Boundaries around landmarked building reduced to provide buffer for Whole Foods development. On January 24, 2012, Landmarks reduced the landmarked site boundaries of the New York and Long Island Coignet Stone Company Building at the corner of Third Avenue and 3rd Street near the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. The dilapidated Coignet Building was built in 1872 as a freestanding building, and is believed to the City’s first concrete structure. Landmarks designated the building in June 2006. 3 CityLand 110 (Aug. 15, 2006). The designation included the building’s entire tax lot.

Whole Foods, which owns the Coignet Building and the rest of the block, requested that Landmarks reduce the building’s landmarked site boundary from approximately 125 feet to 55 feet along Third Avenue and from 55 feet to 40 feet along 3rd Street. The (more…)

Borough President believes development along Gowanus Canal may encourage DEP to initiate clean-up effort. On January 7, 2009, the City Planning Commission heard testimony on Toll Brothers’ proposed waterfront development at 363-365 Bond Street in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn. The project would be located on two full blocks along the Gowanus Canal, bounded by Carroll Street, Second Street, and Bond Street.

In order to facilitate the proposed development, Toll Brothers submitted several applications, including a rezoning of the two-block area from M2-1 to M1-4/R7-2, a text amendment for a special mixed-use district, and a special permit to modify height, setback, rear yard, and inner court regulations. Highlights of the project include two low-rise five-story buildings fronting Bond Street, a series of four-story townhouses along First and Second Streets, and two twelve-story buildings fronting the canal. The project would also contain approximately 2,000sq.ft. of community facility space, 2,000 sq.ft. of retail space, and 23,000sq.ft. of publicly accessible waterfront space along the canal. Toll Brothers expects the development to provide about 460 residential units, 30 percent of which would be affordable to families making 40 – 80 percent of area median income. (more…)

When asked to recall projects throughout his 35-year career, land use attorney Paul Selver’s discussion becomes a vivid narrative of how the economy translates into New York City’s physical changes. Selver sees 1977 as the point when developers started looking ahead for the first time; the 1981 to 1988 development boom coincided with the economy’s exuberance and ended with the stock market crash. To Selver, his current projects, like a six-block rezoning in Coney Island, the potential five-acre reinvention of Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal, and the Trans Hudson Express Tunnel, New Jersey’s proposal for a second rail tunnel under the Hudson River to West 34th Street, reveal another market change. With the upper-middle class being “priced-out” of Manhattan, development moves to where housing can be built, and the need to transport commuters into Manhattan becomes greater.

Selver talked to CityLand about landing in land use, development bellwethers and potential new battles in Brooklyn.

An Extension of Childhood. Selver mentions many reasons for ending up in land use law, including a summer internship with the Lindsay Administration, a final Harvard Law School paper on affordable housing and his perceived inability to draw as well as needed to become an architect, but he ultimately sees it as a natural extension of growing up in Manhattan. Its buildings, its politics and its ever-changing streets interested him. (more…)

4-story building to be converted to 2 dwellings. Four artists sought to convert a four-story industrial building into two dwelling units in an M1-2 zoning district in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. Located at 469 Carroll Street between Nevins and Third Avenue, the building is separated from the established residential district in Carroll Gardens by the Gowanus Canal and sits slightly west of Park Slope’s residential core. Until 2003, a manufacturer of machine components had occupied the building for several decades.

In their original application, the artists sought to convert the building and add a fifth-story penthouse. The artists claimed that a manufacturing use was not viable due to the building’s narrow wooden staircase, limited freight elevator and deficient storage capacity. (more…)

Image from interactive story map, showing marathon route and first highlighted stop, Fort Tompkins. Image Credit: NYC LPC

New Yorkers anticipate the return of the marathon after last year’s cancellation due to COVID-19. On November 3, 2021, the Landmarks Preservation Commission released 50 for the 50th, an interactive story map that highlights 50 landmarks and historic districts along the NYC Marathon route to celebrate the 50th running of the marathon. The marathon, which started in 1970, is having its 50th running this year as last year’s marathon was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (more…)