Governor Andrew Cuomo Limits Activities to Essential Businesses, Small Businesses Feeling Impact

Governor Cuomo further encouraging New Yorkers to telecommute and stay home. On March 18, 2020,  the Empire State Development Corporation issued guidance for Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order Number 202.6, which requires that to the maximum extent possible, all businesses and not-for profit entities throughout the state utilize work from home and telecommuting procedures. This executive order comes as an update to Executive Order 202, which, on March 7, 2020, declared a state of … <Read More>


Major Staten Island Project OK’d by City Planning Despite Significant Opposition; City Council Up Next

The proposed zoning actions were largely disapproved by the Community Board, the Borough President, and even Staten Island’s appointee to the City Planning Commission. The Department of City Planning, along with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the Department of Citywide Administrative Services filed an application requesting several ULURP actions to help implement the goals of the Bay Street Corridor Neighborhood Plan. The Neighborhood Plan is a comprehensive plan to … <Read More>


Public Health: Tobacco, Sugars, Trans Fats and Salt

In the twentieth century, primary causes of death and disability in America changed from communicable diseases to chronic diseases. This shift was in part due to the successes of public health as better sanitary conditions and immunizations reduced the burden of communicable diseases.  The shift, however, was also due to changes in lifestyle and longer life expectancies that caused the rates of chronic diseases to increase.


Subcommittee Hears Testimony on Development Adjacent to Transmitter Park

Zoning Subcommittee heard testimony on proposed eleven-story tower to abut WNYC Transmitter Park in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood. On May 16, 2017, the City Council’s Zoning Subcommittee heard testimony regarding an application submitted by Kent/Greenpoint, LLC, to develop an eleven-story mixed-use building in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood. The applicant sought to amend bulk regulations related to the location of legal windows, landscaping requirements for off-street parking and minimum street wall heights in order to orientate the massing … <Read More>



City Planning Commission Hears Testimony on the Rezoning of Water Street’s Privately Owned Public Space

The proposed zoning text amendment would facilitate the replacement of sheltered outdoor space with commercial storefronts. On March 30th, 2016, the City Planning Commission held a public hearing on an application submitted by the Alliance for Downtown New York, the NYC Economic Development Corporation, and the Department of City Planning to amend the zoning text regulating Manhattan Community District 1’s Special Lower Manhattan District, which includes property sites located within the area bounded by Pearl … <Read More>