Julie Menin, former Chairperson of Manhattan Community Board 1

For Manhattan to remain the vibrant center it is today we need a smart plan for long-term growth. The current land use process leaves communities fearful of being overrun by development that is poorly planned, harmful to communities, and undermines the character of our borough. This is why I have proposed a “Master Plan” for Manhattan to ensure that we grow our borough sensibly.

Cities across the United States are implementing Masters Plans, from booming west coast cities like San Francisco and Seattle to neighboring Newark. A Master Plan is a comprehensive document that outlines long-term neighborhood needs. Downtown Manhattan, for example, is short nearly 1,000 classroom seats, while East Harlem has only 0.3 acres of active open space per 1,000 residents and many of Manhattan’s neighborhoods are almost completely bereft of affordable housing.

Under a Master Plan, developers looking to build in these neighborhoods would be apprised of the community’s needs, bringing more certainty to a convoluted system and ensuring a community’s concerns are accounted for. (more…)

Owners of M1-5 properties claimed their land should be valued as if zoned C6-4. The City acquired properties through eminent domain for the Hudson Yards Rezoning and Development Program. The project aimed to develop 38 blocks in Manhattan’s Far West Side and extend the No. 7 subway line south-westward from Times Square to Eleventh Avenue and West 34th Street. 2 CityLand 4 (Feb. 15, 2005). The affected owners’ properties were primarily located on 34th and 35th Streets between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues and were zoned M1-5 prior to the rezoning. The plan rezoned portions of some properties to C6-4, while the rest remained M1-5.

The property owners sought compensation for the takings. Prior to the parties submitting appraisal reports, the owners argued that they were entitled to have all the seized M1-5 properties valued as if they had been rezoned C6-4. For certain M1-5 lots, the owners claimed the City did not rezone these properties to the more valuable C6-4 zoning because the City wanted to take the property at an unfairly low price. The owner also claimed that these M1-5 properties would have been rezoned to C6-4, or otherwise would have received variances in the near future, even if the City’s project had not existed. For other lots that were partially zoned M1-5 and partially zoned C6-4, the owners argued that the seized M1-5 portions should have been valued as C6-4, based on the partial C6-4 zoning that applied to the other portion of each lot. Lastly, Mercedes-Benz, which owned property located on Eleventh Avenue between 40th and 41st Streets, also sought a C6-4 valuation.  (more…)

Easements for No. 7 line challenged. In October 2005, the MTA and the Planning Commission issued the final determination and findings, approving the extension of the No. 7 line from Times Square to 34th Street and Eleventh Avenue. The final determination approved the acquisition by eminent domain of property and easements and the related zoning for that property.

Five landowners, including Milstein Brothers 42nd Street and Mercedes-Benz Manhattan, filed petitions under the eminent domain law asking the court to reject the final determination. The petitioners claimed that the determination failed to comply with the law because it did not adequately notify landowners of the extent of the easement upon their property. They also claimed that the rezoning was an illegal taking or, alternatively, reverse spot zoning. (more…)

Since taking office in January 2006, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer has set land use policy and community board reform as priorities.

Stringer hired Anthony Borelli as his Director of Land Use, Planning and Development. Before joining the Borough President’s office, Borelli studied urban planning at Columbia University and worked with the university’s Urban Technical Assistance Project, which provides urban planning consultation to distressed communities. Borelli then served as District Manager of Community Board 4 for five years, where he dealt with the highly complex Hudson Yards and High Line/West Chelsea rezonings and large developments like the John Jay College expansion.

CityLand interviewed Borelli to discuss Borough President Stringer’s land use agenda. (more…)

New development potential of 26 million sq.ft. of office space and 13.6 million sq.ft. of residential; 24 acres of parks, a subway extension, and a new boulevard approved. On November 22, 2004, the Commission approved the Bloomberg Administration’s major urban planning initiative for Manhattan’s Hudson Yards, the area bounded by West 30th and West 43rd Streets, running from Seventh and Eighth Avenues to Twelfth Avenue.

The ten applications before the Commission would achieve a comprehensive redevelopment plan, the expansion of City services and a rezoning of the entire area. At the center of the plan for redevelopment is the transfer from the MTA to the Department of Citywide Administrative Services of the 30-acre, eastern portion of the Caemmerer Yard, spanning from West 30th to West 33rd Streets and from Tenth to Eleventh Avenues, for construction of a platform over the yard. (See C 040505 PQM.) The platform would facilitate future private development and the City’s construction of new parks. Further, the rail yard transfer would partially enable the No. 7 Flushing Line expansion, which is proposed to extend from Times Square to West 41st Street and Tenth Avenue, then south to West 34th Street and Eleventh Avenue. (See C 040504 PQM.) (more…)