Lower Concourse Rezoning at scoping stage

Plan for South Bronx envisions park along Harlem River. Image: NYC Department of City Planning. All rights reserved.

Thirty-block rezoning in South Bronx would encourage redevelopment of blighted waterfront. On June 19, 2008, the Department of City Planning held a public hearing on the draft scope of an environmental impact statement for the proposed Lower Concourse Rezoning. The proposal covers a 30-block area, generally bounded by the Harlem River on the west, East 149th to … <Read More>


Planning moves to protect Brooklyn neighborhood

At least 30 speakers testified on proposal backed by residents and local elected officials. On June 4, 2008, the City Planning Commission held a public hearing on the Department of City Planning’s proposal to define an area of Brooklyn’s Carroll Gardens as having “narrow streets” under the zoning law. The proposal would result in a lowering of the permitted building heights and densities, making as-of-right development consistent with neighborhood character. Currently zoned R6, with portions … <Read More>


Planning Comm. reduced Hudson Square plan

Further study needed before as-of-right residential conversions in West Village. The Planning Commission voted on June 4, 2008 to significantly reduce the area subject to the private rezoning application of KMG Greenwich LLC for Hudson Square in Manhattan. The vote followed a contentious public hearing before the Commission, where residents and elected officials called the rezoning piecemeal, and warned that it would result in a loss of needed businesses and jobs. 5 CityLand 56 (May … <Read More>


Queens project approved when Council failed to act

Full Council rejects resolution but not project. Private developer College Point Holdings I LLC filed four linked applications for its plan to develop 100 units and 100 parking spaces within 26 attached buildings on a two-acre site in the College Point area of Queens. The applications included a rezoning application to alter the site from manufacturing zoning to residential zoning (M1-1 to R4) that allows as-of-right residential development. Also included were two special permits to … <Read More>


Committee approves controversial 400-space parking garage

Opponents raise congestion, asthma levels, and City policy as reasons to reduce parking garage. Despite calls by Hell’s Kitchen residents and Community Board 4 to reduce the requested parking spaces, the Land Use Committee sent the 400-space public parking garage plan of developer Glenwood Management Corp. to the full Council for a vote.

Glenwood applied for a special permit for the garage as part of its construction plan for a mixed-use building with 569 residential … <Read More>


Accessory parking requirement waived

Developer claimed structural limitations made off-street parking economically infeasible. POKO Partners LLC, a property manager and developer of low-income housing, planned to convert a 50,000sq.ft. vacant theater at 1501 Pitkin Avenue in Brooklyn into a seven-story mixed-use development with two floors of retail, commercial, and community facility space and five floors of residential use. If the 66-unit building were constructed as proposed, 33 off-street parking spaces would be required. POKO sought a variance from the … <Read More>