Intro 30-A gives HPD liens a stronger position. On August 14, 2019, City Council passed Intro 30-A providing that the City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s (“HPD”) orders to vacate the premises, and the subsequent costs to relocate the displaced tenant would now be considered high status tax liens on the property. The law is intended to discourage the negligence of building owners and give HPD an ability to recover relocation expenses of those … <Read More>
Search Results for: City Council
City Council Approves City Planning’s Mechanical Voids Text Amendment
Developers were using excessive mechanical spaces to increase the height of their buildings. On May 29, 2019, the City Council voted to adopt the Residential Tower Mechanical Voids Text Amendment with modifications. The Department of City Planning proposed the amendment in response to developers incorporating excessively tall mechanical floors – “mechanical voids” – in residential towers to increase their allowable height, as mechanical floors did not count toward the zoning floor area in the Zoning … <Read More>
City Council Creating Pilot Program to Create Apartments in East New York
The program will bring currently illegal basement and cellar apartments up to code, and allow for additional basement and cellar apartments to be created. On February 13, 2019, the New York City Council passed legislation, titled Introduction 1004, establishing a pilot program which allows for the creation and alteration of habitable apartments in basements and cellars in one and two-family dwellings in East New York. The program seeks to address the lack of affordable housing … <Read More>
Long Island City Ramps Project Approved by City Council
A new elementary school and public open space will be created in exchange for approval of the controversial project. On October 31, 2018, the City Council voted to approve multiple applications for two mixed-use towers with 481 new residential units at 26-32 Jackson Avenue and 27-01 Jackson Avenue in the Long Island City neighborhood in Queens. The applications, known locally as the Long Island City Ramps project, previously faced much opposition from the community. For … <Read More>
City Council Denies Proposed Development Next to Merchant House Museum
Supporters of preserving the Merchant House Museum rejoice in victory, but the battle may not be over as future demolition and construction is possible. On September 26, 2018, the City Council voted to disapprove the application for a rezoning at 27 East 4th Street in Manhattan. The Application would have allowed for an 8-story, 28-room hotel or office building with a restaurant and lobby below the second floor, with approximately 17,141 square feet of … <Read More>
Jason Adolfo Otaño, General Counsel for the New York City Council
Jason Adolfo Otaño, the General Counsel for the New York City Council, was born to Puerto Rican parents and grew up in the Sheepshead Bay area of Brooklyn. Otaño’s father was a City firefighter for 28 years, his mother a paraprofessional for the Department of Education, and his uncle a captain for the Department of Corrections.