Rendering of the Atrium, one of the two new senior affordable housing developments recently secured by NYCHA, HPD and HDC. Image Credit: HDP

Both buildings offer a variety of enrichment opportunities and support for seniors. On July 2, 2021, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC) finalized two deals to secure 393 new affordable senior housing units to the Soundview neighborhood in the Bronx and the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn.

Rendering of the new parking garage and community space as part of the Queens jail site in the Borough-Based jails project. Image Credit: DDC

The structure will provide over 600 parking spaces and 25,000 square feet of flexible community space. On June 25, 2021, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the start of construction at one of the City’s four borough-based jails sites in Kew Gardens, Queens. The borough-based jails are part of the City’s controversial solution to shut down Rikers Island and replace the complex with four smaller, locally based jails in Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn. The 866-bed Queens jail will replace the current Queens Detention Complex, which is located adjacent to Queens Borough Hall and the Queens Criminal Courthouse. Construction has started on the parking garage and community space that is part of the Queens jail project. 

Image Credit: DEP

The upgrades will help replace pumps that were originally installed in the 1980s. On July 6, 2021, the NYC Department of Environmental Protection announced that work was in progress for upgrades at the Coney Island Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility. The work will include reliability and energy efficiency upgrades for a facility that serves a 15,087 acre drainage area in southern and central Brooklyn. The facility, which currently uses over 30 year-old pumps, handles 110 million gallons a day during dry weather and up to 220 million gallons per day during wet weather.

258 West 97th Street. Image Credit: Google Maps

Upper West Side residential building converted to hotel. On May 29, 2014, a Department of Buildings inspector cited the owner of a residential building, located at 258 West 97^th Street, Manhattan, with illegally converting the building into a hotel for temporary lodging. The building was originally divided into apartment units for three or more families to live independently from one another. The owner converted the building into temporary one-room and two-room lodging. The Buildings inspector also charged the owner with a failure to provide legally required exits for each floor and for commercial operations in a residential zone.

Image credit: New York City Council.

The bill provides better transparency and helps potential purchasers and agents. On June 17, 2021, the New York City Council passed a bill to require the City’s Board of Standards and Appeals to record a copy of a decision affecting a parcel of land made by the Board in the appropriate title recording system. The bill, Int. 2257-2021, will require the Board to record the decision with the Automatic City Register Information System (ACRIS) for properties in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn or Queens and with the Richmond County Clerk’s database for properties in Staten Island. The bill was sponsored by Council Member Fernando Cabrera.

Green fences around stalled construction sites like these will be replaced with chain link fences under a new law. Image Credit: Google Maps.

The law will affect construction sites that have been stalled for over two years. On June 28, 2021, Local Law 74 was enacted by the NYC Council. The law which originated as Intro 1128 was introduced on September 26, 2018 by Council Member Robert Holden. The new law will amend the New York City Building Code by requiring the green fences that are in place at construction sites that have discontinued or stalled work for over two years be replaced with chain link fences and should work resume the chain link fences would again have to be replaced by the green wooden fences.