously approved on May 25, 2005, finding that the bridge will provide a needed cross-town connection and ease congestion on East 149th and East 161st Streets, South Central Bronx’s east-west thoroughfares. The Commission noted that DOT sent a letter addressing each recommendation of Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, Jr., which confirmed Parks’ approval of the traffic island at Grand Concourse and East 153rd Street as green space and DOT’s commitment that lighting would extend to Grand Concourse and Morris Avenue. (more…)

City amended law to obstruct loopholes. In 1993, adult establishments had proliferated within the city, growing from only nine in 1965 to 177 in 1993. A 1993 Planning Department study, precipitated by this increase, concluded that adult uses produced secondary negative impacts like increased crime, property value depreciation and a reduction in commercial activity in areas where the uses were heavily concentrated. This study became the basis of a 1995 citywide zoning amendment that prohibited adult establishments within residential districts and within 500 feet of schools and churches.

The 1995 zoning restrictions defined adult uses as a commercial enterprise that used a substantial portion of its business for adult content, but failed to explicitly define “substantial portion.” Buildings interpreted “substantial portion” as a business that devoted at least 40 percent of its floor area to adult uses. Adult use businesses then reconfigured their floor area to circumvent the 60/40 rule. (more…)

15-unit residential building with commercial space approved for manufacturing district. The owner of 214 25th Street, a 12,617-squarefoot lot in an M1-1D district of Sunset Park, Brooklyn with two vacant, low-rise manufacturing buildings, sought a variance to convert and enlarge one of the structures into a 15-unit, 20,656-square-foot residential building.

The owner argued that manufacturing uses were infeasible due to the buildings’ small size, cost to retrofit, lack of street access, narrow interior spaces and lack of loading facilities. Community Board 7, a local masonry business and the Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corporation opposed the variance, citing inadequate parking, local business delivery interruption and over-development of residential units in a manufacturing district. While the neighborhood was not predominantly residential, the applicant claimed that, because residential uses could be permitted by Planning Department authorization, the proposed construction would not affect the essential character. (more…)