
Rendering of Proposed Development. Image Credit: KPA Architects
City Council rejected the first private application of Mandatory Inclusionary Housing. On August 16, 2016, the City Council rejected a proposal to rezone a large corner lot in order to construct a new mixed-use development located at 4650 Broadway in Manhattan’s Inwood neighborhood. Currently a two-story commercial building operating as a parking garage and U-Haul truck rental facility occupies the site. The original proposal from the developer, Acadia Sherman Avenue LLC, was to build a new mixed-use building that would have retail and community space on the bottom two floors, contain 335 residential units and rise 23 stories. The original project would have made permanent 30 percent of the floor area as affordable housing under the new Mandatory Inclusionary Housing law.
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Landmarks Preservation Commission. Credit: LPC.
The proposed designation of the former Yuengling Brewery Site in East Harlem proved contentious, dividing preservationists and those who wished to see site developed. On November 12, 2015 the Landmarks Preservation Commission held the final of four special hearings organized to address the backlog of items added to the Commission’s calendar before 2001, but never brought to a vote on designation. The final hearing consisted of items in Manhattan, occupying Community Boards six through twelve. Landmarks is expected to make determinations on the items in early 2016.
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BSA granted the variances over Community Board and resident opposition. On August 19, 2014 the Board of Standards and Appeals voted unanimously to grant variances to SoBro Development Corporation for the development of a twelve-story mixed-use facility at 1769 Fort George Hill. The development site, at the corner of Nagle Avenue in Washington Heights, Manhattan, is crescent-shaped, measuring 620 feet in length and 46 feet wide at the widest point. The facility will feature two floors of community facility/church space for Movimiento Mundial Church, 125 units of affordable housing, and an underground parking garage. The Church previously owned the site and sold it to SoBro in partial exchange for providing space in the final building. (read more…)