City Planning Hears Testimony on Expansion of Mental Health Treatment Facility

The proposed rezoning would facilitate the expansion of a mental health treatment facility to include low-income affordable units for individuals and families. On June 21, 2017, the City Planning Commission held a public hearing on an application for multiple land use actions to facilitate the enlargement and reconstruction of an existing eight-story building by integrating a 10-story horizontal expansion onto an abutting parking lot and three-story addition to the northern portion of the existing building. … <Read More>


City Planning Green Lights 70 Supportive and Affordable Units in Brownsville

The City Planning Commission approved the construction of 70 new affordable and supportive units in Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood. On March 8, 2017, the City Planning Commission issued a favorable report on an application by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development to designate the properties at 210–214 Hegeman Avenue as an Urban Development Action Area and Project, and for the disposition of the lots. The designation and sale would facilitate the construction of an eight-story, … <Read More>


Landmarks Leaves Only One Backlog Item Remaining After Last Meeting of 2016

Ten of thirteen items brought to a final disposition were designated by Landmarks and will proceed to City Council for ratification. On December 13, 2016, the Landmarks Preservation Commission made its final dispositive votes on items prioritized for designation in the commission’s Backlog Initiative, with one exception. The initiative, began in 2015, sought to address the backlog of designation items that had been added to the commission’s calendar before 2001 but never brought to … <Read More>


HPD Proposes to Implement Extension of Existing 421-a Affordable Housing Tax Abatement Program

HPD brought charges of tenant harassment against an Aimco-owned building in the Upper West Side. Image credit: HPD

The “421-a Extended Affordability Program Rules” would provide a 10 to 15 year extension to eligible buildings enrolled in the program prior to its expiration. On March 14, 2016, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development proposed two agency rules to extend the 421-a real property tax exemption program for those who already had been benefiting from the program prior to its expiration in June 2015. The State authorized HPD to promulgate the new rules … <Read More>


COMPLETE VIDEO: The 128th CityLaw Breakfast Panel on September 11th, 2001

On Friday September 11, 2015, the Center for New York City Law at New York Law School hosted the 128th City Law Breakfast. The speakers were a roundtable of Jeffrey Friedlander, Steven Fishner, Marjorie Landa, Bryan Grimaldi, and Florence Hutner discussing their roles as attorneys for the City on September 11th, 2001 and in the days after.


Wide Community Opposition Voiced in Hearing on Three-Dwelling Development

Applicants sought to subdivide lot with existing home to construct to new buildings, and also build another dwelling on adjoining site. On February 17, 2015, the Landmarks Preservation Commission considered an application to develop three new free-standing homes in the Fieldston Historic District. The site is composed of two lots at 4680 Fieldston Road, with one lot, to be subdivided, currently occupied by a 1918 one-family home. According to the New York Times, … <Read More>