Rendering of 600 East 156th, designed by Curtis + Ginsberg Architects.

The City Planning Commission approved the construction of 175 new affordable units and a new charter school in the Melrose neighborhood of the Bronx. On April 5, 2017, the City Planning Commission issued a favorable report on an application from 600 Associates, LLC, an affiliate of the nonprofit developer Phipps Houses. The applicant proposed changing the zoning of the lot in question from manufacturing to residential, and proposed designating the lot as a Mandatory Housing Inclusionary area. The rezoning and designation would facilitate the construction of a twelve-story mixed-use building containing a charter school and 175 units of affordable housing. (more…)

Mayor De Blasio at New York Law School. Image Credit: CityLand

Mayor and City Council celebrate progress in production of affordable housing units since the passage of mandatory affordable rules one year ago. March 22, 2017, marked the one year anniversary of the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program. The program, which requires developers to include permanently affordable housing whenever a special permit or a rezoning significantly increases the underlying potential residential floor area, has received both praise and chastisement from advocates and Council Members. (more…)

HPD Commissioner Vicki Been answering questions at the 130th CityLaw Breakfast. Image credit: CityLaw

Vicki Been stepped down as Commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development to return to academia. On January 17, 2017, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that Commissioner Vicki Been would step down to return to teaching at New York University as the Boxer Family Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Furman Center. Prior to her appointment, Been served as the Director of NYU’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, a leading academic and research center focusing on land use, real estate, and housing. (more…)

Lexington Gardens II. Image Credit: Manhattan Community Board 11

UPDATE: On November 29, 2016, the City Council voted 49-0 to approve the Lexington Gardens II project. The approval will allow Tahl Propp Equities and L+M Development Partners to proceed with the proposed development which will provide 400 new affordable units. One quarter of the affordable units will be permanently affordable under the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing law, and the remainder will be affordable for 40 years under a regulatory agreement with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. “The Lexington Gardens development will advance the goals of the East Harlem Neighborhood Plan by making sure that hundreds of existing local community members can benefit from affordable units,” said City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito in a statement. (more…)

Image Credit: Google Maps

Phipps Houses withdrew its application for its ten-story, Barnett Avenue development following a lack of community support. On September 20, 2016, Phipps Houses, the oldest and largest not-for-profit developer of affordable housing in New York City, withdrew its Barnett Avenue development proposal—the day before its scheduled public hearing in front of the City Council’s Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises. Phipps Houses had sought a zoning map change and two zoning text amendments to facilitate the construction of a new mixed-use development in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Queens. (more…)