The City Council Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises hearing testimony from City Planning Chairman Carl Weisbrod, Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, and Commissioner Vicki Been (from left to right). Image credit: CityLand
Hard-hitting questions from several Council members explored ways affordable housing could be provided at deeper levels of affordability. On February 9, 2016, the City Council Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises held a public hearing on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing proposal. The hearing was held in the City Council Chambers in City Hall to accommodate the capacity audience.
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Simeon Bankoff, Executive Director of the Historic Districts Council.
Last week CityLand published a Guest Commentary from Steven Spinola, President of REBNY. Simeon Bankoff, Executive Director of the Historic Districts Council submitted this commentary in response.
In his recent editorial in CityLand, Steven Spinola, the longtime President of the Real Estate Board of New York, suggested a number of ways which the Landmarks Law needs to be reformed to adhere to its “spirit.” This is a curious statement that warrants further examination. In Section 25-301(b) of the Administrative Code, the purpose of the law is clearly set out to protect and preserve the historic buildings and neighborhoods of New York City in order to stabilize and improve property values, foster civic pride, enhance tourism, strengthen the City’s economy and generally promote the use of landmarks for the education, pleasure and welfare of the public. (more…)
Every month CityLand creates a comprehensive set of charts to track land use applications undergoing public review. This includes new applications filed with the Department of City Planning and the Board of Standards & Appeals, applications certified into the City’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, and applications before the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
We track these applications throughout the review process and until a final decision has been made by the competent City Agency. The majority of these decisions are available on the Center for New York City Law’s CityAdmin database (found at www.CityAdmin.org). When possible, we have provided a link within our Filings and Decisions chart to provide easy access to the relevant documents (i.e. application materials or a final decision).
New Filings and Decisions chart May 2012
- New mixed-use development at 470 Vanderbilt Avenue. Image: Courtesy Goldstein Hill & West Architects/ Costas Kondylis & Partners.
Project will provide 376 residential units, 616,555 sq.ft. of commercial floor area, and up to 397 underground parking spaces. The City Council approved GFI Development Company’s proposal to build a new 12-story mixed-use building and expand and renovate an existing 10- story loft building located on a full block bounded by Fulton Street and Vanderbilt, Atlantic, and Clermont Avenues in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood. The loft building is mostly vacant, containing only limited telecommunications uses.
GFI will convert the loft building’s ground floor to retail space and fill in its interior courtyards to increase available commercial space. The new mixed-use building will replace an accessory surface parking lot and provide 376 residential units, 85 of which will be affordable. The new building will have a 69- foot base height along Fulton Street and will rise to a mid-block height of 133 feet through a series of setbacks. It will also provide 32,358 sq.ft. of ground floor retail space and a two-story, 397-space accessory parking garage below the new building. (more…)
Joshua Benson
Joshua Benson, the 33-year-old Acting Director of Bicycle & Pedestrian Programs for the New York City Department of Transportation, admits to being particularly fond of the basket sitting at the front of his simple single-speed bike, noting how it allows him to carry anything from groceries to his laptop and projector on the bike. Benson started riding a bike as a student at NYU and now commutes to Downtown Manhattan every weekday from his home in Prospect Heights.
“Biking to work really does help me do a better job. On a bike, I get to see the streets more often and get a feel for what works and doesn’t work out there,” he said. After receiving a master’s degree in urban planning from Columbia University, Benson began his career in City government at the Department of City Planning. After a year, Benson had the opportunity to move to DOT and implement the very same biking and greenway plans that he had already drafted on a purely conceptual level. (more…)
