Public parking garage approved for 110 Livingston

333-space parking garage to be located at the former Board of Education headquarters. The Planning Commission approved an application by Two Trees Management and EDC for a 333-space public parking garage to be located within the 300,000-square-foot, former Board of Education headquarters at 110 Livingston Street in Brooklyn. Two Trees plans to convert the 1925 building and construct an 88,000-square-foot addition for 308 residential units and a 6,000-square-foot community theater. Two Trees will maintain the … <Read More>


Hearing set for single-family home

Opposing owner spray painted home on eve of Landmarks’ vote. On March 29, 2005, Landmarks voted to hold a public hearing on April 12, 2005 on the possible designation of the James L. Bedell House in Staten Island, an 1874 single-family home and carriage house located on Amboy Road in Tottenville. A Landmarks survey of the architectural resources on Staten Island’s South Shore identified the Bedell House as one of the best preserved Second Empire-style … <Read More>


Two department store buildings designated

A.I. Namm & Son Department Store and Offerman Building Designated. On March 15, 2005, Landmarks designated the A.I. Namm & Son Department Store and the Offerman Building, both located on Fulton Street in downtown Brooklyn.

The A.I. Namm & Son Department Store, 450-458 Fulton Street, first opened in 1891 at 452 Fulton Street and gradually expanded in 1924-25 and 1928-29. Robert D. Kohn and Charles Butler created a modern design with a structural steel frame … <Read More>


New zoning district approved for Bayside

New district created to curb development of Queens “McMansions.” On March 14, 2005, the Planning Commission unanimously approved the Bloomberg administration’s largest proposed down-zoning to date and a new citywide zoning district to be applied first to Bayside, a Queens neighborhood characterized predominantly by single-family detached homes. The approved 350-block down-zoning of Bayside, commenced at the urging of Council Member Tony Avella and local residents, seeks to end the rising development in Bayside of semi-detached … <Read More>


Suit filed challenging Ikea’s approval

Suit claims environmental study was flawed and Council’s approval violated City land use plans. Five Brooklyn residents and the Coalition to Revitalize Our Waterfront Now, a citizen group formed in 2003 to advocate for sustainable waterfront development in Red Hook, filed suit in Supreme Court on February 8, 2005, seeking to void the City’s approval of an Ikea superstore on a 22-acre site along Brooklyn’s Erie Basin.

Ikea received the City’s final approval in October … <Read More>


BSA approves large home in natural area district

Undersized Staten Island lot can be developed if trees replanted. Owners of an undersized, 9,733 sq.ft. Staten Island lot at 380 Lighthouse Avenue sought to construct a single-family home that required variance approvals because of the small lot size and because the proposed home failed to meet rear or side-yard requirements.

The lot fell within the Special Natural Area District, a 1974 zoning control passed by the City to protect existing topography, trees, plantings and … <Read More>