Since 1975, when New York State enacted the requirement that government agencies study the potential significant environmental impacts of land use projects, environmental studies have evolved from 20-page documents prepared by City employees into several thousand-page documents written by experts at a cost of millions. Attorney David Paget, who for more than 20 years has advised clients like the Empire State Development Corporation and Related Companies on environmental review compliance, talked to CityLand about his … <Read More>
Search Results for: Brooklyn
City foils TransGas’s condemnation of park site
Court rules TransGas Energy’s condemnation is premature. TransGas Energy Systems proposed to construct a power plant along the East River waterfront in Williamsburg. It spent $1.5 million in March 2001 on an option to purchase the site, and, in 2002, filed for approval from the state Siting Board.
At Siting Board hearings, the City opposed the plan, testifying that it planned to rezone the entire Williamsburg neighborhood and create a waterfront park. In 2004, the … <Read More>
Rezoning and inclusionary housing approved
South Park Slope rezoned to protect low-rise character and provide affordable housing. On November 16, 2005, the City Council rezoned 50 blocks of South Park Slope and applied the inclusionary housing program to specific R8A districts along Fourth Avenue, allowing an increase in a building’s floor area with the developers’ commitment to build affordable housing on or off site. The proposal called for the rezoning of an area generally bounded by 15th Street on the … <Read More>
Earth Pledge Executive Director Leslie Hoffman Talks About Making the City a Green Place, One Roof at a Time
Manhattan’s first green roof, installed in 1998, sits on top of the 1902 Georgian townhouse at 122 East 38th Street in Murray Hill, the home of Earth Pledge, a New York based nonprofit that promotes green building technologies. Founded by Theodore Kheel to support the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio, Earth Pledge now sponsors the Greening Gotham program, an initiative to get New York City developers, building owners, and government officials behind green … <Read More>
Hearing held on proposed Crown Heights district
Neighborhood had originally been surveyed for designation in the 1970s. At its September 19th meeting, Landmarks held a hearing on the proposed Proposed Crown Heights North Historic District. The district, on land that was once part of the Lefferts family’s large holdings, had originally been surveyed in the 1970s along with the Fort Greene and Park Slope historic districts. An upper-class suburb in the 1870s, several free-standing Victorian homes still remain in the neighborhood. Following … <Read More>
Planning Commission files comments on Atlantic Yards
Commission recommends that the project be reduced by 635,000 sq.ft. and its open space increased. On September 27, 2006, the Planning Commission recommended to the Empire State Development Corporation that Forest City Ratner Companies reduce the overall size of its proposed downtown Brooklyn Atlantic Yards project by eight percent or 635,000 sq.ft. and increase the proposed open space from seven to eight acres to address the significant amount of pedestrian traffic that the project would … <Read More>