Owner had built non-conforming roofed terrace in one side yard and a roofed side-entrance porch in the other. Buildings approved plans for the construction of a residential building at 74 Amherst Street in Brooklyn. The approved plans showed a roofed terrace on the south side yard of the home and a roofed side-entrance porch on the north side. The home was built in 2004, Buildings inspectors signed off on the final construction, and the owner … <Read More>
Amanda M. Burden Talks About the Future of the City’s Waterfront
Amanda M. Burden, Director of the Department of City Planning and Chair of the City Planning Commission, has the lead role in building a blueprint, known as Vision 2020, for managing the City’s more than 500 miles of waterfront. The new comprehensive plan will recommend long-term management strategies for the City’s waterfront and waterways, and identify high-priority initiatives that can be quickly implemented. Burden sat down with CityLand to discuss how City Planning has … <Read More>
Artist vending restrictions clear judicial hurdle
Artists asked federal court to prevent Parks’ expressive-matter vending rules from taking effect. The Department of Parks and Recreation promulgated rules restricting where art and book vendors could sell their wares, also known as “expressive matter.” Among other things, the rules limited the locations where expressive matter display stands could be placed in Battery Park, Union Square, the High Line, and parts of Central Park. Shortly after the rules were published, two groups of artists … <Read More>
Attorney Michael T. Sillerman Discusses Current Issues in Land Use
Land use attorney Michael T. Sillerman is often teased by his co-workers that he won’t work on a project unless there is a Pritzker Architecture Prize winner onboard. Although Sillerman doesn’t think that’s entirely true, he admits that his favorite part of being a land use attorney is how it overlaps with his love of architecture. As co-chair of Kramer Levin’s land use department, Sillerman typically spends as much time talking to architects and city … <Read More>
Columbia’s plan OK’d: High Court reversed App. Div.
Court of Appeals reversed First Department’s strongly worded opinion. In 2001, Columbia University contacted the City’s Economic Development Corporation in an effort to redevelop West Harlem as part of a campus expansion. Not long after, EDC issued a West Harlem Master Plan that stated that West Harlem could be redeveloped through rezoning. EDC, after it issued the master plan, hired a private firm to examine the neighborhood conditions of West Harlem. The study concluded that … <Read More>
Council Member Leroy Comrie Discusses His Role as Land Use Committee Chair
Council Member Leroy Comrie, Chair of the City Council’s Land Use Committee and representative of Queens’ 27th District, is not afraid to raise his voice or make his opinion known. For the most part, however, Comrie is known as a quiet, thoughtful, and fair-minded civic leader.
Comrie was born in Jersey City, but he was raised in the same southeast Queens community he now represents. His parents, Jamaican immigrants, helped spark Comrie’s interests in politics … <Read More>