EDC reissued request for development proposals after community opposed first plan. On October 18, 2006, the New York City Economic Development Corporation reissued a request for proposals for a six-acre lot in East Harlem bounded by East 125th and 127th Streets and Third and Second Avenues after the community opposed the original winning plan.

The six-acre proposed site currently contains an MTA bus storage facility, which the selected developer must move underground, as well as local businesses. The City owns 81 percent of the project site and the EDC is working on the acquisition of the remaining lots through purchases or condemnation. City Planning is currently working on its East 125th Street/River-to-River study, a planning effort aimed at generating a development framework for the entire span of 125th Street between the Harlem and Hudson Rivers. (more…)

Developer had received building permits on historic stable prior to landmarking hearing. On October 17, 2006, Landmarks held hearings to consider the designation of two Upper West Side buildings originally used as livery stables, the Mason or Dakota Stables at 348 Amsterdam Avenue between West 76th and West 77th Streets, and the New York Cab Company Stable at 318 Amsterdam Avenue at West 75th Street.

Opening the hearing on the Dakota Stables, Landmarks Chair Robert Tierney stated that the current owner, Sylgar Properties, had received permits from the Department of Buildings to make “fairly significant facade alterations” to the five-story Renaissance-Revival style stables and that Landmarks knew of the permits’ issuance when it voted to consider designation. The Dakota Stables, designed by architect Bradford Gilbert, was one of the largest livery stables in the city when constructed in 1894. During public testimony, a current photo showing the building covered in tarps and scaffolding remained projected on the hearing room wall. (more…)

Senior housing to be constructed on Clove Road in Staten Island. Developers sought a variance from BSA for a three-story, 40-foot high, 34,542-square-foot senior housing facility at 908 Clove Road in Staten Island. The proposed senior residence exceeded total floor area, street wall height, total height, curb cut, and driveway width.

At BSA, the developers, R. Randy Lee and Frank Naso, argued that the site’s 603-foot distance from the nearest sewer connection significantly increased construction costs, and required additional floor area to recoup the cost. The developers estimated sewer construction costs at about $526,000. Additionally, because the lot was adjacent to a cemetery and monument shop, the developers claimed that it would not be possible to sell access rights to the sewer connection to other developers to compensate for its cost. (more…)

Council Member Lanza and City Planning push forward Prince’s Bay down-zoning. On October 11, 2006, the Planning Commission approved a proposal to down-zone an 172-acre portion of Prince’s Bay, Staten Island and to adopt text amendments to restrict future development on an additional 830 acres. Council Member Andrew Lanza withdrew his original rezoning application in 2005 when opposition called it too restrictive and claimed it would interfere with a potential senior housing development on the Mt. Loretto site, a large tract of land owned by the Archdiocese of New York.

A majority of the 172-acre area to be down-zoned retains the original 1961 R3-2 zoning, which allows multi-family buildings as well as detached and semi-detached homes. The new proposal seeks to restrict future development to one and two-family detached homes on 40-foot lots (R3X). The second zoning change would impact the 22- acre former Camp St. Edwards site, currently under development. The proposal would match the current construction, changing the zoning to limit development to single-family homes with a minimum of 5,700- square-foot lots (R3X to R1-2). (more…)

Manhattan’s first green roof, installed in 1998, sits on top of the 1902 Georgian townhouse at 122 East 38th Street in Murray Hill, the home of Earth Pledge, a New York based nonprofit that promotes green building technologies. Founded by Theodore Kheel to support the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio, Earth Pledge now sponsors the Greening Gotham program, an initiative to get New York City developers, building owners, and government officials behind green roof installation. Leslie Hoffman, Earth Pledge’s Executive Director, spoke with CityLand about the city’s standing, its policy and turning affordable housing green.

Why Green. Hoffman began as a minimum wage carpenter in Maine, became a general contractor and moved on to design green building projects. She holds a degree in Architecture and Design from Colorado College, has co-authored green technology books and even runs an organic coffee farm. Hoffman explained that green roofs are fundamentally lightweight, engineered systems of insulation, drainage, soil, and vegetation constructed on top of a traditional roof. It’s an “an elegant solution to common urban problems,” Hoffman declared, listing green roofs’ ability to boost insulation, cool buildings, reduce energy use by 10 to 30 percent, lower area air temperature, absorb 80 percent of storm water lessening runoff, and protect the roof from weather cycles and UV rays. Installation adds about $10 per square foot, but Hoffman points out that a green roof can last for 50 years where traditional roofs need replacement after only 15. The Greening Gotham program envisions a network of green roofs stretching across the city’s skyline, which advocates and researchers believe could diminish the “urban heat island effect,” a term used to describe the fact that the city is 3 to 6 degrees hotter on summer days than its surrounding suburbs. (more…)