Three New Rules Ease New York City Contract Process

The procurement policy board, which makes the contracting rules for the City of New York, recently adopted rules that will make it easier for the City to manage how it purchases goods and services. The most important rule in terms of large purchases will allow the City to award competitively-bid contracts for goods and services based on price plus previously announced best value considerations. Before, contracts for goods and services had to be awarded … <Read More>


Council Approved Rheingold Development with a 30 Percent Affordable Housing Requirement

 

Controversial Bushwick development project questioned on affordable housing goals in public hearings. On December 10, 2013, the full City Council voted 48-1 to rezone six blocks in Bushwick, Brooklyn, in order to allow the development of ten mixed-use developments. The rezoning area is bounded by Bushwick Avenue, Flushing Avenue, Melrose Street, Stanwix Street, and Forrest Street.  Council’s Committee on Land Use voted 18-1 and Land Use Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises unanimously voted 10-0 … <Read More>


HPD’s Carol Clark on Affordable Housing Development and Historic Preservation

Carol Clark, Assistant Commissioner for Land Use and Local Governmental Affairs with the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, serves as one of the agency’s vital ambassadors to the City Council. The Council must review HPD’s affordable housing development initiatives that involve the disposition of City-owned properties or the grant of tax exemptions. Clark arrived at HPD ten years ago with an extensive background in architecture, historic preservation, planning, and real estate … <Read More>


Court finds City discriminated in housing project

Judge enjoined City’s redevelopment proposal for area straddling Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant. In December 2009, the City Council approved the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s redevelopment proposal for the Broadway Triangle Urban Renewal Area in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The seventeen-block urban renewal area was created in 1989 and is primarily located within Community District 1, with a six-block portion within Community District 3. CD 1 is predominately white with a large Hasidic community, and CD … <Read More>


City Council considers impact of Wal-Mart

Concerns about how big-box retailer would affect small businesses dominated hearing. On February 3, 2011, the City Council’s Community Development Committee, Small Business Committee, and Economic Development Committee held a joint oversight hearing to debate Wal- Mart’s impact on the local community if the big-box retailer opened a store in the City. The Council convened the hearing in response to Wal-Mart’s renewed campaign to open a store in the City. Community opposition caused Wal-Mart to … <Read More>


Brooklyn supportive housing project revised

Providence House.

Developer revised plan to include low-income apartments for women with children. On November 17, 2010, the City Council approved the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s revised proposal to allow Providence House to build a six-story supportive housing project at 329 Lincoln Road in the Prospect Lefferts Gardens section of Brooklyn. HPD recently demolished a four-story building on the site which had remained vacant for 30 years. Providence House’s original proposal included … <Read More>