Wall Street core area gets two new parking garages

Commissioners disagree over impact of added parking in Lower Manhattan. RBNB Wall Street Owner, LLC sought the Planning Commission’s approval for an 85- space public parking garage to be located within 63 Wall Street, a 36- story building with frontage on Hanover, Beaver and Wall Streets. RBNB planned to convert the building to residential, but the proposed garage would not be restricted to the residential tenants. RBNB explained at the Commission’s March 30, 2005 hearing … <Read More>


Plaza at Millennium Hilton gets overhaul

Plaza near WTC site to be modified for open air café and extra seating. The Millennium Hilton Hotel, located at 55 Church Street between Dey and Fulton Streets in the Special Lower Manhattan District, sought a special permit to modify a previously approved 3,647-squarefoot urban plaza. The original 1980’s approval of the building granted the developers a 51,826-square-foot floor area bonus in exchange for creating the plaza. The modifications, which include new landscaped planters, an … <Read More>


North Brooklyn Rezoning Gains Final Approval

Full Council approves Greenpoint- Williamsburg rezoning. On May 11, 2005, the full Council approved the rezoning plan for a two-mile area in the North Brooklyn neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Greenpoint. Only Council Member Charles Barron voted against the plan to transform the primarily manufacturing-zoned area to large and small-scale residential. Council’s Land Use Committee had modified the rezoning proposal and sent it back to the Planning Commission, which approved the modifications.


Queens neighborhood down-zoned

Approval marks the fourth Queens down-zoning in 2005. The City Council voted unanimously to down-zone 40 blocks of Kissena Park, making it the fourth neighborhood in Queens to be rezoned by the Council in 2005.

The Kissena Park down-zoning responded to residents’ concerns over the demolition of structurally sound single-family homes and the construction of out-of-character developments in their neighborhood. As-of-right development within the 40 blocks will now be restricted to one or two-family homes.


Owners challenge designation

Experts clash over rehabilitation cost for 1811-built Lower Manhattan townhouse. On April 21, 2005, Landmarks held a public hearing on the proposed designation of the four-story Robert Dickey House, a 41-foot wide Federalstyle townhouse located at 67 Greenwich Street and Trinity Place. The Dickey House, constructed in 1811, is the only surviving Federal-period, bowed-facade townhouse in Manhattan and one of only two intact townhouses of this period remaining south of Chambers Street.

The Schessel family, … <Read More>


40 blocks of Kissena Park down-zoned

Commission down-zones another Queens neighborhood. On April 13, 2005, the Planning Commission approved another of the Bloomberg administration’s down-zoning initiatives by rezoning 40 blocks of Kissena Park, a small residential neighborhood directly north of its namesake, the 235-acre Kissena Park.

The down-zoning, commenced at the urging of the Kissena Park Civic Association, would be the first rezoning plan passed since 1961 in this predominately one and two-family home residential neighborhood. Designed to match the context … <Read More>