Jamaica rezoning approved with modifications

The Jamaica Plan: Proposed Zoning with City Council Modifications, subject to adoption by the City Council by September 19, 2007, used with permission of the New York City Department of City Planning. All rights reserved.

Largest rezoning undertaken by City sent back to Commission for final approval. The City Council approved, with several significant modifications, the Planning Commission’s proposal to rezone 378 blocks in Jamaica, Queens. The Council’s modifications must now go to the Planning … <Read More>


MAS’s Kent Barwick Reflects on Promoting a More Livable City

Kent Barwick has a stickball bat hiding in the corner of his office. He swears he does not use it, and who can argue with him? His office is in the Villard Houses in Midtown, and its courtyard is too small for a game. But physical boundaries aside, he would never have the time to show off his skills. Mr. Barwick, a graduate of Syracuse University and a Harvard University Loeb Fellow, is the current … <Read More>


HPD proposes large complex for South Bronx

Plan for seven buildings includes Boricua College campus, 679 residential units and over 36,000 sq.ft. of retail. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development proposed to amend the Melrose Commons Urban Renewal Area Plan in the Bronx to facilitate a large, seven building, mixed-use, residential and commercial complex called Boricua Village to be constructed on a 4.2-acre lot in the northeast corner of Melrose Commons.

HPD’s plan called for 18 changes to the existing Melrose … <Read More>


Sunnyside Gardens designated a historic district

Landmarks unanimously designated despite community controversy. On June 26, 2007, Landmarks voted to designate Sunnyside Gardens, Sunnyside, Queens, as a historic district. A planned community designed by Clarence Stein and Henry Wright in the 1920s to house working class families, Sunnyside Gardens’ distinctive characteristics include its large landscaped courtyards and its mixture of single- and multi-family buildings. It was one of the first planned communities built by a private limited-dividend corporation, and, as a non-car … <Read More>


DOT proposes one-way plan for Park Slope avenues

Comm. Board’s transportation committee opposes initial plan. The Department of Transportation proposed a plan to Brooklyn Community Board 6 to change 6th and 7th Avenues in Park Slope to one-way traffic and reduce the number of lanes on 4th Avenue.

On March 15, 2007, DOT presented the proposals to Board 6’s Transportation Committee. DOT proposed to turn 6th Avenue between 23rd Street and Atlantic Avenue into a northbound one-way avenue, and 7th Avenue between Flatbush … <Read More>


Second Ave. Subway condemnation moves along

Challenge by hotel and commercial owner rejected by court. In the summer of 2006, the MTA initiated the condemnation needed for the first phase of the Second Avenue Subway, the construction from East 63rd to East 96th Street. After holding a hearing and issuing final findings, the MTA requested a court to finalize its condemnation plan by allowing it to file a final map and authorize vesting.

Condemnees The Marmara Manhattan, an East 94th Street … <Read More>