Developer agrees to market monthly parking to residents. A controversial 83-space Chelsea public parking garage obtained City Council approval on September 15, 2005 after Council Member Christine Quinn urged support.

The public parking garage, part of a 15-story, 109-unit as-of-right building planned for 155 West 21st Street, required a special permit, the approval of which Community Board 4 opposed at the Planning Commission. 2 CityLand 119 (Sept. 15, 2005). Following the Commission’s approval, Council Member Quinn requested that the full Council take review of the project due to the community’s strong opposition. (read more…)

Special permit for 83-space garage approved over community opposition. Developer 155 West 21st Street LLC sought Planning Commission approval for an 83-space public parking garage within an as-of- right building that it planned to construct on West 21st Street in Chelsea. The 17,000-square-foot garage space would be located on the ground floor, cellar and sub-cellar of the newly constructed 15- story, 109-unit residential building at 155 West 21st Street. It would replace a vacant two-story building and a 35-space parking lot. Access to the garage would be on West 21st Street, a one-way westbound street, 120 feet from Seventh Avenue.

At the June 22, 2005 hearing on the project, the developer accepted Borough President C. Virginia Fields’ recommendation to reserve first right to spaces for the residents of the new development. Community Board 4 by letter recommended denial of the permit. The Board claimed that the developer mis-characterized the area as commercial in nature and underestimated the garage’s traffic impact when it claimed that the site contained a former public parking lot. The Board explained that evaluations of the city’s land use patterns describe the area as densely residential and the former parking lot on the site served taxis, not the public. (read more…)