Plans for Farm Colony Redevelopment Approved

Applicants presented design plans and greater detail, and revised plans for new clubhouse to better relate to historic buildings. On October 28, 2014, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to approve an application for binding and advisory reports for the redevelopment of the New York City Farm Colony-Seaview Hospital Historic District. The developers of the site are NFC associates, who plan to use the 45-acre site to create 350 units of housing for people aged … <Read More>


The Town and Village Synagogue Designated an Individual Landmark

Designation was modified to exclude rear portion of the lot, where 1889 annex stands, in what Chair called a “good compromise.” On October 28, 2014, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to designate the Congregation Tifereth Israel Town and Village Synagogue, at 334 East 14th Street in Manhattan, an individual City landmark. The synagogue was originally built as the First German Baptist Church in 1869, serving the German immigrant community of the East Village and Lower … <Read More>


Challenge to NYU Expansion Plan Overturned on Appeal

Coalition of local residents, Greenwich Village community organizations, and elected officials sought to prevent NYU’s development of two superblocks north of Houston Street. In 2012, the City Council voted to approve multiple actions to allow an expansion plan by New York University to develop two superblocks bounded by West 3rd Street, Houston Street, Mercer Street and LaGuardia place in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. The project, projected to take 20 years to complete, would entail the construction … <Read More>


Court Dismisses Suit in Opposition to Hospital Development

Upper East Side community group did not meet burden of proof that City acted arbitrarily.  On July 28, 2014, the New York Supreme Court in Manhattan denied petitions for declarative and injunctive relief against the proposed expansion of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital.  The petitions were brought by the Residents for Reasonable Development and several Upper East Side residents acting individually.  The petitioners argued that the institutional uses of the project were incompatible with the largely … <Read More>


Citizens Budget Commission Report: Lack of NYC Affordable Housing not as severe as other Cities

CBC report compares New York City’s lack of housing affordability to 22 other cities.  On August 6, 2014, the Citizens Budget Commission released a report studying the scale of New York City’s affordable housing problem by comparing New York City to twenty-two other U.S. cities that were either among the largest U.S. cities by population, or the centers of the largest metropolitan areas by population.  The study covers a thirteen-year time period, 2000 to 2012.  … <Read More>


Variance Approved For Metropolitan College’s Bronx Campus

College sited educational facilities in an M1-1 zone.  On June 24, 2014, the Board of Standards and Appeals granted a use variance to Metropolitan College of New York, a non-profit educational institution headquartered at 431 Canal Street in Manhattan, to use the entire second floor of a new building at 459 East 149th Street at the corner of Brook Avenue in the Bronx for educational purposes.  The site is in the shape of a … <Read More>