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Council Denies Sidewalk Cafe Permit for Court Street Restaurant

City Council reacted to application’s inaccurate architectural renderings and restaurant’s history of noise complaints. On August 22, 2012, the City Council denied Buschenschank restaurant’s application for an unenclosed sidewalk cafe at 320 Court Street between Degraw and Sackett Streets in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. The application called for 24 tables and 48 chairs fronting Court Street.

At the Council’s Zoning & Franchises Subcommittee hearing, a representative of local Council Member Brad Lander and a representative … <Read More>

Building Proposed for Seaport on Narrow Through-Block Site

Proposed building would feature a seven-story facade on Front Street and a twelve-and-a-half-foot-wide, four-story facade on Water Street. On July 24, 2012, Landmarks considered Andreas Giacoumis’s proposal to construct a new building on a vacant through-block lot at 246 Front Street and 267 ½ Water Street in the South Street Seaport Historic District. The lot has 20 feet of frontage on Front Street and twelve-and-a-half feet of frontage on Water Street. In 2003, … <Read More>

NYU Campus Expansion Plan Reduced Again [UPDATE: Plan Approved by Full Council]

This article was originally published on 7/20/2012 (see below for update).

NYU agreed to limit heights of the Zipper Building and Boomerang Buildings, and to provide community center if no public school is built on site. On July 17, 2012, the City Council’s Land Use Committee modified New York University’s campus expansion proposal in Greenwich Village. Opposition to the project, which had already been reduced by the City Planning Commission, remained when it … <Read More>

City Council Proposes Important Changes to Landmarks Law

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (“LPC”) has designated more than 1,400 individual landmarks and 107 historic districts.  Approximately 29,000 buildings are under LPC regulation. With only five percent of that total comprising individual landmarks,95 percent are subject to LPC regulation solely because they are located within historic districts, regardless of individual merit.

With the proliferation of buildings subject to LPC regulation, both as individual landmarks and within historic districts, attention has increasingly focused … <Read More>

Council signs off on rezoning and land disposition of City-owned waterfront property in Mill Basin

City will convey waterfront property to Kristal Auto Mall and an existing Toys ‘R’ Us retail store on Flatbush Avenue. On May 15, 2012, the City Council approved the Department of Small Business Services’ plan to facilitate the relocation of Kristal Auto Mall to a site on Flatbush Avenue abutting Mill Basin in Brooklyn. The City-owned project site is occupied by a 45,000-square-foot Toys ‘R’ Us store and a 400-space accessory parking lot used … <Read More>

Westchester Square BID gains Council approval

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 … <Read More>