East Fordham Road Rezoning Project Area. Image Credit:Pictometry International Corp.

Central Bronx area rezoned is adjacent to the Bronx Zoo, the Bronx Botanical Garden, and Fordham University. The Council approved the Bronx Planning office’s proposed zoning map amendments affecting a 12 block area in the Central Bronx. The new zoning established height limits, protects neighborhood character, and reinforces existing commercial character. A major goal of the rezoning is to stimulate revitalization of the area through private investment, the construction of affordable housing and to create an attractive gateway to important Bronx cultural institutions.

On September 30, 2013, the Bronx Borough Office of the Department of City Planning (DCP) testified before the City Council’s Land Use Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises in support of the proposal to rezone an area along East Fordham Road, a major east-west thoroughfare passing through the central Bronx.  The rezoning area is generally bounded by East 191st Street to the north, East 187th Street to the south, Southern Boulevard to the east, and Bathgate Avenue to the west. (more…)

Robert J. Kafin, Chair of GrowNYC.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote “In the spring, a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.” May that always be so, but it is equally true today that for many New Yorkers spring also turns thoughts to Greenmarket, a collection of producer-only farmers markets that now blanket the City.

The first Greenmarket opened in July 1976 in a lot on Second Avenue at the Manhattan end of the Queensboro Bridge. Seven farmers sold produce at a once-a-week pop-up fair during the late summer season. Today’s Greenmarket has grown into a year-around program with 54 retail markets in all five Boroughs, where 230 family farms and fisherman from seven states bring regionally produced foods for sale to consumers.

The primary objectives of Greenmarkets are to promote regional agriculture by providing urban retail outlets for family farms, and to provide consumers in the City with convenient access to fresh, locally-produced foods. The 54 Greenmarkets occupy a diverse set of spaces, ranging from the great open plazas in Union Square to indoor spaces at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown and the Staten Island Ferry Terminals. Greenmarkets are also located on wide sidewalks on Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills and along Columbus Avenue behind the American Museum of Natural History, in church yards such as St. Stephen’s on East 82nd Street in Manhattan, in temporarily closed streets like Union Avenue beside McCarren Park in Brooklyn, and in parking lots such as the one at the Staten Island Mall.

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The Belnord Apartments

Banking group claimed proposed limitations on widths of new ground floor storefronts along Broadway, Amsterdam Avenue, and Columbus Avenue unfairly discriminate against banks. On June 21, 2012, the City Council’s Land Use Committee approved the Department of City Planning’s Upper West Side Neighborhood Retail Streets proposal. The proposal would establish two Special Enhanced Commercial Districts in Manhattan’s Upper West Side and establish limits on the widths of new and expanding ground floor retail stores, banks, and residential lobbies along portions of the neighborhood’s main commercial thoroughfares: Broadway, Amsterdam Avenue, and Columbus Avenue. One special district would cover the majority of Amsterdam Avenue between 73rd and 110th Streets and Columbus Avenue between 72nd and 87th Streets. The other special district would cover Broadway between 72nd and 110th Streets. The proposal would also apply a C1-5 commercial overlay to a portion of one block on Columbus Avenue in order to reflect existing uses.

City Planning created the proposal in response to community concerns about the proliferation of banks with large storefronts, new retail tenants combining multiple small storefronts, and new developments providing only single-tenant, ground floor space. According to City Planning, the proposal would reinforce the neighborhood’s diverse, multi-store character, and encourage an active streetscape on the three commercial corridors.

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New Business Improvement District approved after Council recommended second comment period. On February 29, 2012, the City Council approved the Department of Small Business Services’ plan to create the Westchester Square Business Improvement District in the Bronx. The district will include 145 businesses along portions of East Tremont Avenue, Williamsbridge Road, and Westchester Avenue in the northeast Bronx. The district will have first-year budget of $320,000, with $120,000 allocated to sanitation services, $95,000 to administrative expenses, and $72,000 to marketing.

The proposal had to overcome some unforeseen procedural hurdles before its formation. The BID’s 30-day public objection period expired in November 2011. The Council’s Finance Committee, however, decided to postpone its vote on the proposal after discovering that the BID Steering Committee had not complied with public notice requirements. It had hand-delivered some of the notices for the Council’s objection-period triggering public hearing, rather than using the mail as required by law. Chair Domenic M. Recchia Jr. was concerned that the error would expose the BID to legal challenges, and decided to restart the hearing process to give the Steering Committee an opportunity to provide complying notice. The Steering Committee delivered proper notice for the new hearing, and a second objection period was triggered in early January. 9 CityLand 4 (Feb. 15, 2012).  (more…)

Council authorized budget increases for BIDs in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Queens. On January 18, 2011, the City Council adopted a local law authorizing increases in the annual budgets of six business improvement districts in the City. The boards of directors of the Grand Central Partnership, the 24th Street Partnership and the 125th Street Partnership in Manhattan, the Fordham Road BID, and the Mosholu-Jerome-East Gun Hill Road BID in the Bronx, and the Bayside Village BID in Queens initiated the process by submitting proposed budgets reflecting increased property assessments to the City’s Department of Small Business Services. Pursuant to the administrative code, the boards of (more…)