Odd lot shape and street frontage justified variance

Development site is former Queens cemetery. Queens developer, AMF Machine Corporation, applied to BSA to construct a 201,633-squarefoot, 96-foot tall mixed-use building with 174 residential units in Corona, Queens. The proposed structure exceeded height limits by 46 feet and floor area limits by over 77,550 sq.ft. The development site, an oddly shaped, 14-sided, 62,041- square-foot lot, had street frontage along Corona Avenue and 90th Street, but a majority of the lot’s area stretched behind existing … <Read More>


High sewer costs justified variance for senior residence

Senior housing to be constructed on Clove Road in Staten Island. Developers sought a variance from BSA for a three-story, 40-foot high, 34,542-square-foot senior housing facility at 908 Clove Road in Staten Island. The proposed senior residence exceeded total floor area, street wall height, total height, curb cut, and driveway width.

At BSA, the developers, R. Randy Lee and Frank Naso, argued that the site’s 603-foot distance from the nearest sewer connection significantly increased construction … <Read More>


Residential variance approved for waterfront site

Residential development on College Point manufacturing site approved. Jung Kyu Lee owned a 496,604- square-foot lot split between commercial and manufacturing zoning districts along the East River in College Point, Queens. He constructed 58 two-family homes as-of-right on the commercially-zoned portion, leaving the 144,325-square-foot manufacturing portion vacant and inaccessible from the closest street. Lee then applied to BSA to construct 28 new two-family homes on the manufacturing portion.

Lee argued that manufacturing uses would be … <Read More>


Not-for-profit wins variance to build youth housing

Studio apartments approved for Bronx manufacturing site. The not-for- profit, Audubon Housing Development Fund Corporation, applied for a variance to construct a 36,596- square-foot building with 60 studio apartments to house youths who no longer qualified for foster care and low-income young adults. The project site, located on three lots along East 176th Street and Third Avenue in the Bronx, required a use variance because the site was zoned for manufacturing.

Borough President Adolfo Carrión, … <Read More>


Court upholds BSA’s denial of variance

BSA legalized existing Queens homeless housing facility, but denied request to expand facility. In the 1980s, Homes for the Homeless, Inc. converted an abandoned hotel on Rockaway Boulevard near Kennedy Airport into a 259-bed homeless housing facility; a use which conflicted with the lot’s manufacturing zoning. Over 15 years later, Homes applied to BSA for variances to expand the facility for 91 additional homeless families and legalize the use. The expansion faced significant opposition.

BSA … <Read More>


Greenwich/Canal Street project gets 5 variances

Luxury apartments approved once developer reduced the height and size. Red Brick Canal LLC sought approval to construct an 11-story, 25,025-square-foot residential and commercial building at 482 Greenwich Street, a lot with frontage along Greenwich and Canal Streets at the border of Tribeca and SoHo in Manhattan. The project site, a 3,136-square-foot, trapezoidshaped lot located in a commercial zone (C6-2A), currently contains an unused gas station which will be demolished. The City had rezoned the … <Read More>