Mayor Bill de Blasio announces repairs. Image Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.
The repairs will be made possible through public-private partnerships. On November 18, 2018, Mayor de Blasio announced that NYCHA has committed to $13 billion in repairs to 62,000 of its units. The renovations include new kitchens and bathrooms, replacement of windows, elevators, boilers, and roofs, and improvements to common areas. The repairs will affect approximately 140,000 residents, who will “retain all their rights as public housing residents, pay rent limited to 30 percent of their income, and remain in their buildings during the renovations,” according to the press release. (more…)
City will use the modular construction method to reduce costs and construction time. On May 23, 2018, Housing Preservation & Development announced a Request for Proposals for the design, construction, and management of the new 100% affordable mixed-income and mixed-use development in East New York, Brooklyn. The City-owned project site is an L-shaped parcel of 49,397 square-feet along Eldert Lane between Pitkin and Glenmore Avenues. A portion of the site is also located along Grant Avenue adjacent to the Grant Avenue A-train subway station. (more…)
Image Credit: Urban Strategic Partners
The City Planning Commission approved the construction of the Baychester Square Mall, a destination shopping complex and a single building with 180 units of affordable senior housing in the Bronx. On June 21, 2017, the City Planning Commission issued a favorable report on a joint application from the Department of Citywide Administrative Services and Gun Hill Square LLC. The application requested the disposition of city-owned property, three special permits, a zoning map amendment to upzone the site, and a zoning text amendment to designate the project as a Mandatory Inclusionary Housing area. (more…)
Long View Rendering of 126th Street and Citi Field. Image Credit: NYC EDC.
Legislative approval would be needed in order to build retail stores, restaurants and a movie theater on Willets West parkland. The Special Willets Point District was approved by the City Council in 2008. The rezoning was controversial; area businesses and residents were concerned over the relocation of businesses, the possibility of eminent domain, and traffic congestion. As a result, a lawsuit was filed against the City by business owners and residents but was dismissed by the New York County Supreme Court in 2010. EDC published a request for proposals in May 2011, asking developers to propose plans for Phase 1 of the development. In June 2012, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the City had come to an agreement with the Queens Development Group for Phase 1 of the development plans. (more…)
Key kiosk features. Image Credit: LinkNYC.
Following public testimony on proposed rule, it was modified to require that new kiosks in residential historic district go before Landmarks for review, and increased the distance from which a kiosk replacing a pay phone may be sited near another public communications structure. On June 28, 2016, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to adopt modifications to existing rules regarding pay phones to account for a Mayoral plan to replace all pay phones with new public communications structures. The new kiosks will provide phone service and free Wi-Fi access, and ability to contact emergency services in an initiative named LinkNYC. The aluminum-clad kiosks will also possess stations for charging one’s phone and an interactive tablet. The rectangular, eleven-inch-wide kiosks will have a smaller footprint than pay phones, but will be taller, with those displaying advertising over ten feet high. (more…)
