NYC Community Boards Adapt to Virtual Operations

Community Boards working to stay optimistic through adversity. In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo shut down non-essential business throughout the state. The order effectively hamstrung the physical operation of many governmental and administrative offices. Community Boards, the closest representative body of a City district, have generally completed their many responsibilities through public assembly. Responsibilities include land use and zoning review, and other general community concerns such as traffic or deteriorating … <Read More>


HPD Proposes Affordable Homeownership Project in Bedford-Stuyvesant

Affordable homeownership project receives generally positive feedback. On January 22, 2020, the City Planning Commission heard an application by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development for the disposition of city-owned property and to designate three areas in the southern portion of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn as Urban Development Action Areas. The UDAAP designation would help facilitate the construction of seven new buildings and 78 affordable homeownership units. Felipe Cortez, a borough planner at HPD and Jack … <Read More>



From Fiscal Crisis to Thriving City with Social Mission Intact

New York Law School presented Stanley Brezenoff with the Civic Fame award at the Fifth Annual Civic Fame Breakfast held at New York Law School on April 26, 2019. The certificate of award acknowledged Brezenoff‘s 40-year career in managing governmental institutions with unequaled persistence, skill and determination from the days of the fiscal crisis to today’s thriving City, and for his relentless efforts to preserve and enhance the social mission of the City of New <Read More>


Court Holds That Agency Rent Overcharge Calculation Violated Law

Landlord not responsible for more than four years of overcharged rent. On August 16, 2018, the Appellate Division for the First Department held that the landlord for 27 West 96th Street in Manhattan did not engage in a fraudulent scheme to evade the Rent Stabilization Law and therefore the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) had miscalculated the amount of overcharged rent that was due back to tenants.


New Special Permit for Self-Storage Facilities: An Imperfect Victory for Industrial Jobs Advocates

The final legislative session of 2017 saw an active NYC City Council scrambling to pass almost 40 bills before the term’s end.  Among these legislative actions was the passage of a zoning text amendment for the creation of a special permit that will limit self-storage facilities in NYC’s Industrial Business Zones (IBZ’s).  City Council’s vote in favor of the new special permit is a victory for the industrial and manufacturing sectors, albeit an imperfect victory … <Read More>