Bank building plan rejected

Residents argued that proposed bank would be out of character with residential block. On May 25, 2010, the City Council denied Jom Tob Gluck’s proposal to rezone a portion of 18th Avenue between 48th and 49th Streets in Brooklyn’s Borough Park. Gluck proposed applying a C1-3 commercial overlay to a 20,000 sq.ft area currently zoned R5. The rezoning would have facilitated the development of a one-story bank building on a 3,615 sq.ft. lot currently occupied … <Read More>


Astoria rezoning approved

Astoria’s 238-block contextual rezoning received strong support from Council Member Vallone. On May 25, 2010, the City Council approved the Department of City Planning’s contextual rezoning plan for Astoria, Queens. The plan impacts 238 blocks bounded by 20th Avenue to the north, Broadway to the south, Steinway Street to the east, and the East River and Vernon Boulevard to the west. The rezoning replaces the area’s predominant R5 and R6 zoning with contextual zoning districts, … <Read More>


Twenty-block Staten Island rezoning approved

Civic association proposed the rezoning to protect area’s low-density character and hilly topography. On April 14, 2010, the City Council approved the Clove Lake Civic Association’s proposal to rezone twenty blocks in the Grymes Hill and Sunnyside sections of Staten Island. The area, located near Wagner College, is generally bounded by Silver Lake Park to the north, Sunnyside Terrace to the south, Highland to the east, and Clove Road to the west. The predominately residential … <Read More>


Court Street development grandfathered

Developer did not fully complete foundations of twelve-building development before the City Council approved the Carroll Gardens/ Columbia Street Rezoning. Between May 2008 and October 2009, the Clarett Group obtained permits to build a 119,271 sq.ft. development consisting of eleven four-story townhouses and a seven-story mixed-use building at 340 Court Street in Brooklyn. The 43,753 sq.ft. site is located on a lot with frontages on Union, Court, and Sackett Streets. On October 28, 2009, the … <Read More>


Staten Island’s Sandy Ground area downzoned

Rezoning proposed to prevent attached homes in area settled by freed slaves in 1827. On February 3, 2010, the City Council approved State Senator Andrew J. Lanza’s rezoning proposal for the Sandy Ground neighborhood of Staten Island. Sandy Ground, also known as Rossville, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and recognized as one of the country’s oldest communities established by freed slaves. The rezoning impacts 35 blocks generally bounded by the West … <Read More>