Limited rezonings along Carroll Street approved

Courtesy The Center for Negative Thinking LLC

Separate public and private proposals impacted eight lots left out of the Carroll Gardens/Columbia Street rezoning. On April 28, 2011, the City Council approved independent proposals by the Department of City Planning and a private developer, Marshall Sohne, to rezone portions of Carroll Street between Columbia and Van Brunt Streets in Brooklyn’s Columbia Street Waterfront District. The two proposals impacted portions of the north and south side … <Read More>

New Atlantic Avenue BID awaits Council approval

Domenic M. Recchia Jr.

Council Member Recchia warned BID about working with the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership. On April 28, 2011, the City Council’s Finance Committee held  a hearing on the Department of Small Business Services’ plan to create the Atlantic Avenue Business Improvement District for more than 400 commercial businesses in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill and  Boerum Hill neighborhoods. The BID would extend along Atlantic Avenue between Fourth Avenue to the east, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway … <Read More>

Public Cafes OK’d in Water Street Corridor Arcades

Planning seeks to enliven privately owned public spaces along the Water Street by allowing tables and seating.

On May 4, 2011, the City Council’s Land Use Committee approved the Department of City Planning’s proposal to permit public and cafe seating within arcades along the Water Street corridor in Lower Manhattan. Arcades are privately owned, publicly accessible covered areas along the perimeter of commercial buildings that were developed in exchange for a floor area bonus. The

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Second Avenue mixed-income housing approved

Tenants displaced by project can purchase or rent affordable apartments in new building. On April 6, 2011, the City Council approved the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s proposal to allow BFC Partners and The Urban Homesteading Assistance Board to redevelop three lots at the corner of Second Avenue and East 1st Street in the East Village. The development team will build a twelve-story, 79-unit affordable housing project with ground floor commercial  space. The … <Read More>

West 129th Street cul-de-sac eliminated for charter school

Image: Courtesy of Harlem Children’s Zone and John Ciardullo Associates.

NYCHA proposal would restore West 129th Street in the St. Nicholas Houses as part of Harlem Children’s Zone’s charter school plan. On March 30, 2011, the City Planning Commission approved the New York City Housing Authority’s proposal to re-connect West 129th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem. The City in the 1950s closed a portion of West 129th Street by creating a cul-de-sac … <Read More>

BSA denies challenge to twelve-story homeless shelter

Community group argued that proposed homeless shelter did not qualify as a hotel under the zoning resolution. Buildings in 2010 issued the Bowery Residents’ Committee a permit to convert a twelve-story factory building at 127 West 25th Street in Chelsea to a homeless shelter and offices. BRC planned to create a 32-bed chemical dependency crisis center, a 96-bed reception center for the homeless, a 200-bed homeless shelter, and two outpatient counseling programs serving up

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