Councilmember Corey Johnson at a Stated Meeting of the New York City Council. Image credit: William Alatriste/New York City Council

Privately-owned open space will be converted into a new City park that includes an aptly-placed Aids memorial across the street from the former-Saint Vincent’s Hospital.  On August 13, 2015, the City Council approved West Village Residences, LLC and the Department of Parks and Recreation’s application to transfer ownership of WVR-owned open space to the City and officially map the space as City parkland.  The open space is bounded by Seventh Avenue South, West 12th Street, and Greenwich Avenue, and its main feature will be New York’s largest AIDS memorial.  The park officially opened on August 21st, and the AIDS memorial is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

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Image of the Coney Island Comprehensive Rezoning Plan used with permission of the New York City Department of City Planning. All rights reserved.

Modifications include increasing ground floor amusement requirements and easing bulk restrictions. On June 17, 2009, the City Planning Commission approved the seven linked applications comprising the City’s extensive redevelopment plan for Coney Island. The approval included demapping of streets and parkland, creation of new streets and parkland, and a 19-block rezoning, running from West 8th to West 20th Streets between Mermaid Avenue and the Riegelmann Boardwalk.

The product of over 300 public meetings dating back to 2005, the City’s plan aims to foster Coney Island’s redevelopment while insuring permanency for the amusement uses. Under the plan, the City would acquire the ride and arcade area surrounding the Wonder Wheel, map it permanently as City parkland, and connect it to the two currently mapped, protected attractions: the Cyclone and the Parachute Jump. This action would create a contiguous, permanent park along the boardwalk extending from the Parachute Jump to the New York Aquarium.

Most of the 19 blocks in the rezoning have a C7 zoning, which permits large-scale open amusement parks, but prohibits complementary uses like restaurants without entertainment. The rezoning plan would create a new Special Coney Island District, establishing regulations that would supplement and supersede the newly proposed zoning. Amusement uses would be concentrated in the Coney East subdistrict, roughly extending east of KeySpan Park from Surf Avenue to the boardwalk. Coney East would remain a C7 district, but special provisions within the Special Coney Island District would broaden permitted uses, including restaurants, bars, skate parks, and hotels, and require complementary amusement uses along the street level of new developments. Three other subdistricts would permit residential, other entertainment, and retail uses, facilitating 4,500 units of new housing, 900 of which would be affordable. (read more…)

Plan envisions public walkway along Harlem River waterfront. The Department of City Planning’s sweeping rezoning proposal for a 30-block area of the South Bronx, bordering the Harlem River, obtained City Council approval on June 30, 2009. The plan impacts the underused and primarily industrial-zoned area along the Harlem River, bounded by East 149th Street on the north, Morris and Lincoln Avenues to the east, and the Major Deegan Expressway and Park Avenue to the south. Abandoned or converted to other land uses, City Planning found that the area suffered from a 22 percent vacancy rate with over 40 percent of the area occupied by storage, warehousing, and other light industrial uses.

The approved plan rezones the area’s inland blocks to mixed-use districts, permitting residential and commercial development as-of-right, as well as allowing the continuation of light industrial uses. The proposal allows grocery stores of any size as-of-right whereas food stores over 10,000 sq.ft. previously required a special permit. The Inclusionary Housing Program also became applicable to the area. (read more…)