Village historic districts get final Council approval

Council rebuffs request to alter designation report. On July 19, 2006, the City Council approved the Weehawken Street Historic District and the Greenwich Village Historic District Extension, which together extended the Landmarks Law’s protections to an additional 59 buildings in the West Village. Landmarks had unanimously designated both districts on May 2, 2006. 3 CityLand 78 (June 15, 2006).

At the public hearing before the Council’s Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Siting & Maritime Uses, the … <Read More>

Council approves controversial Bronx rezoning

75-block rezoning protects low density in some areas, but increases density in others. On July 19, 2006, the City Council approved City Planning’s rezoning proposal for portions of Pelham Parkway and Indian Village, two northeastern Bronx communities characterized by low density residential development. The proposal will reduce the permitted density of development on 67 blocks and increase the permitted density of residential construction on eight blocks along Williamsbridge Road and Pelham Parkway South. 3 CityLand … <Read More>

Landmarks New Commissioner Talks of Her Controversial Nomination and Ideas on Her New Role

A vote of 39 to 10 of the full City Council approved the controversial nomination of the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s newest member, Margery H. Perlmutter, a land use attorney with Bryan Cave LLP. Preservationists viewed Perlmutter’s nomination as antithetical to the mission of Landmarks since her law practice, particularly her appearances before BSA, the Planning Commission and Landmarks itself, required Perlmutter to register with the City as a lobbyist. Proponents viewed this experience and Perlmutter’s … <Read More>

Variance for Red Hook condos sent back to BSA

BSA’s reliance on a single-use feasibility study deemed insufficient. In 2003, BSA granted a variance to 160 Imlay Street Real Estate LLC to convert a vacant, 220,000-square-foot Red Hook industrial building into 150 luxury residential condominiums with ground floor retail. When members of the Red Hook- Gowanus Chamber of Commerce filed an article 78 petition challenging the variance, the City asked the court to dismiss the proceeding since the Chamber failed to add Imlay as … <Read More>

Lawsuit alleging cancer advances

Families near Pelham Bay landfill claim infants’ cancers caused by chemicals at dump. Sanitation closed its 81-acre landfill in Pelham Bay, Bronx in 1979 following 16 years of operations and increasing complaints over odors and a yellow mist emanating from the site. In 1983, the state declared the dump an inactive hazardous waste site prompting the City to sue 15 corporations in 1985, alleging that the corporations illegally dumped hazardous chemicals. Later that year, Sanitation … <Read More>

Harlem theater and Staten Island house designated

Photoplays theater built in 1914. The Claremont Theater building, located at 3320-3328 Broadway in Harlem, Manhattan, is one of the oldest structures in New York City constructed specifically for showing motion pictures, originally called “photoplays.” The 1914 theater was designed in the neo-Renaissance style and faced in white terra cotta and white glazed brick by architect Gaetano Ajello, best-known for his apartment buildings on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The building has an unusual arrangement with … <Read More>