Appellate Division Upholds Homeless Shelter Siting

Court agreed DHS met their burden under the Fair Share Criteria.  In 2012 the Department of Homeless Services opened Freedom House, a 200-family homeless shelter at 316-330 West 95th Street in Manhattan’s Upper West Side on an emergency contract.  When the emergency contract expired, then-Comptroller John C. Liu declined to register the permanent contract.  A community group, Neighborhood In The Nineties, filed an Article 78 petition to enjoin the Comptroller from registering the … <Read More>


Variance Granted for Expansion of Private School

Variance was opposed by local community board, neighborhood groups.  On July 14, 2015 the Board of Standards and Appeals voted to grant a variance to the applicant, Manhattan Country School, for enlarging its new building.  The school currently occupies a five-story townhouse on 7 East 96th Street in Manhattan’s Upper East Side and intends to relocate to a four-story building with three mezzanines on 150 West 85th Street in the Upper West Side.  The … <Read More>


Gym Approved for West 67th Street Building

BSA granted a two-year special permit to allow CrossFit NYC to operate in the cellar level of an existing 31-story mixed residential and commercial building. The building, located on the corner of Columbus Avenue and West 67th Street, Manhattan, is partially within a C4-7 zoning district and partially within an R8 zoning district. Neither zoning districts permit the use of physical culture establishments. The building owner and CrossFit NYC, the lessee, appealed … <Read More>


BSA Approves Upper West Side Townhouse Addition

Owners’ plan to enlarge fourth-floor co-op violated multiple dwelling law. In December 2010, Felix and Lisa Oberholzer-Gee sought a building permit to enlarge their 1,000-square-foot, fourth-floor co-op in a five-unit townhouse at 159 West 78th Street in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The Oberholzer-Gees proposed building a set-back, 646-square-foot rooftop addition. Buildings denied the permit because the plans violated the multiple dwelling law’s restrictions on enlargements of converted dwellings. The Oberholzer-Gees applied to the Board … <Read More>