Billboard Law Challenge Fails

Advertising companies sought to erect outdoor billboards in the Willets Point neighborhood. Mucho Media and other property owners in Queens’ Willets Point neighborhood sought to construct large advertising billboards on their property. For safety and aesthetic reasons, the City denied or ordered the removal of billboards in the Willets Point neighborhood. These actions were pursuant to the City’s zoning law that prohibits commercial billboards within two hundred feet of an arterial highway.


Large Bruckner Boulevard Sign Rejected

OTR Media sought to legalize an 11,297-square-foot billboard visible from the Bruckner Expressway. On January 14, 2013, the Department of Buildings issued a Sign Registration Rejection letter denying registration for a sign leased by OTR Media Group. The 79- by 143-foot sign, constructed in 1962, was located at 330 Bruckner Boulevard in the Bronx—35 feet from and within view of the Bruckner Expressway. Buildings based its rejection on a seven-year gap from 1981 to 1988 … <Read More>


Appellate Division Overturns BSA Denial of Sign Registration

The Board of Standards and Appeals had denied the application based on its finding that the signage was an art installation rather than an “advertising sign,” as defined in the Zoning Resolution. Local Law 31 of 2005 amends the regulations governing the usage of outdoor advertising signs by requiring companies engaged in outdoor advertising to submit to the Department of Buildings an exhaustive list of all of the companies’ “signs, sign structures and sign locations” … <Read More>


Work Associated with Residential Conversion of 1 Wall Street Approved

Robert A. M. Sterne-designed project would see the addition of several stories to an un-designated annex, and the creation of two additional window bays on south facade, among other work. On January 19, 2016, the Landmarks Preservation Commission considered a proposal for alterations to the individually landmarked 1 Wall Street Building. The 1931, 50-story, Art Deco skyscraper in Lower Manhattan was built as an office tower by the Irving Trust Company to designs by … <Read More>


Planning Approves Modified Chelsea Market Expansion Plan, Sends Back to Council for Full Vote [Update: Expansion Approved by Full Council]

See below for update.

Affordable housing contribution would be used by nearby Fulton Houses if floor area bonus utilized. On October 25, 2012, the City Council’s Land Use Committee approved Jamestown Properties’ modified expansion plan for Chelsea Market at 75 Ninth Avenue in Manhattan. The Market is a complex of 18 different buildings occupying the entire block bounded by West 14th and West 15th Streets and Ninth and Tenth Avenues. A section of the High … <Read More>


Land owners fined, lose outdoor ad challenge

Property owners claimed they could not be fined for lessees’ illegal outdoor advertisements. Four separate property owners leased space on their premises to companies that procured, erected, and/or maintained advertisements in the space. The leases were all long-term. The Department of Buildings issued multiple notices of violation to the owners charging them for failing to register as an outdoor advertising company, failing to obtain a permit or a proper permit for outdoor advertising signs, and … <Read More>