Map of Floodplain/Zoning Text Amendment Area. Image Credit: NYC City Planning Commission.

The Department of City Planning is seeking input on special flood resilience zoning from residents of the City’s floodplain. City Planning released a video explaining their flood resiliency goals. Resiliency is the “ability to withstand, recover, and emerge even stronger after a storm.” The City has adopted a multitude of approaches that, in combination, make the floodplain more resilient. The City is increasing emergency services, building breakwaters and wetlands to reduce the force of waves, building seawalls and bulkheads to block floodwaters from spreading inland, hardening utilities and infrastructure to prevent power outages, and making strides in resilient construction. Resilient construction of buildings is integrated in the City’s Building Code.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”) defines flood risk, floodplains, and insurance rates. The City Department of Buildings enforces FEMA’s guidelines by adopting them into the City’s Building Code. The Building Code requires residential buildings to have space below the flood elevation line that allows water to enter and exit without causing damage. Commercial buildings must have ground floors impermeable to water entry. Buildings constructed using the more recent resiliency standards survived Hurricane Sandy with minimal damage. However, many buildings in the floodplain were built before the adoption of these Building Code regulations and the 1961 Zoning Resolution.  (more…)

Tweed Courthouse. Image credit: CityLaw

New York City has a long and rich history of scandal and corruption. Here are three examples from favorite books that visit past scandals in complete and revealing detail.

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The Thomas-Lamb designed Loew’s 175th Street Theater in Washington Heights was prioritized for designation. Image credit: LPC

Some items will be removed from calendar due to political reality that designations will not be ratified by Council; others are found to be adequately protected so as to not require prioritization; others to lack significance that would merit immediate designation. On February 23, 2016, Landmarks made determinations on the disposition of 95 items added to Landmarks’ calendar before 2010, but never subjected to a vote on designation. In 2015 the commission had announced an initiative to clear the calendar of the backlogged items. Landmarks held a series of public hearings to give the public an opportunity to testify on the items, some of which had languished on Landmarks’ calendar for decades. At the meeting on February 23, 2016 commissioners voted to keep 30 items on the calendar for a vote on designation during 2016. The remaining 65 items will be decalendared. Landmarks’ determinations on all 95 items are listed in the associated chart.

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Landmarks Preservation Commission. Credit: LPC.

Wide support voiced for designation of Coney Island pumping Station; potential extension to Douglaston Historic District and individual designation of Queens Apartment complex and religious structures proved contentious. On October 8, 2015, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held the first of four hearings meant to address the backlog of items on the Commission’s calendar added prior to 2010. Twenty-nine items were considered, in three groupings of multiple items clustered by borough. Each speaker had three minutes to testify for each batch, rather than on individual items. At the meeting, Landmark heard testimony on one batch of items in the Bronx, one in Brooklyn, and one in Queens. (more…)

Brad Lander

Council Member Brad Lander, chair of the City Council’s Landmarks, Public Siting & Maritime Uses Subcommittee, draws from his experience as a public policy advocate when executing his duties.

Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, Lander in 1991 earned a liberal arts degree from the University of Chicago. He then earned a master’s degree in Social Anthropology at the University College London in the United Kingdom, where he worked with community groups to research how a controversial plan to redevelop the London Docklands would impact local maritime communities.

Lander in 1993 returned to the United States and joined the Fifth Avenue Committee, a Brooklyn community group that advances economic and social justice. During his tenure Lander earned a second master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from the Pratt Institute. In 2003 he was named director of the Pratt Center for Community Development. He was also involved in advocating for the use of inclusionary zoning, which allows developers to construct larger buildings in exchange for allocating a portion to affordable housing. The campaign helped spearhead the City’s use of inclusionary zoning in neighborhoods outside of Manhattan. (more…)