City Announces Plan to Reopen Schools After Temporary Halt to In-Person Learning

Elementary schools will reopen December 7th but middle and high schools will remain remote only for the foreseeable future. On November 29, 2020, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Department of Education Chancellor Richard Carranza announced a plan to reopen New York City public schools for in-person learning after temporarily shutting schools on November 19th after the City’s COVID-19 positivity rates exceeded three percent. 


Three Affordable Housing Projects Approved by Land Use Committee with Measured Disapproval

The City Council’s Land Use Committee approved three projects in Brooklyn with varying forms and degrees of affordable housing. On April 20, 2017, the Land Use Committee voted to approve three new projects with some dissent registered. During the meeting, Council Member Jumaane Williams remarked that as a body the City Council was presenting two faces. One face to the public in discussing homelessness and affordable housing, and another face when voting on projects “that … <Read More>


Brooklyn’s Special 4th Avenue District approved

Special district created to eliminate blank walls and curb cuts and promote pedestrian uses. On November 29, 2011, the City Council approved the Department of City Planning’s proposal to establish the Special 4th Avenue Enhanced Commercial District in Brooklyn. The special district encompasses portions of 56 blocks along 4th Avenue between Atlantic Avenue and 24th Street in Brooklyn’s Park Slope and South Park Slope neighborhoods.

The 4th Avenue commercial corridor was historically characterized by … <Read More>


Special 4th Avenue district in Brooklyn approved

Proposed special district would require active ground-floor commercial uses and establish transparency requirements. On October 19, 2011, the City Planning Commission modified the Department of City Planning’s proposed Special 4th Avenue Enhanced Commercial District in Park Slope and South Park Slope, Brooklyn. The district would encompass 56 blocks along 4th Aveenue between Atlantic Avenue and 24th Street. The west side of 4th Avenue between Douglass and 6th Streets and between the Prospect Expressway and 24th … <Read More>


Limited rezonings along Carroll Street approved

Courtesy The Center for Negative Thinking LLC

Separate public and private proposals impacted eight lots left out of the Carroll Gardens/Columbia Street rezoning. On April 28, 2011, the City Council approved independent proposals by the Department of City Planning and a private developer, Marshall Sohne, to rezone portions of Carroll Street between Columbia and Van Brunt Streets in Brooklyn’s Columbia Street Waterfront District. The two proposals impacted portions of the north and south side … <Read More>


Rezoning for Culver El housing project modified

Council modified plan in order to retain manufacturing zoning and to prevent residential use on block occupied by department store. On October 13, 2010, the City Council modified the Department of City Planning and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s Culver El Proposal in Borough Park, Brooklyn. The proposal rezoned seven blocks historically used for manufacturing and will permit the Southern Brooklyn Community Organization (SBCO) to build a 68-unit affordable housing development on … <Read More>