Jordan Most testifies before the Board of Standards and Appeals. Image credit: BSA

Subject lot was altered following settlement of an adverse possession claim.  On June 23, 2015 the Board of Standards and Appeals voted to amend a previously-granted variance for construction of a four-story building at 129 Elizabeth Street in the Special Little Italy District of Manhattan.  The proposed building would have retail use on the ground floor, residential use on the upper three floors, and a one-car garage.

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Richard Lobel testifies before the Board of Standards and Appeals. Image credit: BSA

Board found a hardship caused by the site’s irregular shape.  On April 14, 2015 the Board of Standards and Appeals granted 31 BSP LLC a variance to permit converting an existing six-story mixed-use noncomplying building at 31 Bond Street in the NoHo Historic District of Manhattan into a seven-story Use Group 2 residential building.  The proposal will remove a backshaft from the rear of the existing building, vacant since 2010, and redistribute floor area to construct a new seventh story with a 1,500 square-foot penthouse.

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Rendering of 2 Fillmore Place Project. Image Credit: Christoff Finio

Applicants say wood in proposed façade would mirror the tone of the historic district’s primarily masonry fabric in contemporary language. On July 8, 2014, the Landmarks Preservation Commission, in its first meeting headed by new Chair Meenakshi Srinivasan, considered a proposal for a new building on a vacant lot at 2 Fillmore Place, at the corner of Driggs Avenue, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The site lies in the Fillmore Place Historic District, a 29-property district that was designated in 2009. The proposed structure would be used as preschool, utilizing the Reggio Emilia educational philosophy. (read more…)

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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