Credit: The Department of City Planning

City Planning Commission certified 140-block Bed-Stuy North Rezoning and 90-block West Harlem Rezoning: included in the Brooklyn proposal is a text amendment that would also apply Citywide and to areas of the Bronx. At City Planning Commission’s review session on May 7, 2012, the Commission certified the Department of City Planning’s contextual rezoning proposal for the northern half of Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. The Bedford-Stuyvesant North Rezoning plan would impact a 140-block area generally bounded by Flushing Avenue to the north, Quincy Street to the south, Broadway to the east, and Classon and Franklin Avenues to the west. The proposal was requested by Brooklyn Community Board 3 and local elected officials after the City rezoned the southern half of the neighborhood in 2007. (read CityLand’s coverage here).

Bedford-Stuyvesant is a residential neighborhood characterized by late 19th- and early 20th-century rowhouses, small and medium-sized apartment buildings, and several large, tower-in-the-park NYCHA (more…)

John Weiss

John Weiss has served as deputy counsel for the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission since 2001. Weiss leads Landmarks’ efforts to protect landmarked structures from demolition-by-neglect, and each of his cases reveals a fascinating tale of New York City real estate.

After earning his undergraduate degree in political science and public policy from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, Weiss was torn between studying law or architecture. He took time off while at Hampshire to work with the Washington, D.C. Public Defender Service and then for the Belchertown Planning Board in Massachusetts. Weiss also spent a summer in New York City working for the Municipal Art Society. He returned to MAS after graduating, where he helped form the Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts.

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Developer seeks to demolish 1929 building to construct three-story mixed-use building. On February 12, 2008, Landmarks heard testimony on an application to demolish a two-story commercial building and construct a three-story building with a penthouse in its place.

George H. McCabe designed the existing building, located at 131 Seventh Avenue South in the Greenwich Village Historic District, with a sophisticated brick design and stepped parapet. McCabe, who was a Greenwich Village resident, also designed the Washington Heights Courthouse and various buildings in the Hamilton Fish estate, including a studio on Irving Place located just south of the Fish mansion in the Gramercy Park Historic District. (more…)

Columbia University proposes northward expansion; CB 9 seeks industrial jobs and affordable housing. On October 3, 2007, the Planning Commission held a public hearing on Columbia University’s and Manhattan Community Board 9’s competing plans for the future of West Harlem.

Under Columbia’s plan, the City would rezone 35 acres of Manhattanville, a section of West Harlem currently zoned primarily for manufacturing, and create a Special Manhattanville Mixed-Use District stretching from West 125th to West 135th Streets, between Broadway and the Hudson River. Within this new district, Columbia would construct a 17-acre academic mixed-use development that would include academic building space, university housing, recreation space, and retail space. 4 CityLand 89 (July 15, 2007). (more…)

Columbia University proposes extensive re-development; Community Board 9 seeks to protect existing uses. On June 18, 2007, the Planning Commission launched public consideration of two competing future development plans for Manhattanville. The competing plans are sponsored by Columbia University and Manhattan Community Board 9.

Columbia University’s plan calls for rezoning of a 35-acre area with roughly 17 acres proposed for private development by Columbia. The area, roughly bounded by Broadway, Old Broadway, and the Hudson River between West 125th and West 135th Streets, is primarily zoned for manufacturing, which Columbia argues hinders development. Current development includes parking lots and automotive, warehouse, storage, and manufacturing uses. (more…)