Contextual rezoning would permit residential development along Webster Avenue and apply lower-density districts in Bedford Park and Norwood. On January 5, 2011, the City Planning Commission held a public hearing on the Department of City Planning’s Webster Avenue/Bedford Park/Norwood Rezoning plan in the Bronx. The 80-block proposal includes a thirteen-block section of the north/south Webster Avenue commercial corridor between 193rd and 211th Streets and the nearby residential side streets making up the Bedford Park and Norwood neighborhoods. The rezoning area is primarily within Bronx Community Board 7, which requested the plan, with only a small section of Webster Avenue above 211th Street within CB 12’s boundaries.

Webster Avenue’s C8-2 commercial zoning prohibits residential development and was applied when the IRT Third Avenue elevated train line ran above the block making heavier commercial uses more acceptable along the corridor. The Third Avenue El was demolished in 1973, but the zoning remained unchanged. This wide avenue is now characterized by auto repair shops, low-scale office uses, parking lots, vacant lots, and minimal pedestrian traffic. The rezoning would replace the majority of the C8-2 zoning with R7D, R7B, and C4-5D districts, and new commercial overlays to encourage higher density mixed-use development. Planning would apply the Inclusionary Housing Program to the new R7D and C4-5D districts. (more…)

BSA approves variance for six-story parking structure. The New York Botanical Garden applied for a variance to construct a six-story, 123,600-square-foot parking garage with 825 spaces. The proposed garage, to be located on two Bronx lots adjacent to the Metro-North Botanical Garden Station along Webster Avenue, Bedford Park Boulevard and Botanical Square South, would replace an abandoned gas station and a one-story warehouse. The proposal required a variance to alter height and setback limitations, allow 825 spaces, and permit added parking on the roof.

The Botanical Garden argued that the site’s 17-foot grade differential would create inefficient garage circulation, eliminating a full aisle of potential parking and necessitating the project’s 85-foot height along the street. Although one level of parking would be provided below street grade, additional subterranean levels would be cost prohibitive due to the high cost to remediate the site’s soil contamination. Overall, the Botanical Garden needed to consolidate parking into one facility to lessen current traffic and parking impacts on adjacent streets. (more…)

Construction begins on Bedford Green House II in Fordham Heights. Image Credit: HPD.

On December 9, 2022, Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul announced the start of construction on a new affordable housing development in the Fordham Heights section of the Bronx. The project, Bedford Green House II, will be located at 2880 Jerome Avenue. (more…)

Image Credit: SBS

Funding from the Avenue NYC and Neighborhood 360 grant programs will be awarded to 24 nonprofits working towards pandemic recovery in low to moderate income neighborhoods. On July 13, 2022, the NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS) announced it will award $3.8 million in multi-year grants through the Avenue NYC and Neighborhood 360 programs. This investment will be divided among 24 community-based development organizations working in low-to-moderate income neighborhoods. (more…)

Mayor Bill de Blasio. Image credit: CityLand

The new agreement stresses the need for internet access. On November 24, 2020, Mayor Bill de Blasio announce efforts to tackle the digital divide in New York City by ensuring that Verizon builds out its FiOS footprint to 500,000 additional householders, making high-speed fiber broadband available to more New Yorkers. Verizon failed to meet the terms of its current cable franchise agreement made with the Bloomberg administration to build out its FiOS network. (more…)