Howard Goldman testifies before the Board of Standards and Appeals. Image credit: BSA
BSA found development value of subject lots could not be previously realized. On December 16, 2014 the Board of Standards and Appeals voted to grant the applicants, West 29th Street Owner’s Corp. and The Flower House Condominium, an amendment of previously existing variances on two lots. The amendment is required to merge the lots into one zoning lot and transfer their development rights to an as-of-right hotel in development on an adjacent site. The subject lots are Lot 7502 on 111-113 West 28th Street and Lot 49 on 114-120 West 29th Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues.
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Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School was permitted to expand its campus to provide a middle school. Image credit: Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School
Columbia Grammar and Preparatory permitted to establish new building for a middle-school program over community opposition. On October 7, 2014 the Board of Standards and Appeals voted to grant a variance to Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School for the enlargement of an existing school building. The building is located at 5 West 93rd Street in Manhattan’s Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District, between Central Park West to the west and Columbus Avenue to the east. Columbia Prep serves students from pre-kindergarten through the twelfth grade grouped in two schools, Pre-K through six, and seven through twelve.
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Street view of 118-27 Farmers Boulevard. Image Credit: Google Maps
Board granted the variances despite divided community support. On September 23, 2014, the Board of Standards and Appeals voted to grant five variances to St. Albans Presbyterian Church for the construction of a five-story mixed-use facility at 118-27 Farmers Boulevard. The development site is located in St. Albans, Queens, and bounded by Farmers Boulevard to the west, 119th Avenue to the south, 189th Street to the east, and 118th Avenue to the north. The facility will feature two floors in the cellar for community space and five stories for residential space containing sixty-seven units of affordable housing, as well as seventeen parking spaces, and a thirty-five-foot perimeter wall.
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BSA granted the variances over Community Board and resident opposition. On August 19, 2014 the Board of Standards and Appeals voted unanimously to grant variances to SoBro Development Corporation for the development of a twelve-story mixed-use facility at 1769 Fort George Hill. The development site, at the corner of Nagle Avenue in Washington Heights, Manhattan, is crescent-shaped, measuring 620 feet in length and 46 feet wide at the widest point. The facility will feature two floors of community facility/church space for Movimiento Mundial Church, 125 units of affordable housing, and an underground parking garage. The Church previously owned the site and sold it to SoBro in partial exchange for providing space in the final building. (more…)
Street view of 95 Grattan Street in Brooklyn. Image credit: Google.
Applicant seeks to build multiple dwellings on M1-1-zoned 25-foot lots. On June 24, 2014, the Board of Standards and Appeals voted 4-0 to grant a use variance to 95 Grattan Street, LLC and to 97 Grattan Street, LLC allowing them to construct two separate four-story, seven-unit residential buildings. One building will be located at 95 Grattan Street, the other at 97 Grattan Street. Each 2,500-square foot lot is located on the north side of Grattan Street, between Knickerbocker Avenue to the west and Porter Avenue to the east, with 25 feet of frontage on Grattan Street. Both lots are located in a M1-1 zoned district, which limits use to light manufacturing, industrial, retail, and offices. The LLCs needed a variance to construct residential buildings in the district.
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