Image credit: Jeff Hopkins
New Yorkers enjoy many new forms of transportation such as electric scooters, electric bicycles, hoverboards, skateboards, in-line skates, electric wheelchairs, and more. The laws governing these forms of transportation are confusing and mostly unenforced, if they are even enforceable. State laws and regulations on vehicle and roadway usage typically trump conflicting local laws, except in New York City, where the New York City Council has been given much authority to promulgate laws and regulations on the use of the City’s public roadways. (more…)
Carl Weisbrod, Chairman of the City Planning Commission. Image credit: CityLand
The program would amend generation-old zoning regulations to encourage construction of efficient mixed-use buildings and affordable senior housing. On September 21, 2015, the City Planning Commission issued a press release revealing two of the major programs to be implemented under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Housing New York plan. The programs, which are currently making their way through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure process, are the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing Program and the Zoning for Quality and Affordability Program. The latter proposes zoning text amendments that relax Inclusionary Housing building regulations and parking requirements to enable the construction of high-quality mixed-use buildings that utilize the full amount of buildable residential space and to encourage the construction of a diverse range of affordable senior housing and long-term care facilities.
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One of Take Two’s prohibited signs at 393 Canal Street. Image credit: Google
Court held Board properly found billboards were prohibited near Holland Tunnel exit. On January 8, 2013 the Board of Standards and Appeals issued two decisions denying an appeal of a Department of Buildings decision to refuse permitting two billboards near the Holland Tunnel exit in Tribeca, Manhattan. Take Two Outdoor Media LLC, the appellant, argued the Holland Tunnel’s exit roadway did not constitute an “approach” to an arterial roadway under §49-16 of the Rules of the City of New York, and the location of their billboards within nine hundred feet of the roadway was permissible. The Board disagreed and upheld Buildings’ decision. Take Two petitioned for an annulment of the Board’s decisions. On October 30 and November 7, 2013, Justice Carol E. Huff of the New York Supreme Court denied both petitions.
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View of the former gas station lot at St. Nicholas Avenue and 122nd Street. Credit: Google.
BSA granted use, area, and parking variances to permit construction of 13-story residential, commercial, and community facility building. Nicholas Parking Corporation and Ladera, LLC, owners of adjacent properties at 223-237 St. Nicholas Avenue, applied for building permits to develop a 169,192-square-foot, mixed-use building on St. Nicholas Avenue between West 121st and West 122nd Streets in Harlem. The project would include a FRESH program food store on the first floor and cellar, a preschool facility on the second floor, and 164 residential units on the remaining floors. Manhattan Community Board 10 disapproved of the project based upon the proposal’s lack of affordable housing.
On February 23, 2012, the Department of Buildings (DOB) denied the permit to build the project because the site sits partially within an R7A and an R8A/C2-4 zoning district. Part of the proposed FRESH program food store would extend 970 sq.ft. into the R7A district, which does not allow for commercial use. In addition, the proposal calls for only 30 of the 66 accessory parking spaces required by the Zoning Resolution to be off-site at a property one block away instead of on the site itself. Finally, the proposed lot coverage exceeds the maximum amount allowed by the Zoning Resolution by 689 sq.ft. on the corner lot.
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Illustration: Jeff Hopkins.
Sign installation in New York City triggers regulations governing location, size, illumination, and construction. The New York City Building Code and the New York City Zoning Resolution are the two main bodies of law governing signs in New York City. The Building Code regulates the construction and maintenance of signs, such as permissible construction materials, and is primarily concerned with public health and safety. The Zoning Resolution, while implicating issues of public health and safety, also encompasses aesthetic considerations. Restrictions on the size, height, surface area, and illumination of a sign are intended to promote a distinctive look in that zoning district, while striking a balance between the desires of society and the rights of property owners. For example, an illuminated sign that may be a desirable tourist attraction in Times Square, becomes a nuisance in a residential neighborhood.
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