Beth Hamedrash Hagodol Synagogue at the time of designation./Image Credit: LPC

The former landmarked synagogue was home to the country’s oldest Russian Orthodox Jewish congregation. On May 19, 2020, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to calendar a decision to rescind the individual landmark designation of a vacant lot, located at 60 Norfolk Street, Manhattan. The lot was formerly the site of the Beth Hamedrash Hagodol Synagogue, which was fully demolished in 2019 after a fire destroyed most of the building.

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Mark Peters, Commissioner of the Department of Investigation. Image credit: CityLand

The Department of Investigation threatened to initiate a lawsuit unless the Law Department opened access to previously withheld documents and computers. On July 26, 2016, the Department of Investigation issued a press release announcing the Law Department’s compliance in producing documents and computers relevant to DOI’s investigation into the sale of the Rivington House, a non-profit nursing home, to luxury condominium developers. The press release was issued less-than two weeks after DOI issued a report on how the City’s procedural failures in handling deed-modifications facilitated the sale of the Rivington House. For CityLand’s previous coverage on the DOI report, click here.

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The Rivington House. Image credit: Flickr/edenpictures

The Department of Investigation’s Report found that the City’s deed-modification procedure lacks safeguards required to ensure the removal of restrictions on formerly City-owned property is in the City’s best interest. On July 14, 2016, the Department of Investigation issued a Report finding that the actions and inactions of City officials, specifically within the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services (MOCS), the Law Department, and Mayor’s Office, facilitated the sale of the Rivington House, a non-profit nursing home located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, to private condominium developers. The Report was issued less than one week after Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed several reformations to procedures used in modifying deeds of formerly City-owned property. For CityLand’s previous coverage on the proposed reformations, click here.

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Mayor Bill de Blasio. Image credit: CityLand

The proposed reformations increase transparency and community involvement, and impose new safeguards to protect against systemic abuse. On July 8, 2016, Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed a series of reformations to the procedures used in removing limitations on potential uses, or deed restrictions, from formerly City-owned property. The proposed reformations would require parcels to meet stricter criteria to be deemed eligible for their deeds to be modified, and they would increase the levels of transparency and community engagement in the deed-modification process.

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Developer sought variance after Buildings revoked permit for twelvestory project. Wai Sun Realty obtained a permit to build a twelvestory, mixed-use building on a narrow through-block lot at 183 East Broadway in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The bottleneck-shaped lot has approximately 26 feet of frontage along East Broadway and 44 feet of frontage along Henry Street. The project site is zoned R7-2 with a partial C1-5 commercial overlay.

Wai Sun demolished a five-story building to make way for the proposed twelve-story building. Wai Sun had erected a 91-foot, sevenstory steel and concrete shell when it received a stop work order from Buildings. Buildings revoked the permit after determining that the building would violate the sliver law, which applies in certain zoning districts and limits the height of buildings with widths less than 45 feet.

Wai Sun altered its project and proposed a seven-story building that retained the existing shell. Wai Sun needed a variance from BSA because the proposal would exceed the R7-2 district’s maximum floor area, building height, and lot coverage regulations. During the BSA hearing process, Wai Sun agreed to modify the project by eliminating the seventh floor which reduced the project’s height by ten feet.

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Contextual rezoning established streetwall and building height limits for an eight-block area below Union Square. On October 27, 2010, the City Council approved the Department of City Planning’s rezoning of portions of eight blocks in Manhattan’s East Village. The contextual plan rezoned an area bounded by the south side of East 13th Street, the north side of East 9th Street, Third Avenue, and the east side of Fourth Avenue from C6-1 to C6-2A. The blocks are adjacent to the area rezoned in 2008 by the East Village/Lower East Side Rezoning plan. 5 CityLand 165 (Dec. 2008).

The neighborhood is characterized by low- and mid-rise residential and mixed-use buildings with a uniform street wall. A handful of taller and bulkier buildings can be found along Third and Fourth Avenues. The area’s C6-1 zoning, unchanged since 1961, was inconsistent with the built character of the neighborhood and permitted tall and slender tower development, including setback dormitory buildings like those constructed in the neighborhood by New York University and the New School. (read more…)