Image: Courtesy of Chris Benedict, R.A.

Brooklyn apartment building will comply with “Passive House” standards designed to dramatically reduce energy costs. On April 29, 2010, the City Council approved the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s proposal to allow the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council to build an energy-efficient, affordable apartment building at 803 Knickerbocker Avenue in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The six-story building, known as Knickerbocker Commons, will provide 24 dwelling units, affordable to households earning between 30 and 60 percent of area median income; a senior citizen center; recreation space; and seven parking spaces

The project, designed by architect Chris Benedict, will be the country’s first apartment building to conform to the strict “Passive House” design standards created in Germany and expected to be adopted by the European Union in the near future. (read more…)

HPD-sponsored project will create 600 permanently affordable housing units, convert P.S. 51 into residential housing,and build a new school on the project site. On March 3, 2010, the City Council approved the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s proposal to allow the Gotham Organization Inc. to develop a 1.15 million sq.ft. mixed-use project that will occupy most of the block between West 44th and 45th Streets and Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in Manhattan. The project site is currently occupied by two parking lots, Shamrock Stables, a vacant warehouse, and P.S. 51, a 276-seat elementary school. An open rail cut with below-grade tracks used by Amtrak’s Empire Line occupies the site’s easternmost portion. In 2001, the City’s Economic Development Corporation proposed to construct a television production facility, known as Studio City, but the project never materialized.

Gotham will build four residential structures on the site and convert P.S. 51 into a residential building. The School Construction Authority will build a 631-seat public school to the south of the existing school, which will front West 44th Street and be partially funded by Gotham. The entire project will provide approximately 1,250 residential units, 600 of which will be permanently affordable.

On the site’s Eleventh Avenue western edge,  Gotham will develop a residential building with a seven-story base that wraps around West 44th and 45th Streets and a tower that rises up to 31 stories. Twenty percent of the building’s 675 units will be offered as affordable housing. Gotham will build a mid-block, fourteen-story building fronting West 44th and 45th Streets comprised entirely of affordable units. Two fourteen-story buildings to the east of P.S. 51 will be located on a platform built over the Amtrak rail tracks. Both buildings will be entirely affordable housing. Gotham will convert P.S. 51 into market-rate residential housing after it has completed all of the new construction and the School Construction Authority has completed the new school.

In support of the project HPD submitted multiple applications, including requests to dispose of City-owned property and to rezone the western edge of the site from M1-5 to R10 and the mid-block portion to R8. The Inclusionary Housing Program provisions will now apply to the portion of the site rezoned to R10.

At the City Planning Commission’s hearing, teachers and parents of P.S. 51 students asked that rooftop recreational space be added to the new school because part of P.S. 51’s current playground space would be lost to the project. The Commission approved the plan with modifications, including restricting the disposition to the current project as proposed in order to prevent future inappropriately- scaled development.

At the Council’s Zoning & Franchises Subcommittee hearing, Melissa Pianko, vice president of development at Gotham, noted that Gotham will contribute $20 million to build affordable housing elsewhere in Manhattan and $15 million to help cover the cost of the new school’s construction. Residents with children at P.S. 51 supported the creation of a new school facility, but reiterated their concerns that it needed additional recreational space. Chair Mark Weprin explained that the proposed school was not part of the proposal being considered and that it would be considered as part of a separate application.

The Subcommittee unanimously approved the proposal, and the Land Use Committee and the full Council followed suit.

Review Process
Lead Agency:HPD,Neg.Dec.
Comm.Bd.: MN 4,App’d, 35-0-0
Boro.Pres.: App’d
CPC: App’d, 13-0-0
Council: App’d, 49-0-2

Council: West 44th Street/11th Avenue (C 100051 ZMM – rezoning); (N 100052 ZRM – text amend.); (C 100053 ZSM – spec. perm.); (C 100054 ZSM – spec. perm.); (C 100055 HAM – UDAAP) (March 3, 2010) (Architects: SLCE Architects).

BSA ruled that owner made sufficient progress on construction prior to downzoning. In late 2008, Buildings issued permits to Selvakumar Rajaratnam to construct two four-story buildings with seven dwelling units each at 37-45 and 37-47 98th Street in North Corona, Queens. On March 24, 2009, the City Council approved the North Corona 2 rezoning, which rezoned the site from R6B to R5A, and rendered the proposed buildings out-of-compliance with maximum permitted floor area, number of units, and height, setback, yard, and parking requirements. Because the buildings’ foundations had not been completed by the enactment date, the permits lapsed. Rajaratnam filed an appeal with BSA to complete construction.

At a hearing, Rajaratnam submitted affidavits and photographs demonstrating that he had completed 100 percent of the shoring, 40 percent of the excavation, and 49 percent of the foundation work prior to the rezoning. Rajaratnam claimed that he had spent $134,279 on the project prior to the rezoning, which accounted for eleven percent of the project’s $1,198,193 budget. Rajaratnam said that in order to comply with the new zoning, he would need to reduce the number of residential units in the proposed buildings from fourteen to two, which would result in a 77 percent decrease in annual rental income. Queens Community Board 3 opposed the application. (read more…)

Rezoning proposed to prevent attached homes in area settled by freed slaves in 1827. On February 3, 2010, the City Council approved State Senator Andrew J. Lanza’s rezoning proposal for the Sandy Ground neighborhood of Staten Island. Sandy Ground, also known as Rossville, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and recognized as one of the country’s oldest communities established by freed slaves. The rezoning impacts 35 blocks generally bounded by the West Shore Expressway to the north and west, Ramona Avenue to the south, and Lenevar and Alverson Avenues to the east.

The area is characterized predominantly by detached and semidetached homes, but over the past several years Sandy Ground has experienced an increase in the development of attached townhouses and multi-family buildings. The rezoning aims to prevent out-of-scale development by down-zoning the area from R3-2 to R3-1, a district that does not permit attached homes. (read more…)

Developer requested rezoning in order to provide additional residential units. On February 3, 2010, the City Council approved Webster Commons LLC’s proposal to rezone a section of Webster Avenue in the Bronx from R6 to R7X to facilitate the development of a 393-unit affordable housing project. The rezoning impacts an unimproved portion of Webster Avenue 800 feet north of East Gun Hill Road and east of Woodlawn Cemetery. Webster Commons requested the up-zoning in order to add 125 additional residential units.

Webster Commons intends to construct a four-building residential complex, varying in height from nine to thirteen stories, on a two-acre parcel purchased from Woodlawn Cemetery. The project will include 10,000 sq.ft. of community facility space and 94 below-grade parking spaces. The developer will market 148 units as affordable to households making 60 percent of area median income, 191 units to households making between 80 and 130 percent of area median income, and 54 units as affordable senior housing. A small ravine that crosses the property, providing groundwater drainage for the cemetery, will be maintained as a natural area for the project’s residents. (read more…)

State court judge granted a preliminary injunction blocking the plan the day after full Council approval. On December 21, 2009, the City Council approved the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s rezoning plan for the Broadway Triangle Urban Renewal Area in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The plan includes rezoning nine blocks, primarily zoned for manufacturing, to R6A and R7A districts in order to facilitate the development of 1,851 residential units, 844 of which will be marketed as affordable. Of those, 488 affordable units will be developed on 35 properties that will be disposed of by the City to private developers. Prior to the plan’s approval, HPD issued site authorization letters to the United Jewish Organizations (UJO) and the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council (RBSCC) to develop 181 affordable units on three assemblages of lots in the urban renewal area.

Opponents of the proposal expressed concern about HPD’s planning process and argued that the proposal would not provide enough affordable housing. The Broadway Triangle Community Coalition, a group representing more than 40 community-based organizations, said the planning process lacked transparency, noting that HPD did not use a competitive bid process when it granted site control to the UJO and RBSCC. On September 9, 2009, before the City Planning Commission approved the plan, the Coalition filed a lawsuit challenging the proposal. The Coalition claimed the proposal violated federal law because of its racially and religiously discriminatory impacts and accused the City of excluding several community groups from participating in the proposal’s planning. (read more…)