EDC seeks a commercial building, parking and shuttle service to amusement area. The New York City Economic Development Corporation is seeking proposals for a developer to purchase and develop commercial space, with accessory public parking, on a 48,600-square-foot site on Stillwell Avenue in Coney Island.

The site is located three blocks north of the Stillwell Avenue subway station and immediately south of the Belt Parkway, within the Coney Island Creek Urban Renewal Area. It is zoned M1-2 for manufacturing, retail, recreational, and commercial uses. Currently, it consists of two adjacent lots, one of which is vacant, the other leased by the City for school bus parking. (more…)

Major League Baseball project in Harlem is among the beneficiaries. On March 6, 2008, the New York City Industrial Development Agency held a public hearing on proposed public subsidies to private entities, including a joint venture between Vornado Realty Trust and California Urban Investment Partners. The joint venture was established to build a 21-story office tower on 125th Street and Park Avenue, directly southwest of the Metro-North train station. The tower will contain 526,555 sq.ft. of office space, 50,492 sq.ft. of retail, and a 52-space underground garage. The tower’s anchor tenant will be MLB Network, Major League Baseball’s new cable broadcasting system. The work site lies within the proposed 125th Street rezoning plan, which the Planning Commission approved on March 10, 2008 to encourage renewed investment and development in the area.

At the hearing, Bettina Damiani, Director of Good Jobs New York, questioned the need for subsidies to attract MLB to Harlem given the area’s easy access to Yankee Stadium and Citi Field via public transportation. Charles Callaway, representing WE ACT for Environmental Justice, expressed similar skepticism and feared that the newly created jobs would not go to community residents. (more…)

City Council approved rezoning despite Council Member Tony Avella’s objection. On February 27, 2008, the City Council approved developer Martin Wydra’s rezoning and special permit proposal to build an eight-story mixed-use building and a 259space parking garage at 886 Dahill Road in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn. Currently, one- and two-story vacant industrial buildings occupy the 66,000-square-foot site, which is located on Dahill Road between 50th Street and Avenue I. The proposal would rezone the site from an M1-1 and R5 designation to a C4-5X.

The Planning Commission held a public hearing on Wydra’s proposal in December 2007. State Assemblyman James F. Brennan and Council Member Simcha Felder, both of whom represent Borough Park residents, supported Wydra and claimed that the proposal would provide the area with desperately needed housing. Local residents, however, testified against the proposal, criticizing it for what they saw as the building’s out-of-context height and adverse effect on traffic and congestion. The Commission approved the proposal on January 28, 2008, but not without modifying it to address the residents’ concerns. The Commission also required Wydra to work with the Department of Transportation on traffic mitigation measures. (more…)

Marilyn J. Taylor is from a small town in Iowa “with a population of 1,432.” Perhaps it is her Midwestern roots that allow her to remain upbeat and positive as two of her current planning projects—Columbia University’s campus expansion in West Harlem and Solow’s redevelopment of the Con Edison site in Murray Hill—plod their way through the City’s land use review process amidst political controversy.

Taylor is partner to Skidmore Owings & Merrill’s Urban Design & Planning and Airports & Transportation practice groups. She has represented SOM on such local projects as the Pennsylvania/ Moynihan Station expansion and redevelopment, John F. Kennedy and Newark International Airport terminal expansion, and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center redevelopment. Her practice is not limited to New York, however, and often includes projects in Europe, East Asia, and the Middle East. (more…)

Bruce Schaller, DOT’s Deputy Commissioner for Planning and Sustainability, stands on the front-lines in the battle over the City’s congestion pricing plan. Hand-picked by Mayor Bloomberg a month after the City announced its intention to charge vehicles entering or leaving Manhattan below 86th Street, Mr. Schaller must present and implement a plan that satisfies City, state, and federal officials.

As a transportation consultant, he analyzed the impact of East River bridge tolls for the Straphanger Campaign, advised transit authorities in Chicago and Austin as well as NJ Transit and the LIRR. Mr. Schaller also served as a director of the Taxi & Limousine Commission and deputy director of the Transit Authority. He earned a reputation as a congestion pricing guru through a series of op-eds as well as an extensive report he drafted for the Manhattan Institute on the subject. (more…)