Mixed-use project near Navy Yard approved

Mixed-use development near Brooklyn Navy Yard. Image: Courtesy FXFOWLE Architects.
Proposed Navy Green development along Vanderbilt Avenue between Flushing and Park Avenues. Image: Courtesy FXFOWLE Architects.

Located on former prison site, the complex will provide affordable and special needs housing. On September 30, 2009, the City Council approved the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s proposal to facilitate the construction of a 455- unit complex, known as Navy Green, in Brooklyn’s Wallabout neighborhood. The 461,449 … <Read More>


Carnegie Hill townhouse reconstruction approved

4-8 East 94th Street. Photo: Brett Reitter.

Applicant claimed that combining office building and residential townhouse would improve surrounding area. On August 20, 2009, the City Council approved a developer’s plan to combine two buildings on East 94th Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues into one 67-foot, six-story residential building within the Carnegie Hill Historic District. Originally built in the 1890s, developers converted 4 East 94th Street into a seven-story, 75-foot office building in 1963. … <Read More>


Chelsea garage legalized

625-space garage had been operating over capacity since approximately 2003. On July 1, 2009, the City Planning Commission approved 111 Eighth Avenue Parking LLC’s application for a special permit allowing it to continue to operate a 625-space garage on the ground floor and cellar of an office building located between West 15th and 16th Streets, and Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Chelsea. The applicant began operating the 126,677 sq.ft. garage in 1999. It reached its … <Read More>


300 blocks of West Central Queens rezoned

Plan builds on several 2006 Queens downzonings. On July 29, 2009, the City Council approved the Department of City Planning’s 300-block rezoning proposal for the three west-central Queens neighborhoods of Middle Village, Maspeth, and Glendale. The plan seeks to decrease future out-of-character development and builds on several 2006 rezoning plans within the area.

Characterized by detached and semi-detached single- and two-family housing, the area’s R3-2, R4, and R5 zoning, which was largely unchanged since 1961, … <Read More>


Brooklyn prison expansion halted by judge

Brooklyn House of Detention. Photo:Natalie Amar.

Court compelled an EIS and other public participation measures related to Brooklyn House of Detention. In 2003, the City closed the Brooklyn House of Detention, located at 275 Atlantic Avenue across from the Criminal Court. At the time, Correction reasoned that the costs of caring for each inmate at the Brooklyn facility were too high because of the facility’s small capacity. Since then, the City kept no inmates there … <Read More>


CPC reduces parking spaces for W. 53rd St. development

Commission declined to use quarter-mile radius test to determine the sufficiency of available parking nearby. On March 4, 2009, the City Planning Commission approved, with modification, 405 West 53rd Development Group LLC’s special permit application for a 37-space accessory parking garage. The garage would be located on portions of the cellar and ground floor of an 84-unit, as-of-right residential building located at 405-427 West 53rd Street in Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan.

At the Commission’s January 21st … <Read More>