Image Credit: Urban Strategic Partners

The City Planning Commission approved the construction of the Baychester Square Mall, a destination shopping complex and a single building with 180 units of affordable senior housing in the Bronx. On June 21, 2017, the City Planning Commission issued a favorable report on a joint application from the Department of Citywide Administrative Services and Gun Hill Square LLC. The application requested the disposition of city-owned property, three special permits, a zoning map amendment to upzone the site, and a zoning text amendment to designate the project as a Mandatory Inclusionary Housing area. (read more…)

Rendering of the new causeway design of City Island Bridge. Image credit: DOT.

New causeway design for City Island Bridge applauded by community and local elected officials. On May 21, 2014, the City Planning Commission unanimously approved an application by the New York City Department of Transportation and Department of Parks and Recreation for a city map amendment to facilitate the construction of a new City Island Bridge in the Bronx. City Island Bridge, which connects City Island to Rodman’s Neck, was built in 1901 and was determined in 2002 to be in a state of serious deterioration.  The new bridge would be located in the same footprint as the existing bridge, but will now be approximately 68 feet wide, 17 feet wider than the existing bridge. The wider bridge would allow three standard-width traffic lanes and two 6-foot wide bicycle lanes with two 7-foot wide pedestrian walkways, one on each side of the bridge. (read more…)

Rezonings extend protection of contextual zoning and low-density regulations. The Planning Commission approved amendments to the zoning maps in three Bronx neighborhoods to ensure that residential buildings are not out-of-character with low-density development in the neighborhoods.

In Baychester, five of the five and a half blocks located immediately south of Co-op City are currently zoned R3-2 and permit detached, semi-detached and attached homes with a maximum building height of 35 feet. The remaining half block, currently zoned R6, permits residential and community facilities, and has apartment buildings between three and twelve stories high. Under the proposed rezoning, both areas would be zoned R3A, permitting only detached single- and two-family homes with a maximum height of 35 feet. (read more…)