First Department sends adult zoning law back for trial

Adult businesses challenged constitutionality of 2001  amendments to City’s  zoning resolution. A Department of City Planning study concluded in 1994 that the  City’s adult entertainment businesses caused certain negative secondary effects, such as increased crime and decreased property values. In response to this study, the City amended the zoning resolution in 1995 to bar “adult establishments” from all residential zones and most commercial and manufacturing districts. Adult establishments were defined as commercial businesses whereby a … <Read More>


Council approves Bronx contextual rezoning

Proposed Webster Avenue/Bedford Park/Norwood rezoning. Image Courtesy of Department of City Planning.

Eighty-block rezoning encourages residential development along Webster Avenue and limits out-of-character development in Norwood and Bedford Park neighborhoods. On March 23, 2011, the City Council approved the Department of City Planning’s 80-block Webster Avenue/Bedford Park/Norwood Rezoning plan. The rezoning affected thirteen blocks along Webster Avenue between 193rd and 211th Streets and the surrounding residential side streets of Bedford Park and Norwood. … <Read More>


Central Bronx affordable housing project approved

Three-building project on former railway site will include 141 affordable rental apartments. On April 6, 2011, the City Council approved a proposal by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development to allow Phipps Houses to develop a three-building affordable housing project on two vacant through-block lots in the East Tremont section of the Bronx. Phipps will construct an eight-story residential building and a ten-story mixed-use building at 1155 East Tremont Avenue, and a … <Read More>


Bronx affordable housing approved by Council

Courtlandt Crescent/Melrose Commons. Image: Courtesy of HPD.

Project will include two connected buildings and more than 200 units of low- and moderate-income housing. The City Council approved the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s proposal to allow Phipps Houses to build a 217-unit affordable housing project in the Melrose section of the Bronx. The two-building development, known as Courtlandt Crescent, will wrap around the northeast portion of a block bounded by East 161st and East … <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>


South Williamsburg mixed-income project approved

Proposed Wythe Avenue Rezoning.

Developer agreed to community request to exclude bar or restaurant from ground floor of mixed-income project. On March 23, 2011, the City Council approved Bruce Terzano’s proposal to develop a two-building mixed-use project at the corner of Wythe Avenue and South 3rd Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The mixed-income project will include a six-story building with 61 market rate apartments and ground floor commercial space, and a smaller six-story building with eighteen … <Read More>