When asked to discuss current trends coming out of City Planning, David Karnovsky, General Counsel since 1999, offered to start the conversation with the matters sitting on his desk. From Broadway’s first air rights sale, to a new community board planning tool, to implementation of City Planning’s complex rezoning plans, the conversation revealed developing trends. Karnovsky, a Harvard Law School graduate, joined City Planning after serving as Special Counsel to the Deputy Mayor of Operations … <Read More>
Search Results for: Department of Buildings
Court affirms approval of Brooklyn Sanitation garage
Property owners and neighboring residential buildings sued to stop Sanitation garage. The Second Department affirmed the lower court decision of Justice Abraham Gerges dismissing claims brought by property owners, nearby businesses and residents objecting to the condemnation of land in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn for construction of a Sanitation truck garage. 1 CityLand 48 (Dec. 2004).
The court found the parties’ claims untimely since their challenges to the condemnation were entirely based on the land use … <Read More>
City Planning action affects 1,000 acres in Staten island
- Prince’s Bay Rezoning locator map used with permission of the New York City Department of City Planning. All rights reserved.
Council Member Lanza and City Planning push forward Prince’s Bay down-zoning. On October 11, 2006, the Planning Commission approved a proposal to down-zone an 172-acre portion of Prince’s Bay, Staten Island and to adopt text amendments to restrict future development on an additional 830 acres. Council Member Andrew Lanza withdrew his original rezoning application … <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>
Variance denied to homeowner in legal trouble
Queens homeowner sought to legalize lot split to allow sale to proceed. Pei Yu Zhong proposed to split her 11,475-square-foot lot, containing a one-family house, garage and swimming pool, into two developable lots and construct a new home to replace the pool and garage. After receiving a preliminarytax lot from the Department of Finance and a subdivision approval from Buildings, Zhong applied for a new building permit in January 2003. While Buildings was completing its … <Read More>
Owners arrested for allegedly bribing DOB inspectors
Owners allegedly bribed DOB to ignore violations; other allegedly filed plans with forged architect’s signature. In June 2006, the Department of Investigation arrested three Brooklyn property owners for allegedly bribing a Buildings inspector. After an inspector issued a citation and a stop-work order for work at 245 Exeter Street in Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, David Safir, the lot’s owner, allegedly offered $3,000 to the Buildings inspector at a follow-up inspection, asking that no additional violations be … <Read More>