Search Results for: Brooklyn

Hearings held on nine Robert Moses projects

Depression-era pools and play centers considered for individual designation. In the 1930s, under the guidance of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, the City built dozens of parks and swimming pools using federal Works Progress Administration funds. In the summer of 1936 alone, the City opened eleven large pool-oriented play centers.

On January 31, 2007, Landmarks heard public testimony on the proposed designation of nine of these WPA play centers, including the Bronx … <Read More>

Council limits bulk waiver to Manhattan Comm.Board 7

The proposed height provision had, as approved by the Planning Commission, been applicable citywide. On February 28, 2007, the City Council approved the four linked applications for the mixed-use development of West 60th Street Associates, LLC with significant modifications to the developer’s proposed citywide zoning change on bulk.

West 60th originally proposed a zoning text amendment that would allow developers of general, large-scale developments located in certain commercial districts to modify the height factor calculation, … <Read More>

Council overturned on refusal to remove use restriction

Brooklyn developer still cannot build housing. Middleland Inc. sought to rezone three lots on DeKalb Avenue and Spencer Street in Brooklyn and remove a 1975 restriction recorded on the site that limited its use to accessory parking for an adjacent IBM plant, closed since 1993 and now occupied by a Home Depot. Middleland planned to construct housing on its site.

Despite the Planning Commission’s approval, the City Council rejected both of Middleland’s requests, citing the … <Read More>

Atlantic Basin project proposed

EDC seeks proposals to redevelop marina and pier on Brooklyn waterfront. In January 2007, the New York City Economic Development Corporation requested proposals to redevelop the Atlantic Basin Marina, a 17-acre, 25-foot deep protected bay and a 250,000-square-foot portion of adjacent Pier 11. The Basin, located in the Red Hook portion of Brooklyn, thrived as an active port from 1847 until the 1950s. In recent years it remained largely empty, used only to store derelict … <Read More>

Demolition threatened Father Divine’s Bklyn house

Clinton Hill villa-style mansion designated. With a demolition permit application pending, Landmarks designated the Italianate-style home at 70 Lefferts Place in Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill, one of the last free-standing individual homes remaining from the area’s past as a suburban enclave. Built in 1854 for the merchant James W. Elwell, the International Peace Mission Movement and its leader Father Divine, who claimed to be God incarnate, purchased the home in 1931 and lived communally in it … <Read More>

BSA refuses to grandfather constructed condos

Developer built Park Slope condos based on erroneously granted permits. In 1998, Flan Realty LLC purchased three contiguous lots; one on 14th Street and two on 15th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues in Park Slope, Brooklyn. In 2000, Buildings approved Flan’s site plan to develop each lot with a fourstory, eight-unit condominium building. The three buildings were part of a single condominium offering plan, but due to a lack of financial resources, Flan only … <Read More>