(Economic) Heart Trouble

More than 30 years after its last major zoning change, the economic heart of New York City merits a checkup. According to City planners, the prognosis for East Midtown is not good: an aging office stock, a congested pedestrian network, global competition, and the lack of new office development threaten to undermine the economic competitiveness of the City. The cure, proposed by the Bloomberg Administration, is a rezoning of 78 blocks of East Midtown centered around Grand Central Terminal and generally bounded by Fifth and Third Avenues, East 57th and East 39th Streets.

The proposed East Midtown Rezoning seeks to incentivize the development of state-of-the-art office buildings by allowing for an increase in the permitted floor area ratio. The proposed FAR varies throughout the rezoning area, although the highest densities are reserved for large sites with full avenue frontage that surround Grand Central Terminal. These select properties, of which the City has identified four as potential development sites, could achieve a FAR of 24 on an-as-of right basis and up to 30 FAR with a special permit. Sites slightly further from Grand Central Terminal would be allowed a FAR of 21.6 as-of-right, while certain properties along Park Avenue could achieve 21.6 FAR as-of-right or up to 24 FAR through a special permit.

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The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (“LPC”) has designated more than 1,400 individual landmarks and 107 historic districts.  Approximately 29,000 buildings are under LPC regulation. With only five percent of that total comprising individual landmarks,95 percent are subject to LPC regulation solely because they are located within historic districts, regardless of individual merit.

With the proliferation of buildings subject to LPC regulation, both as individual landmarks and within historic districts, attention has increasingly focused on the landmark process. On May 2, 2012, the City Council’s Housing and Buildings Committee and Land Use Committee, chaired by Erik Martin Dilan and Leroy G. Comrie, Jr., respectively, held a joint public hearing to consider eleven separate bills.

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Howard Goldman

Howard Goldman’s 35-year career as a land use attorney has ranged from helping native Alaskan communities create coastline regulations to assisting developers navigate New York City’s complex land use process. Aspiring to work for the Natural Resources Defense Council or the Sierra Club, Goldman in 1972  received an ad hoc degree in environmental and pre-law studies from SUNY at Buffalo. Goldman stayed on to earn a law degree, and after graduation he joined Neighborhood Legal Services in Buffalo representing indigent clients in civil matters. While perusing the organization’s magazine, Goldman noticed a job posting under the “Alaska” section. Thinking it would present an opportunity to practice environmental law, he made a telephone call and soon after was on a plane to work for Neighborhood Legal Services in Juneau, Alaska.

One year later, Goldman joined the Alaska Office of Coastal Management where he drafted regulations to help the state secure federal Coastal Zone Management Act funds. After the regulations were approved Goldman entered private practice, where he made his first foray into land use and zoning law assisting cities, towns, and indigenous communities,  including the North Slope Borough, to adopt land use controls to manage local coastline activities. (more…)

The staff of the Center for New York City Law thanks all of our loyal 2015 financial supporters! We are grateful for your contributions to our publications and programs.

There is still time to make a donation to our Center, please click HERE to make a donation online.  We also accept checks and Visa (by calling 212-431-2855). Payments should be made to New York Law School, 185 West Broadway, NY NY 10013. Attn: Center for NYC Law.

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Image Credit: DCP.

Traffic congestion in 2013 stems in large part from how the City has allocated street space among motorists, pedestrians, bicyclists, CitiBike stations, pedicabs, and horse-drawn carriages. While changes to address street space allocations can be anticipated, the logic and purpose of the allocations have changed over time.

Act I – Suffocation on the Streets

Facing public streets “choked” with cars, the City in 1950 amended the 1916 Zoning Resolution to require developers of residential buildings to provide off-street parking. In approving this controversial amendment, City Planning Commission Chairman Jerry Finkelstein silenced opponents of the proposal, noting: “The policy of this Commission is and will continue to be: Get parked cars off the City’s streets. . . . We wouldn’t have the congestion today in Manhattan and Brooklyn, if this amendment had been made law 25 years ago.”

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