City’s First Micro-Unit Development Begins Review

Mixed-use development will feature 55 experimental micro-units between 250- and 350-square-feet each unit. On April 8, 2013 the City Planning Commission certified the adAPT NYC proposal as complete and ready for review. The plan, proposed by the City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, seeks to initiate an innovative approach to affordable housing through the development of micro-units. A new, 10-story building will be constructed to house 55 residential units as well as retail and … <Read More>


Eleven-story HPD project approved for West Side

Courtesy of SLCE Architects

Affordable housing project along West 52nd Street will include 96 apartments. On April 6, 2011, the City Council approved the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s proposal to allow the Clinton Housing Association and Monadnock Construction to build a 96-unit affordable housing project at 533 West 52nd Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in Manhattan. The eleven-story project, known as Clinton Commons, will provide a mix of studio and one- … <Read More>


Dispute over synagogue’s condo development

Congregation Shearith Israel seeks a variance from BSA to construct a nine-story, mixed-use building in the Central Park West Historic District. Image: Platt Byard Dovell White Architects LLP.

Neighbors claim congregation’s program needs could be accommodated by an as-of-right building. The Congregation Shearith Israel Synagogue, a City landmark located at 8 West 70th Street within the Central Park West Historic District, sought a variance from lot coverage, yard, height and setback zoning regulations in order … <Read More>


City Planning Hears Application for Four New Affordable Buildings in East New York

The sites are all located within a few blocks from each other. On March 30, 2022, the City Planning Commission held a public hearing for an application that would facilitate the construction of four new buildings with a total of 46 affordable units in East New York, Brooklyn. The four sites are located at 492-496 Glenmore Avenue, 2358-2362 Pitkin Avenue, 943 Dumont Avenue, and 743 Blake Avenue, as part of the Sutter Place Neighborhood Construction <Read More>


Reducing Racial Bias Embedded in Land Use Codes

Even though the Supreme Court struck down race-based land use controls over a hundred years ago in Buchanan v. Warley, 245 U.S. 60 (1917) it has long been known that zoning continues to create or increase racial and economic segregation. Today communities across the U.S. are reexamining their zoning regulations to create more equal, equitable, inclusive, and resilient communities by removing requirements, limitations, or prohibitions that disproportionately and negatively impact individuals based on race … <Read More>


City Planning Hears Application to Redevelop Lenox Terrace

Public appears at public hearing in strong opposition of the proposed redevelopment of Lenox Terrace. On December 18, 2019, the City Planning Commission heard an application by the Olnick Organization to re-zone and re-develop Lenox Terrace. Lenox Terrace is an existing residential development on a twelve acre superblock in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan. The block is situated between 135th Street to the north, 132nd Street to the south, 5th Avenue to … <Read More>