Bayside health club rezoning approved

Image: Courtesy of NYC Department of City Planning.

Queens health club requested rezoning in order to apply for BSA special permit after operating without a valid certificate of occupancy for seventeen years. On January 18, 2011, the City Council approved Lucille Roberts Health Club’s rezoning proposal for five lots along Bell Boulevard between 42nd Avenue and the Long Island Railroad right-of-way in Bayside, Queens. The approval changed the area’s commercial overlay from C1-2 to C2-2, … <Read More>


Hearing held on Williamsburg mixed-use project

Project near Domino Sugar Refinery would provide 59 market-rate units and eighteen affordable units. The City Planning Commission held public hearings on Bruce Terzano’s proposal to develop a 104,000 sq.ft. mixed-use project at the corner of Wythe Avenue and South 3rd Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The project would include a six-story building with eighteen affordable apartments and a larger six-story building with 59 market-rate apartments and ground-floor commercial space. The site, one block from the … <Read More>


Addition near High Line criticized as too large

View of project from Gansevoort Street.

Dilapidated two-story building across from the High Line would serve as base for seven-story tower. On November 9, 2010, Landmarks considered Taconic Investment Partners LLC’s proposal to build a seven-story addition on top of a two-story building constructed in 1938 at 837 Washington Street in the Gansevoort Market Historic District. The site lies at the edge of the historic district and faces the High Line elevated park.

The … <Read More>


Thirteen-story building near Fordham approved

Developer obtained rezoning in order to build a ten-story tower on top of a three-story medical facility currently under construction. On June 29, 2010, the City Council approved Sean Daneshvar’s rezoning proposal to facilitate the development of a thirteen-story building at 621 East Fordham Road in the Belmont section of the Bronx. The site is occupied by a one-story medical facility that Daneshvar is currently enlarging to three stories pursuant to a BSA variance. The … <Read More>


Bluestone-clad, eight-story building approved

In 2008 Landmarks approved for the same NoHo site a similarly sized building that was to be clad in limestone. On May 11, 2010, Landmarks approved DDG Partners’ revised proposal to build an eight-story residential building at 41 Bond Street in Manhattan’s NoHo Historic District Extension. In 2008 and 2009, the lot’s former owner had obtained a certificate of appropriateness from Landmarks and a use variance from the Board of Standards & Appeals in … <Read More>


Pay phone ads ruled illegal

Franchise holder advertised on public pay phones located in a residential zoning district. The Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications charged Coastal Communication Service, Inc., a public pay phone franchise holder, with displaying advertisements on public pay phones within a residential zoning district. Coastal’s franchise agreement limited the display of advertisements on public pay phones to residential districts where commercial or manufacturing uses were permitted as-of-right.

Coastal argued that DoITT had exceeded its authority by … <Read More>