Task force proposed a framework for negotiating future Community Benefit Agreements related to publicly assisted development projects. A Community Benefit Agreement (CBA) is a private agreement negotiated between developers and community groups in order to garner support for real estate development projects. In exchange for community support, a developer may agree to provide amenities, such as infrastructure improvements or wage guarantees which are not required by the City’s land use review process. Since 2005, … <Read More>
Search Results for: The Bronx and Manhattan
Rezonings in three boroughs begin public review
Planning proposed contextual rezonings in Queens, the Bronx, and Manhattan. On May 24, 2010, the City Planning Commission certified the Department of City Planning’s contextual rezoning proposals for sections of Queens, the Bronx, and Manhattan. The Queens rezoning would impact a 418-block portion of northeast Queens and would be the City’s largest rezoning. The Bronx plan would rezone 75 blocks along the central Bronx’s Third Avenue and Tremont Avenue corridors. The Manhattan proposal, referred to … <Read More>
Grocery store zoning incentives debated
FRESH program would create incentives to encourage developing full-line grocery stores in underserved neighborhoods. On October 26, 2009, the City Council’s Zoning & Franchises Subcommittee heard testimony on the City’s proposed Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH) program. The program would provide zoning and financial incentives to encourage grocerystores in neighborhoods identified in a 2008 study as being underserved by stores offering a full range of fresh food. These neighborhoods are located primarily … <Read More>
Council considers tax exemption for green roofs
Resolution would call on Albany to create green roof tax incentive. The City Council’s Finance Committee heard public testimony on November 29, 2007 on a resolution that would request the State Legislature to amend the New York State Real Property Tax Law and establish a tax exemption incentive for property-owners to equip their buildings with green roofs.
The resolution, sponsored by Council Member Oliver G. Koppell, seeks to encourage the use of green roofs in … <Read More>
HDC’s Simeon Bankoff Talks About Life on the Preservation Front Lines
The temperature was in the 90s the day Simeon Bankoff met with City- Land. Mr. Bankoff, Executive Director of the Historic Districts Council, a prominent city preservationist organization founded in 1971 as part of the Municipal Art Society, and operating independently since 1986, had just returned from a demonstration on the steps of City Hall. While most would have wilted, the charming and voluble Mr. Bankoff animatedly discoursed for over an hour on the Historic … <Read More>
HPD pushes through 517 affordable housing units
Manhattan, Bronx and Brooklyn housing projects approved; sent to Council. On March 28 and April 11, 2007, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development obtained Planning Commission approval for eight affordable housing projects, totaling 517 units, to be developed in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx.
Two of the Bronx projects, including the 50-unit Fox Leggett Cooperative Apartments and the 162- unit Grant Avenue Cooperative Apartments, provide ownership opportunities for low- and moderate-income families. Both of … <Read More>