Comprehensive plan for managing the City’s shoreline unveiled for public comment. On October 12, 2010, the Department of City Planning held a public meeting to present its Vision 2020 Comprehensive Waterfront Plan draft recommendations. Vision 2020 is Planning’s response to a local law mandating the creation by the end of 2010 of a comprehensive plan for the City’s 578 miles of shoreline. The proposal builds on the City’s original 1992 waterfront plan and is part of a broader Citywide initiative to establish a long-term blueprint for the City’s shoreline, known as the Waterfront Vision and Enhancement Strategy. Vision 2020 was created after a public-input process that was formally commenced in April 2010. 7 CityLand 59 (May 15, 2010).

Vision 2020 provides broad programmatic goals for the City’s waterfront and targeted recommendations for specific portions of the City’s shoreline, referred to as “reaches” by Planning. The six programmatic goals include expanding the public’s access to the waterfront and waterways, increasing waterborne transportation and on-water recreation, and supporting port and other maritime industries on the working waterfront. (more…)

Wilhelm Ronda

Wilhelm Ronda applies a “small-town” approach to his duties as the Director of Planning for Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. Whether it’s identifying parcels of land for new schools, or taking steps to protect the architectural integrity of a neighborhood building, Ronda understands that these issues can profoundly affect the borough’s residents. For this reason, Ronda encourages his staff to treat each issue with the same “tender love and care” that a small town’s officials would exercise. He says that it is important to address residents’ concerns by “taking charge with executive authority and not letting bureaucratic red tape get in the way.”

Ronda, a resident of the Kingsbridge neighborhood in the Bronx, has worked at the borough president’s office for twenty years. He began his career in City government at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Seven years later, he became district manager of Bronx Community Board 2, where he gained experience in open space development, environmental justice, and other local land use issues. After serving as CB2’s district manager for two years, Ronda received an unexpected invitation to join then-Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer’s staff. (more…)

Major League Baseball project in Harlem is among the beneficiaries. On March 6, 2008, the New York City Industrial Development Agency held a public hearing on proposed public subsidies to private entities, including a joint venture between Vornado Realty Trust and California Urban Investment Partners. The joint venture was established to build a 21-story office tower on 125th Street and Park Avenue, directly southwest of the Metro-North train station. The tower will contain 526,555 sq.ft. of office space, 50,492 sq.ft. of retail, and a 52-space underground garage. The tower’s anchor tenant will be MLB Network, Major League Baseball’s new cable broadcasting system. The work site lies within the proposed 125th Street rezoning plan, which the Planning Commission approved on March 10, 2008 to encourage renewed investment and development in the area.

At the hearing, Bettina Damiani, Director of Good Jobs New York, questioned the need for subsidies to attract MLB to Harlem given the area’s easy access to Yankee Stadium and Citi Field via public transportation. Charles Callaway, representing WE ACT for Environmental Justice, expressed similar skepticism and feared that the newly created jobs would not go to community residents. (more…)

Part of Park West Village. Image Credit: Google Maps

On December 17, 2020, by a 4-3 decision and over a strong dissent, the Court of Appeals reversed the decision of the Appellate Division in Peyton v. NYC Board of Standards and Appeals, 2020 N.Y. Slip Op. 07662.  The decision is an unseemly show of deference to the Board of Standards and Appeals, a body that is widely viewed as captive to the real estate industry, on a pure question of law as to which no deference is owed.  The City Council should follow the lead of the U.S. Congress, which, in the Dodd-Frank Act, legislated a less deferential standard of review for certain actions of an agency widely deemed captive to the industry it is supposed to regulate. (more…)

Pier 5. Image Credit: Google Maps

The City authorized Pier 5 on the Harlan River to be development for housing. The City acquired Pier 5 on the Harlem Riven, a 4.4 acre parcel of land in The Bronx, in 2006 during the $60 million renovation of Yankee Stadium and transferred control of the land to the Parks Department. Pier 5 is bounded on the north by Mill Pond Park, on the east by the Major Deegan Expressway, on the south by 149th Street. Parks fenced off Pier 5 and kept it closed for a most of the following ten years. Parks occasionally rented the land to private companies to host carnivals and small events. Between June 2013 and August 2014 Parks allowed the Bronx Council for Environment Quality to collect air quality data and to conduct environmental experiments on Pier 5. The Council permitted members of the public to come on the land for educational and research purposes. Ultimately Parks allowed the Department of Transportation to use Pier 5 for equipment storage. (more…)