Rendering of the precinct once it will be completed by 2024. Image Credit: DDC.

After decades of advocating, the communities of Rosedale, Brookville, Laurelton, and Springfield Gardens in Queens celebrated the topping off on their newly-established police precinct. On August 22, 2022, Mayor Eric Adams joined the NYPD, NYC Department of Design and Construction, and local elected officials to celebrate the installation of the last steel beam, known as the topping off ceremony, for the new 116th Precinct in southeast Queens. (more…)

Local council member supported 193-block contextual rezoning in suburban Queens. On August 25, 2010, the City Planning Commission approved the Department of City Planning’s proposal to rezone 193 blocks in Rosedale, Queens. The triangular-shaped rezoning area is generally bounded by Merrick Boulevard to the north, Idlewild Park and Hook Creek to the south, Nassau County to the east, and Brookville Boulevard to the west. The plan seeks to preserve the neighborhood’s low-density character and builds on three recent rezonings in the nearby neighborhoods of Brookville, Cambria Heights, and Laurelton. The Commission certified the proposal in June 2010. 7 CityLand 91 (July 15, 2010).

Sunrise Highway bisects the rezoning area. The northern portion is zoned R2 and characterized by single- family detached homes. Rosedale’s southern portion is zoned R3- 2, which allows a variety of housing types, including low-rise attached houses, small multi-family apartment houses, and detached and semi-detached houses. This area is also characterized by single-family detached homes, but the flexibility of the R3-2 zoning has resulted in pockets of over development out of character with the area’s prevailing suburban nature. Planning would replace the majority of the R3-2 zoning with contextual zoning districts in order to better reflect existing development. The plan would rezone 146 blocks throughout the southern portion of Rosedale to R3X, thereby limiting building types to detached one- and two-family homes. (more…)

Council approves 220-block rezoning without modification. On September 4, 2008, the City Council approved the rezoning proposal for Laurelton, a Queens community near the border of Nassau County. The plan includes lower-density and contextual rezoning for approximately 215 blocks, an upzoning from C8-1 and R3-2 to R5D along Merrick and Spring Boulevards, and commercial overlay changes to more closely match existing commercial development.

The plan culminates over six years of research, planning, and community outreach. Laurelton residents first approached the Department of City Planning in 2002, citing numerous residential developments of attached, semi-detached, and multifamily structures out-of-character with the existing neighborhood. In response, Planning proposed a rezoning that would prevent lot subdivision and preserve the one- and two-family detached housing character of the community yet still allow for modest residential and commercial retail growth along Laurelton’s primary thoroughfare. (more…)

Council Member Julie Menin, Chair of the Committee on Small Business, speaks at the committee hearing on June 9th. Image Credit: City Council

The New York City Council Committee on Small Business held a public hearing on a proposed digital portal to centralize the information and paperwork necessary to open and run a small business. On June 9, 2022,  the New York City Council’s Committee on Small Business held a public hearing on a proposed bill that would require the City to create and maintain the, “One-Stop Shop NYC Business Portal.” The Portal would be an on-line hub for information and functionality related to opening and running a small business. It is meant to make the process more efficient by allowing business owners to deal with all the necessary city agencies in a single, easily-accessible space. (more…)

Map shows the storefronts studied in SoHo. Blue dots represent occupied stores; pink dots represent vacancies; yellow dots represent vacancies with construction or a store coming soon. Image Credit: NYC DCP

The causes of vacancies vary due to differences in local economies and other community characteristics. On August 8, 2019, the Department of City Planning released “Assessing Storefront Vacancy in NYC”, a report which examines retail patterns and storefront vacancies across 24 different neighborhood shopping corridors around the city. (more…)