NYCHA proposal would restore West 129th Street in the St. Nicholas Houses as part of Harlem Children’s Zone’s charter school plan. On March 30, 2011, the City Planning Commission approved the New York City Housing Authority’s proposal to re-connect West 129th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem. The City in the 1950s closed a portion of West 129th Street by creating a cul-de-sac between Frederick Douglas Boulevard and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard to facilitate the development of NYCHA’s fourteen-acre St. Nicholas Houses apartment complex. The cul-de-sac intersects with Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and provides access to the tower-in-the-park housing development.

NYCHA requested that the City eliminate the cul-de-sac and reestablish West 129th Street as a through street as part of Harlem Children’s Zone’s plan to  build a 1,300-seat charter school. Harlem Children’s Zone has already broken ground on the five-story school, known as Promise Academy, on land northwest of the cul-de-sac. The school is scheduled to be completed by the 2012 school year. Rather than following the City’s land  use review process, NYCHA, as a state authority, was required by federal law to follow the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s public review requirements in order to transfer its land to Harlem Children’s Zone. (more…)

The City agreed to build mixed-income housing project prior to 2005 West Chelsea rezoning. On June 29, 2010, the City Council approved, at the request of the New York City Housing Authority, a text amendment that would facilitate the development of a 22-story mixed-income affordable housing project on the site of the Housing Authority-controlled Elliott-Chelsea Houses at the northwest corner of West 25th Street and Ninth Avenue in Chelsea. The site is occupied by a 42-space accessory parking lot and a trash compactor unit, which are both used by residents of Elliott-Chelsea’s two 21- story buildings.

The area was rezoned in 2005. Prior to the 2005 rezoning, the Mayor’s office and the Council reached an agreement to develop affordable housing at the Elliott-Chelsea site and on a parking lot at the Fulton Houses on West 18th Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues. In 2007 the Housing Authority selected 25th Street Chelsea Equities LLC, a subsidiary of Artimus Construction, to develop both sites. Artimus will purchase the Elliott-Chelsea site for $4 million. (more…)

Planning proposed amendment to address community concerns about inappropriate curb cuts and front yard parking spaces in residential areas. On April 14, 2010, the City Council approved the Department of City Planning’s Residential Streetscape Preservation text amendment. The amendment contains a host of changes, including applying stricter parking regulations in low-density residential districts, and establishing curb cut regulations in medium- and high-density districts that previously had none. It strengthens front yard planting requirements in low-density districts by closing a loophole that allowed narrow planting strips in driveways to count towards the required plantings. To ensure adequate parking is available, the amendment requires that residential enlargements and conversions in R3 and R4 districts provide additional off-street parking for each additional dwelling unit.

The text amendment also addressed a recent court decision ruling that a section of the zoning resolution prohibiting curb cuts in residential “B” districts applied only to new developments and not to existing buildings. The curb cut prohibition will now expressly apply to both existing and new buildings in “B” districts, reinforcing the City Planning Commission’s original intent. (more…)

Text amendment would introduce curb cut prohibitions and limit front yard parking spaces in certain residential districts. On February 24, 2010, the City Planning Commission approved, with modifications, the Department of City Planning’s Residential Streetscape Preservation text amendment. Planning proposed the City-wide amendment in response to community concerns about inappropriate curb cuts and front yard parking spaces in residential districts. Planning seeks to clarify parking requirements and preserve and enhance residential streetscapes.

The proposed amendment includes a host of modifications such as requiring new parking spaces in all single- and two-family districts to be located within a residential building or to the side or rear of a building. This requirement currently applies to R1 and R2 districts and certain districts in Lower Density Growth Management Areas in Staten Island and the Bronx. In order to ensure that required front yard plantings are of sufficient quality, the amendment would close a loophole that allows narrow strips of plantings located in driveways to count towards the required minimum front yard planting requirements. (more…)

For the past two decades, Ronay Menschel and Adam Weinstein have led the Phipps Houses Group, New York City’s oldest and largest affordable housing provider. Founded in 1905 by Carnegie Steel’s Henry Phipps, the organization has built over 6,000 units, and currently manages 12,500 apartments, as well as community service centers, Head Start locations, vocational centers, and afterschool programs.

In the mid-1970s Ronay Menschel worked in Edward I. Koch’s Washington Congressional office and moved to the city to join his 1977 mayoral campaign. She served as his Deputy Mayor and Executive Administrator, spent eleven years on MTA’s Board, headed the Chancellor’s Advisory Council on Arts Education, and served on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. She became Phipps’ CEO and President in 1993, and now chairs Phipps’ board. Mr. Weinstein worked in the Koch Administration after college. He then attended Harvard Business School, after which he joined Phipps where he has been CEO since 2001. Ms. Menschel and Mr. Weinstein talked with CityLand about sustaining a more affordable New York. (more…)