Accessory garage’s 1973-issued certificate of occupancy permitted transient parking as secondary use. On March 10, 2010, the City Planning Commission approved Central Parking Systems’ application for a special permit to convert an existing 213- space accessory parking garage at 159 West 48th Street in Manhattan into a 220-space public parking garage. Central Parking would also provide 23 bicycle parking spaces.

The garage occupies six floors and the roof of a seven-story building with ground floor retail. The facility was built in 1973 as an accessory parking garage for an office building located at 1185 Sixth Avenue. Its certificate of occupancy permits transient parking as a secondary use. In October 2009, Buildings issued Central Parking a notice of violation for operating the garage as a public parking facility contrary to its certificate of occupancy. (more…)

Text amendment closes loophole in zoning resolution that allowed developers to avoid providing off-street parking in eastern Bronx. On March 25, 2010, the City Council approved the Department of City Planning’s text amendment addressing parking issues in mid-density residential districts found primarily in Westchester Square and Pelham, and near Westchester Avenue in Co-Op City within Bronx Community District 10. The amendment expands the definition of CD 10’s Lower Density Growth Management Area to include R6 and R7-1 districts for the purposes of increasing off-street parking requirements.

The Lower Density Growth Management Area in CD 10 was established as part of the Throgs Neck Rezoning in 2004 in order to protect the character of low-density neighborhoods with limited access to public transit, limited availability of off-street parking, and high rates of vehicle ownership. 1 CityLand4 (Oct. 15, 2004). The 2004 designation only included R2, R3, R4A, and R4-1 zoning districts within CD 10. Over the past several years, however, community groups and elected officials have noted that the area’s mid-density districts have experienced the same problems as the lower-density districts. In addition to expanding CD 10’s Lower Density Growth Management Area, the amendment includes revisions to the parking provisions to close a loophole allowing developers who subdivided their lots to avoid providing off-street parking. (more…)

City seeks to promote use of car-share vehicles by increasing availability of off-street parking spaces. On July 14, 2010, the City Planning Commission heard testimony on the Department of City Planning’s zoning text amendment proposal intended to promote the use of car-share vehicles in the City. Companies like Zipcar, Connect by Hertz, and Mint provide car-share vehicles to registered members on an as-needed basis, 24 hours a day. Drivers reserve the vehicles by phone or the internet and are able to pick them up and drop them off at the same location. According to Planning, using carshare vehicles can reduce the total number of vehicles in the City, helping to alleviate traffic congestion and decrease air pollution.

The zoning resolution does not recognize car-share vehicles and contains no clear rules as to where companies are permitted to park or store the vehicles. If adopted, Planning’s amendment would formally define car-share vehicles and establish that car-share vehicles would be permitted to park in certain offstreet public and accessory garages. 7 CityLand 59 (May 15, 2010). (more…)

Text amendment would introduce curb cut prohibitions and limit front yard parking spaces in certain residential districts. On February 24, 2010, the City Planning Commission approved, with modifications, the Department of City Planning’s Residential Streetscape Preservation text amendment. Planning proposed the City-wide amendment in response to community concerns about inappropriate curb cuts and front yard parking spaces in residential districts. Planning seeks to clarify parking requirements and preserve and enhance residential streetscapes.

The proposed amendment includes a host of modifications such as requiring new parking spaces in all single- and two-family districts to be located within a residential building or to the side or rear of a building. This requirement currently applies to R1 and R2 districts and certain districts in Lower Density Growth Management Areas in Staten Island and the Bronx. In order to ensure that required front yard plantings are of sufficient quality, the amendment would close a loophole that allows narrow strips of plantings located in driveways to count towards the required minimum front yard planting requirements. (more…)

In a three-two decision, BSA found that side lot ribbon existed even though that portion of the zoning lot was not completely open to the sky. The owners of 846 70th Street applied to Buildings for a new 10ft. curb cut that would facilitate off-street parking in the front yard of their attached home. The home is one of 19 continuously attached homes in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn. Buildings granted the permit, finding that, when no more than two parking spaces are required, off-street parking for a residential building in an R4-1 district is permitted within any portion of the side lot ribbon, the 8-10ft. wide area that extends along the entire length of a retenside of a zoning lot. A neighbor appealed the decision to BSA.

The neighbor claimed that the Zoning Resolution expressly prohibited front yard parking for attached homes in an R4-1 district, and that Buildings incorrectly granted the permit since the parking space would be within an open area between the street line and the street wall of the attached home. The neighbor further claimed that parking was not permitted within the purported side lot ribbon, including the section that overlapped the front yard, because side lot ribbons could not exist on a zoning lot where an attached home extended the entire width of the zoning lot. Moreover, the neighbor argued that the framers of the Zoning Resolution intended to prohibit parking in front yards of attached homes in R4-1 districts since front yard parking for attached homes is prohibited in R4B and R5B districts, districts that typically produce attached rowhouses similar to those found in R4-1 districts. (more…)