Maya Wiley: Civil Rights Lawyer Becomes Counsel to Mayor de Blasio

On February 18, 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Maya Wiley, a civil rights attorney and co-founder of the Center for Social Inclusion, as counsel to the mayor. In addition to serving in the traditional role of the counsel, Wiley will also focus on investing in the City’s technology infrastructure and expanding broadband access across the City.

Maya Wiley was born in Syracuse, New York, and raised in Washington, D.C. Her parents, active in the … <Read More>


Proposed Development Neighboring Silk Building Now Before City Council [Update: Council Land Use Committee Approves Unanimously]

 

New NoHo mixed-use development faced continued opposition from neighboring Silk Building residents during Council public hearing.On March 18, 2014, the City Council Land Use Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises held a public a hearing for a special permit application by Downtown Re Holdings LLC to build a mixed-use development located at 688 Broadway in the NoHo Historic District. The twelve-story, fourteen-unit building with non-eating and drinking ground floor retail is proposed to … <Read More>


Proposed Development of St. Luke’s Campus Provokes Ardent Testimony

Proposal includes school expansion, and the construction of a new residential tower that would include ten affordable units. On February 4, 2014, the Landmarks Preservation Commission considered an application for the construction of a new 15-story residential tower and additions to the Church of St. Luke in the Fields campus. The campus occupies a block bounded by Barrow, Christopher, Greenwich and Hudson Streets on the western edge of the Greenwich Village Historic District.


City Planning Sends Greenpoint Waterfront Developments Proposals to the Council

Large Greenpoint Developments, if approved, would produce over 1,400 housing units. On October 30, 2013, the City Planning Commission unanimously voted to approve two major mixed-use developments in Greenpoint, Brooklyn: Greenpoint Landing and 77 Commercial Street. Both projects would allow the City to fulfill commitments to affordable housing and public open space that it made during the 2005 Greenpoint-Williamsburg Rezoning. The 2005 Rezoning of nearly 200 blocks authorized the transformation of Greenpoint’s low-density manufacturing … <Read More>


East Midtown Rezoning: Looking For Extra Zoning Rights? They’re For Sale

A disarmingly simple plan for rezoning Manhattan’s office district running from Grand Central Terminal north to about 58th Street has been approved by the Planning Commission and will come to a Council vote around the time of the November election.

It has three key components:  1) The City almost doubles the allowable floor area for new buildings on large sites along the major thoroughfares; 2) it sells to the landowner the right to build the … <Read More>


Attorney Carol E. Rosenthal Discusses Development in the City

Land use attorney Carol E. Rosenthal is able to combine her appreciation of architecture, government, and law all in a day’s work as a partner at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP. After contemplating a major in art, Rosenthal graduated from Brandeis University with a degree in political science. She then earned her law degree from New York University School of Law and began her legal career as a clerk for the United States … <Read More>