New development potential of 26 million sq.ft. of office space and 13.6 million sq.ft. of residential; 24 acres of parks, a subway extension, and a new boulevard approved. On November 22, 2004, the Commission approved the Bloomberg Administration’s major urban planning initiative for Manhattan’s Hudson Yards, the area bounded by West 30th and West 43rd Streets, running from Seventh and Eighth Avenues to Twelfth Avenue.

The ten applications before the Commission would achieve a comprehensive redevelopment plan, the expansion of City services and a rezoning of the entire area. At the center of the plan for redevelopment is the transfer from the MTA to the Department of Citywide Administrative Services of the 30-acre, eastern portion of the Caemmerer Yard, spanning from West 30th to West 33rd Streets and from Tenth to Eleventh Avenues, for construction of a platform over the yard. (See C 040505 PQM.) The platform would facilitate future private development and the City’s construction of new parks. Further, the rail yard transfer would partially enable the No. 7 Flushing Line expansion, which is proposed to extend from Times Square to West 41st Street and Tenth Avenue, then south to West 34th Street and Eleventh Avenue. (See C 040504 PQM.) (more…)

Down-zoning in South Street Seaport upheld. Peck Slip Assoc. LLC, the owner of a surface parking lot at 250 Water Street, sued the City seeking to invalidate City Council’s down-zoning of the South Street Seaport area on a claim that the rezoning made 250 Water Street impossible to develop.

In April 2003, the City Council approved a South Street Seaport down-zoning, reducing the permitted height and mass of all future development in a l O-block area of Lower Manhattan bounded by Dover, Pearl, Fulton and South Streets. (See map on back.) The rezoned area corresponded to the boundaries of the 1 977 Landmarks designation of the South Street Seaport Historic District, and culminated almost 40 years of City, State and community land use decisions on South Street Seaport. (more…)

4 St. Mark’s Place, Manhattan. On October 19, 2004, Landmarks designated, as an individual landmark, the 1831 East Village federal style town house, which in 1833 became the home of Col. Alexander Hamilton, son of Alexander Hamilton.

The Hamilton-Holly House, a residential and retail town house at 4 St. Mark’s Place in the East Village, is notable for its distinctive 26-foot width and 3- 1 12 story height as well as its varied history for housing several East Village theatrical groups. The designation was recommended by several preservation groups and supported by State Senator Thomas Duane, State Assembly member Deborah Glick and Council Member Margarita Lopez. (more…)

Variance will allow 11 new dwellings and ground floor commercial in a manufacturing zone. BSA approved a use variance, permitting a five-story residential development with ground floor commercial on an M1-1 zoned lot with unobstructed views of lower Manhattan at the corner of Columbia and Congress Streets in Brooklyn.

When the project site, two lots totaling 4,773 sq.ft., was purchased by the variance applicants, Isaac, Jacqueline, and Maurice Douek, it contained two vacant four -story residential buildings. Initially intending to rehabilitate the buildings, the applicants let both buildings sit vacant for several years. In 1992, after Buildings issued an unsafe determination, the buildings were demolished, the foundation walls retained, and the entire lot paved. (more…)

Commission approved Verizon’s consolidation plans. Verizon New York, Inc. sought to rezone two sites that it occupies in Clinton, Manhattan. The first proposal would rezone a 45,200 sq.ft. site at the intersection of Eleventh Avenue and West 43rd Street from M2-3 to C6-4. The second would rezone a 143,300 sq.ft. full-block area, bounded by Eleventh Avenue, West 47th Street, Twelfth Avenue and West 48th Street, from M2-3 to Ml- 5. The Commission unanimously approved both. Verizon intends to sell the up-zoned West 43rd site and consolidate operations into a new building located within the West 47th Street rezoning.

The rezoning on the two West 43rd lots would allow commercial/ residential uses and increase the sites’ permitted building size from 90,400 sq.ft. to 452,000- 542,400 sq.ft. Verizon argued that the one-story warehouse and six-story office on the site were antiquated, out-of-character and required upgrading. (more…)