One of Take Two’s prohibited signs at 393 Canal Street. Image credit: Google

Court held Board properly found billboards were prohibited near Holland Tunnel exit.  On January 8, 2013 the Board of Standards and Appeals issued two decisions denying an appeal of a Department of Buildings decision to refuse permitting two billboards near the Holland Tunnel exit in Tribeca, Manhattan.  Take Two Outdoor Media LLC, the appellant, argued the Holland Tunnel’s exit roadway did not constitute an “approach” to an arterial roadway under §49-16 of the Rules of the City of New York, and the location of their billboards within nine hundred feet of the roadway was permissible.  The Board disagreed and upheld Buildings’ decision.  Take Two petitioned for an annulment of the Board’s decisions. On October 30 and November 7, 2013, Justice Carol E. Huff of the New York Supreme Court denied both petitions.

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Rendering of 300 Lafayette Street Development. Image Credit: COOKFOX Architects.

New Land Use Committee unanimously approved a pre-considered application in its first meeting of the year. On January 30, 2014, the City Council Land Use Committee swiftly voted 20-0 to approve the development of a new seven-story commercial building in a lot currently occupied by a BP gas station in SoHo, Manhattan. The applicants, Paco Lafayette LLC, applied for a zoning text amendment and special permits to construct a new seven-story commercial building at 300 Lafayette Street, located at the southwest corner of Lafayette Street and East Houston Street. The proposed building would have approximately 60,000 sq. ft. of floor area. The ground floor, the second floor, and the cellar would contain Use Group 6 and/or Use Group 10A retail space. A portion of the second floor along with the third through seventh floors would be developed into commercial office space. Should the full Council approve the plan, the new development will not include any residential, Joint Living Work Quarters for Artist units or community facility space. (more…)

New City regulations would substantially limit billboards near highways. Clear Channel, the owner of large billboards located near arterial highways, and Metro Fuel LLC, the owner of smaller illuminated advertising signs on building fronts and poles close to the street, sued the City, challenging its outdoor advertising restrictions. The companies claimed that the restrictions limiting the location and illumination of commercial billboards and smaller signs, as well as the strict permitting and registration procedures for existing outdoor signs, were unconstitutional and infringed on their commercial speech. They further claimed that the City enforced its regulations unevenly and that the regulatory scheme was full of exceptions. Metro Fuel specifically claimed that the City allowed panel advertising on street furniture, kiosks, and lampposts, while forbidding similar Metro Fuel panels attached to buildings and poles.

District Court Judge Paul Crotty detailed the history of outdoor advertising, concluding that companies had long ignored or failed to comply with City regulations. The companies had challenged enforcement efforts in court, waited until the City’s efforts at enforcement subsided, or waited for a new, less vigilant administration. Judge Crotty found that the companies’ efforts had paid off because of the sporadic enforcement and the City’s grandfathering of non-compliant signs. (more…)

Under the proposal, the SoHo sculpture would be raised, allowing ad panels below. Image courtesy of Van Wagner.

Compromise calls for SoHo art to coexist with advertising.

On April 24, 2007, Landmarks approved a plan that will allow The Wall, a sculpture by Forrest Myers, to be re-affixed to the Houston Street exterior of the building at 599 Broadway. The location will be 18 feet, four inches above the place that it occupied from 1973 until 2002. Separated by a 15-foot “buffer zone,” as the building’s owner described it, four advertising panels, eight by eighteen feet, will occupy the area beneath the sculpture. The compromise included a proposal to illuminate The Wall at night under a plan to be designed by lighting expert Leni Schwendinger, acclaimed for the lighting of Coney Island’s Parachute Jump.

At the hearing, the owner’s attorney Michael Sillerman presented elevations comparing the art piece’s original location to its proposed raised position, arguing that the proposal would enhance sight lines of Myers’ art. Sillerman also provided views of the sculpture and the proposed ad panels along Houston, where the ad panels seem dwarfed by neighboring full-building- wall ads. The materials also emphasized the size of the ad panels compared to standard billboards and the overall size of Myers’ sculpture, which will occupy an 88-foot by 86-foot area. (more…)

Companies fought over whose signs were grandfathered. BSA denied Lamar Outdoor Advertising’s appeal of Buildings’ decision to revoke permits for two back-to-back billboards at 50 South Bridge Street in Charleston, Staten Island.

The City’s zoning code prohibits advertising signs within 200 feet of an arterial highway unless it is on a highway that crosses New York City limits within a one-half-mile distance from the sign. The code also prohibits a sign within 500 feet of another advertising sign.

In 1994, a prior owner of 50 South Bridge Street obtained permits for two non-advertising signs to announce the business located on the lot. After receiving the permits, the owner illegally converted the business signs to billboards. In April 2004, after Lamar obtained ownership, Buildings determined that the signs had been converted without permits and were only 320 feet away from another advertising sign owned by Communiquez, LLC. (more…)