Planning approves 57-story Fifth Ave. bldg.

Proposed 57-story hotel and condominium tower at 400 Fifth Avenue. Image: Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects.

Transfer of floor area from landmarked Tiffany Building facilitates construction. On September 19, 2007, the Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve the special permits and text amendment needed for 400 Fifth Realty LLC to build a 57-story mixed-use building along Fifth Avenue, between West 36th and West 37th Streets. The proposed mixed-use building would rise to a height of … <Read More>


City Planning proposes plan for Sunnyside Gardens

Under proposal, Landmarks would be solely responsible for all permits to alter Sunnyside Gardens’ buildings. On August 20, 2007, the Planning Commission sent a proposal to Queens Community Board 2 and Borough President Helen Marshall that would make Landmarks solely responsible for all permits to alter buildings in Sunnyside Gardens, a planned community of single-family homes and apartments built in the 1920s.

Landmarks had voted in June 2007 to designate a 600-building historic district covering … <Read More>


Basketball City to build six courts on part of Pier 36

City to lease portion of East River pier that had housed an OEM facility. The Department of Small Business Services proposed to lease to Basketball City, LLC a 64,000- square-foot portion of the one-story shed building located on Pier 36 along the East River, at the base of Montgomery and South Streets. In 2006, plans for the Hudson River Park forced Basketball City to vacate its former location on Pier 63 along the Hudson River … <Read More>


City down-zones most of Fort Greene/Clinton Hill

Inclusionary Housing program extended to Atlantic Ave. and Fulton Street. On July 25, 2007, the City Council approved the 99-block rezoning plan for the Fort Greene and Clinton Hill neighborhoods in Brooklyn, including a proposal to apply the City’s inclusionary housing provisions to blocks along Atlantic Avenue and Fulton Street.

Located adjacent to downtown Brooklyn, the residential neighborhoods of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill have faced increasing development pressure during the past five years as … <Read More>


Commission approves 529-space parking facility

Garage to be part of as-of-right development two blocks from Penn Station. J.D. Carlisle Development Corporation sought Planning Commission approval for a 529-space attended public parking garage to be built as part of a 46-story as-of-right development at 839 Sixth Avenue between West 29th and West 30th Streets. The garage, to be located in the cellar and portions of the ground floor, would be accessible from curb cuts on West 30th and West 29th Streets. … <Read More>


City Planning increases CEQR,ULURP fees

New fees to take effect in June 2007. City Planning’s fee increase for private applications made pursuant to the City Environmental Quality Review process and the City’s land use review procedure, ULURP, will take effect on June 29, 2007. Under the new rule, CEQR fees will typically rise 15 percent, and ULURP fees will go up by 40 percent in most cases. 4 CityLand 40 (April 15, 2007). The CEQR fee increase will also apply … <Read More>