BSA rejects owner’s argument that case can be based on erroneously certified permit. Trevor Fray applied to BSA to continue construction of a three-family, four-story building at 84-24 168th Place in Briarwood, Queens after the City Council down-zoned Fray’s lot to a zoning that restricted development to oneand two-family detached housing. Fray argued that he had a common law right to continue development of the entire building based on foundation and demolition permits issued before the rezoning and a new building permit that his architect, Figueroa Architects, approved by self-certification 15 days after the rezoning.

Buildings later revoked the new building permit and investigated Fray’s foundation permit, finding it to be erroneously self-certified since it missed several requirements, like a sewer connection approval, a boring test report and a zoning plan showing it complied with the district’s zoning. After Fray and Figueroa failed to respond to Buildings’ concerns about the foundation permit, Buildings revoked it. (more…)

City Planning receives three different applications for garages in the Columbus Circle area. On April 3, 2006, the Planning Commission certified an application by William Zeckendorf, on behalf of 15 CPW Realty, LLC, for a special permit to allow a 162-space public parking garage to be located within the as-of- right development on the former Mayflower Hotel site. The certification begins the public review process and starts the time clock for review set by ULURP, the City’s land use review procedure.

If approved, Zeckendorf’s proposed 23,492-square-foot garage would occupy below-grade space in the 885,000-square-foot development currently under construction at 15 Central Park West. The project will contain 231 market rate residential units in two residential towers and over 86,000 sq.ft. of retail space on the ground, cellar and sub-cellar floors. The garage, as proposed, would operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week and have its ingress and egress from West 62nd Street, a one-way westbound street. (more…)

Developer to buy 58,005 sq.ft. of air rights from Broadway’s Hirschfeld Theatre. An application to transfer additional air rights from the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, formerly the Martin Beck Theater, on West 45th Street started the City’s public review process on April 24, 2006 when the Planning Commission certified the applications of Allen Goldman of Fifth Street Holdings, LLC and SJP Residential Properties.

In 1998, the City enacted zoning rules aimed at preserving Broadway’s historic theaters. The rules created financial incentives to maintain Broadway theaters by allowing theater owners to sell air rights equal to the additional floor area that could be built if a new, as-of- right building was built on the theater’s site. The developer that purchased the theater’s air rights could then use the rights to increase the size of a proposed development above the size allowed by zoning. Under the zoning rules, the sale of a theater’s air rights could be accomplished by Planning Commission certification, requiring review by the Community Board and Borough President, but no additional hearing at Planning. (more…)

Site for the Flight 587 Memorial Park to be located 15 blocks from crash site. The Department of Transportation and Department of Parks and Recreation applied for a map amendment to establish a Memorial Park honoring the 265 victims who died when flight 587 crashed in Rockaway in November 2001. The site consists of .16 acres between Beach 116th Street’s southern turnaround and Ocean Promenade.

The map amendment would eliminate portions of Beach 116th Street by relocating the street’s turnaround immediately north of the proposed site. The proposal would also eliminate portions of Ocean Promenade, just south of the turnaround and north of Rockaway Beach. Other amendments would establish the Memorial Park, adjust the grade, and permit acquiring or disposing of any necessary property. There was no opposition at the Planning Commission hearings in January 2006 and the Commission adopted the resolution on February 8, 2006. (more…)

Six-story nursing home approved with enlarged floor plates and a side courtyard in lieu of rear yard. Village Care of New York, a not-for-profit entity and owner of 214 West Houston, an 11,253- square-foot lot in the West Village, proposed to replace an existing parking garage and construct a new six-story, 45,000-square-foot, 100- bed nursing home.

Village Care requested variances for lot coverage, rear yard, and setback requirements, arguing that the lot was shallow and irregularly shaped and that a complying structure would not meet the programmatic needs of the nursing home. The proposed nursing home calls for large floor plates to create an open, domestic environment rather than an institutional double-loaded corridor configuration. Village Care argued that the proposed layout was necessary to provide needed amenities such as private bathrooms, physical therapy, recreational space, respiratory infusion care, and wheelchair access. A complying plan would require smaller floor plates within a single ninestory building or two separate structures, and both scenarios would be impractical and inefficient due to the staffing and service needs required on every floor. (more…)