HPD Proposes Affordable Homeownership Project in Bedford-Stuyvesant

Affordable homeownership project receives generally positive feedback. On January 22, 2020, the City Planning Commission heard an application by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development for the disposition of city-owned property and to designate three areas in the southern portion of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn as Urban Development Action Areas. The UDAAP designation would help facilitate the construction of seven new buildings and 78 affordable homeownership units. Felipe Cortez, a borough planner at HPD and Jack … <Read More>


City Planning Hears Application to Redevelop Lenox Terrace

Public appears at public hearing in strong opposition of the proposed redevelopment of Lenox Terrace. On December 18, 2019, the City Planning Commission heard an application by the Olnick Organization to re-zone and re-develop Lenox Terrace. Lenox Terrace is an existing residential development on a twelve acre superblock in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan. The block is situated between 135th Street to the north, 132nd Street to the south, 5th Avenue to … <Read More>


Supreme Court Judge Finds Inwood Rezoning in Violation of SEQRA

City expected to appeal Judge’s decision invalidating the Inwood Rezoning. On December 10, 2019, Judge Verna L. Saunders of the New York State Supreme Court, New York county ruled in favor of the Northern Manhattan is Not For Sale’s Article 78 petition challenging the legality of the Inwood Rezoning. The rezoning was proposed by the city’s Economic Development Corporation and was set to up-zone 59 blocks in the Inwood neighborhood of Manhattan. Approval of the … <Read More>


Approval of Alteration – UPDATE: Case on Appeal

The owners of the Dean Sage Mansion in Crown Heights North Historic District sought to build addition to the 1870’s mansion. In the mid-nineteenth century the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn underwent suburban development of freestanding villas. Today, only a few of the Sturgis villas remain, one of which is the Dean Sage Mansion at 839 St. Mark’s Avenue, a rare High Gothic style mansion built in 1870 by architect Russell Sturgis. The Mansion, which … <Read More>


City Planning Hears Application for Major Development Across the Street from Essex Crossing

New development on Lower East Side set to transform the entire Broome Street corridor. On December 4, 2019, the City Planning Commission heard an application by Go Broome LLC and the Chinatown Planning Council HDFC to rezone and develop a large-scale, mixed-use development on the Lower East Side. The proposed development includes mixed-income housing, affordable senior housing, program and office space for the Chinese American Planning Council, congregation space for the landmarked Beth Hamedrash Hagodol … <Read More>


City Planning Hears Application for Residential Development with a 250 Seat Theater in Astoria

The proposed zoning actions seek not only to facilitate the development but also bring block’s current uses in conformance. On December 4, 2019, the City Planning Commission heard an application by Mega LLC and the Pancyprian Association of American to rezone and redevelop an entire block in Astoria, Queens. The applicants proposed two eight-story buildings connected at the ground floor level with a green space between the buildings. The development includes affordable housing components and … <Read More>