Owner argued that adjacent overbuilt buildings restricted the development of its lot. Lauto Group, LTD sought to construct an 11- story, 37,535-square-foot building at 48 Bond Street in NoHo, a vacant site used by Great Jones Lumber for parking and lumber storage for its Great Jones Street store. Lauto’s new building, a 129-foot tall structure with retail and residential units, required BSA approval to exceed limits on height, and to permit ground floor retail and residential units within a NoHo manufacturing zone.

Lauto argued that the narrowness of the lot and the surrounding overbuilt structures on Bond Street made as-of-right commercial buildings infeasible. Due to the narrow 53-foot lot, a commercial building built with a required rear yard would have small, unusable floor plates. Since the two 120-foot buildings on either side of the vacant site cover the full lot and exceed the height limit, Lauto claimed that even if a commercial building was constructed without rear yards, the space would have limited light and air, rendering it less usable. (read more…)