Commission modifies CB9 and Columbia plans

Commission signs off on Columbia’s eminent domain option despite vocal opposition. On November 26, 2007, the Planning Commission modified and approved both Columbia University’s campus expansion plan and Community Board 9’s 197-a plan. The two plans must now go before the City Council for their review.

Columbia’s plan called for rezoning 35 acres of Manhattanville, a section of West Harlem primarily zoned for manufacturing, to facilitate construction of a 17-acre academic mixed-use development roughly bounded … <Read More>


Commission hears Columbia’s and CB 9’s plans

Columbia University proposes northward expansion; CB 9 seeks industrial jobs and affordable housing. On October 3, 2007, the Planning Commission held a public hearing on Columbia University’s and Manhattan Community Board 9’s competing plans for the future of West Harlem.

Under Columbia’s plan, the City would rezone 35 acres of Manhattanville, a section of West Harlem currently zoned primarily for manufacturing, and create a Special Manhattanville Mixed-Use District stretching from West 125th to West 135th … <Read More>


EIS scoping hearing held for new Bronx 911 center

Center would enable citywide management of emergency services. On September 6, 2007, the NYPD held a public hearing on the draft scope of an environmental impact statement for the proposed construction of a second 911 center for the City. The proposal by the NYPD, the FDNY and the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, consists of a 493,500- square-foot office building, along with an accessory parking garage with capacity for 500 vehicles. Designed to house … <Read More>


Council overturned on refusal to remove use restriction

Brooklyn developer still cannot build housing. Middleland Inc. sought to rezone three lots on DeKalb Avenue and Spencer Street in Brooklyn and remove a 1975 restriction recorded on the site that limited its use to accessory parking for an adjacent IBM plant, closed since 1993 and now occupied by a Home Depot. Middleland planned to construct housing on its site.

Despite the Planning Commission’s approval, the City Council rejected both of Middleland’s requests, citing the … <Read More>


Hearing held on proposed Crown Heights district

Neighborhood had originally been surveyed for designation in the 1970s. At its September 19th meeting, Landmarks held a hearing on the proposed Proposed Crown Heights North Historic District. The district, on land that was once part of the Lefferts family’s large holdings, had originally been surveyed in the 1970s along with the Fort Greene and Park Slope historic districts. An upper-class suburb in the 1870s, several free-standing Victorian homes still remain in the neighborhood. Following … <Read More>


15-story high-rise approved in Ladies’Mile District

 

Rendering of the West 21st Street front of Ladies’ Mile Historic District development. Image courtesy of SLCE Architects.

Site currently a parking lot and one-story structure. Roseland Property Company, developers of a through lot between West 21st and West 22nd Streets within the Ladies’ Mile Historic District, received a permit to construct a residential building with a 15-story front at 35-41 West 21st Street and a smaller eight-story front at 38 West 22nd Street. … <Read More>