City Planning Commission had approved the permit to operate a Bronx homeless shelter. Liska NY, Inc. had constructed an eight-story homeless shelter at 731 Southern Boulevard in the Longwood area of the Bronx. The shelter exceeded the height, setback, and floor area ratio limits for the site and on August 21, 2013 the City Planning Commission approved Liska’s request for a special permit to legalize the building. On October 9, 2013 the City Council voted to deny the permit. In an earlier hearing, then-Council Member Maria del Carmen Arroyo requested a vote to deny the permit because the shelter was originally constructed as a thirty-two unit apartment building in 2003 and four years later converted to a homeless shelter in violation of applicable zoning. Council Member Arroyo stated this after-the-fact shelter construction was a pattern of behavior by Liska and continued to oversaturate the local community board district with shelter providers.
(more…)
Architectural rendering of The Jardim. Image credit: Office of Environmental Remediation/Centaur Properties
The proposed parking facility would create 39 internal parking spaces for 36 residential units. On September 22, 2015, the City Planning Commission held a public hearing on WC 28 Realty LLC’s application seeking a special permit to build 39 off-street parking spaces attached to its proposed condominium complex for exclusive use by the condominium’s tenants. The condominium, called the Jardim, is located in the West Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. The developers are allowed to build 10 accessory parking spaces as of right and require the special permit to build the additional 29 parking spaces in the proposed automated parking facility.
(more…)
498 Broome Street. Image credit: Umberto Squarcia Designs, Inc.
Permit will allow Use Group 2 residential on the third through sixth floors only. On March 9, 2015 the City Council Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises voted to approve a modified special permit for the conversion of 498 Broome Street in the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District of Manhattan to Use Group 2 residential. The approved permit restricts conversion of the building to Use Group 2 residential for only the third through sixth floors, and leaves the cellar, first, and second floors subject to the standing zoning regulation which permit Joint Live-Work Quarters for Artists. The permit as originally requested would have allowed Use Group 2 on portions of the first floor and all of the second through sixth floors.
(more…)
A model of the proposed building on 7 West 21st Street, New York, NY. Image Credit: MA.com.
Commissioners focused on the building’s sustainability and the proposed parking garage. On January 7, 2015 the City Planning Commission held a public hearing on applications for two special permits for a proposed building at 7 West 21st Street in the Ladies’ Mile Historic District of Manhattan. The proposed building is 185 feet tall, with ground-floor retail and residential units on the upper floors. The permits would allow a waiver of the 150-foot setback requirement and construction of an underground parking garage capable of holding two hundred vehicles. On October 15, 2013 the Landmarks Preservation Commission granted a Certificate of Appropriateness for the new building. (See previous CityLand coverage here.)
(more…)
Eric Palatnik testifies before the Board of Standards and Appeals. Image credit: BSA
BSA found the proposed expansion would not alter the neighborhood character or interfere with any pending public improvements. On December 9, 2014 the Board of Standards and Appeals voted to grant the applicant, Galt Group Holdings, a special permit to extend the rear portion of an existing building as part of the building’s conversion into a single-family home. The building is located at 127 East 71st Street in Manhattan’s Upper East Side Historic District, between Park Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenue to the east. (more…)
