The proposed extension of the Mount Morris Park Historic District, outlined in red. Image credit: NYC LPC

276-property proposed extension shares developments history, scale and architecture with existing historic district.  On July 21, 2015, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing on a possible extension to the 1971-designated Mount Morris Park Historic District . The extension is composed of 276 properties and lies east of Lenox Avenue, between 117th and 124th Streets. The extension shares its development history with the existing historic district as one of the first residential areas in Harlem, with most buildings constructed following the extension of rapid transit to the area around 1880.

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Landmarks vowed to continue engagement with the community and property owners in advance of hearing on extension of the Mount Morris Park Historic District. On April 14, 2015, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to add the Mount Morris Park Historic District Extension, to its calendar, the first step in the formal designation process. The district lies between 118th and 123rd Streets, bounded by Lenox Avenue and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard. (read more…)

Map of Approved Central Harlem Rezoning. Image Credit: CPC.

Rezoning approved for project that will restore historic church building and provide thirty percent affordable housing to Harlem residents. On June 17, 2014, the City Council Land Use Subcommittee for Zoning and Franchises heard an application submitted by 117th Street Equities, LLC (Artimus) for a zoning map amendment to facilitate a mixed-use development in Central Harlem, Manhattan. The map amendment would rezone an existing R7A to an R8A zoning district on a block bounded by West 117th and West 118th streets, St. Nicholas Avenue and Fredrick Douglass Boulevard. The development is comprised of four buildings that consist of approximately 151 dwelling units and 12,201 square feet of community facility use. (read more…)

View of the former gas station lot at St. Nicholas Avenue and 122nd Street. Credit: Google.

BSA granted use, area, and parking variances to permit construction of 13-story residential, commercial, and community facility building. Nicholas Parking Corporation and Ladera, LLC, owners of adjacent properties at 223-237 St. Nicholas Avenue, applied for building permits to develop a 169,192-square-foot, mixed-use building on St. Nicholas Avenue between West 121st and West 122nd Streets in Harlem. The project would include a FRESH program food store on the first floor and cellar, a preschool facility on the second floor, and 164 residential units on the remaining floors. Manhattan Community Board 10 disapproved of the project based upon the proposal’s lack of affordable housing.

On February 23, 2012, the Department of Buildings (DOB) denied the permit to build the project because the site sits partially within an R7A and an R8A/C2-4 zoning district. Part of the proposed FRESH program food store would extend 970 sq.ft. into the R7A district, which does not allow for commercial use. In addition, the proposal calls for only 30 of the 66 accessory parking spaces required by the Zoning Resolution to be off-site at a property one block away instead of on the site itself. Finally, the proposed lot coverage exceeds the maximum amount allowed by the Zoning Resolution by 689 sq.ft. on the corner lot.

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Future site of Western Beef in West Harlem

BSA’s waiver of rear yard regulations needed to allow development of 79,498 square-foot supermarket on West 155th Street. Cactus of Harlem LLC applied to the Board of Standards & Appeals for a special permit to develop a 79,428-square-foot Western Beef supermarket at 280 West 155th Street in Harlem. The  project site is at the corner of West 155th Street and Frederick Douglas Boulevard, and comprises three lots currently used for parking. Cactus of Harlem’s proposal called for a three-story building with supermarket uses on the ground and second floors, and commercial uses on the third floor. The project would include 79 underground parking spaces.

The lot is zoned C8-3, and an R7-2 district abuts the site’s southern lot line. Cactus of Harlem needed BSA’s approval to waive the zoning resolution’s rear-yard requirements because the building’s ground floor would extend to the rear lot line and encroach within the 30-foot open area required in commercially zoned lots abutting residentially zoned districts. BSA in 2000 had granted Cactus of Harlem a special permit to develop a smaller supermarket on the site, but the special permit lapsed and Cactus of Harlem acquired two neighboring lots in which to develop the project.

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Two-building project would include affordable rental building and market- rate condominium building. On July 13, 2011, the City Planning Commission heard testimony on L+M Development Partners Inc.’s proposed 266,500 sq.ft. mixed-use project for a through-block lot on the north side of West 116th Street between Malcolm X Boulevard and Fifth Avenue in Harlem. The midblock project site is occupied by a basketball court and a parking lot. L+M plans to redevelop the site with a twelve-story market-rate condominium building fronting West 116th Street and a nine-story affordable rental building fronting West 117th Street.

The eastern portion of West 116th Street, including the project site, is zoned R7-2. The rest of the block to the west is zoned C4-5X. To facilitate the development, L+M requested that the C4-5X district be extended east to include the entire block. The rezoning area includes a Baptist church and two mid-rise residential buildings.  (read more…)