Chair Francisco Moya. Image Credit: New York City Council

Zoning map amendment approved permitting ground floor space for commercial use in a residential block in the Williamsburg neighborhood. On January 23, 2018, the New York City Council Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises unanimously voted to approve the zoning map amendment adding a commercial use permit to the ground floor space of 116 Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn and the 9 adjacent buildings on the block. Five of those adjacent buildings already have commercial uses on their ground floors and this zoning map amendment will bring those existing commercial uses into conformance. For CityLand’s prior coverage on the matter, click here. (read more…)

Amendment allows the transfer of residential floor area from the High Line subdistrict.  On May 19, 2015 the City Council Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises approved an amendment to the Special West Chelsea District zoning text to allow a transfer of residential floor area from the High Line Transfer Corridor subdistrict.  The applicant, 22-23 Corp c/o Park It Management, sought the amendment to allow transfer residential floor area from its property at 510-512 West 23rd Street, where current zoning text would only permit transfer of the property’s commercial floor area.

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Architect’s rendering of One Vanderbilt Place and Grand Central Terminal. Image credit: Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates

Proposal returns to City Planning with additional infrastructure improvements.  On May 5, 2015 the City Council Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises voted to modify and approve the proposed One Vanderbilt skyscraper project and Vanderbilt Corridor rezoning plan.  (See previous CityLand coverage here.) The proposal as approved now includes a second transit hall on 42nd Street and Vanderbilt Avenue, as well as a 22 percent increase in the below-grade pedestrian space. The below-grade increase allows for direct transfer between subway riders and the future East Side Access extension of the Long Island Railroad without having to go up through Grand Central’s main concourse first. The modifications amount to an extra $10 million in infrastructure improvements, increasing developer SL Green’s total investment cost to $220 million after earlier modifications by the City Planning Commission.

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Rendering of proposed building for 39-41 West 23rd Street. Image credit: COOKFOX Architects

The proposed building would be located in a commercial district on a present-day parking lot.  On April 23, 2015 the City Council Subcommitee on Zoning and Franchises held a public hearing on 39 West 23rd Street, LLC’s proposal for a residential tower at 39-41 West 23rd Street in the Ladies’ Mile Historic District of Manhattan.  The proposal would build the tower, made of two building segments reaching a maximum height of 278 feet, on a through-lot between West 23rd and West 24th Streets.  The tower would feature 43 residential units, 800 square feet of ground floor retail space, and an underground parking garage for fifty vehicles and twenty-nine bicycles.

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John West

(Re:  Council Subcommittee Hears Testimony on One Vanderbilt, Apr. 20, 2015)

Dear CityLand:

At the public hearing before the Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises of the Land Use Committee of the City Council last Monday, 13 April, the applicants and supporters of the proposed Vanderbilt Corridor and One Vanderbilt outnumbered those with reservations about the proposals.  They spoke for most of the four hours – the opposition, at two minutes apiece, used 15 or 20 minutes – and in spite of the insightful questions by the councilpersons, particularly Dan Garodnick, one might have gotten the impression that all was fine.

As a counterbalance let me offer the four-minute version of the testimony I gave at the hearing.  I am a member of Community Board Six and the MultiBoard Task Force.  I am also a member of the City Club.  I believe that what I offered is consistent with their main concerns.

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498 Broome Street. Image credit: Umberto Squarcia Designs, Inc.

Permit will allow Use Group 2 residential on the third through sixth floors only.  On March 9, 2015 the City Council Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises voted to approve a modified special permit for the conversion of 498 Broome Street in the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District of Manhattan to Use Group 2 residential.  The approved permit restricts conversion of the building to Use Group 2 residential for only the third through sixth floors, and leaves the cellar, first, and second floors subject to the standing zoning regulation which permit Joint Live-Work Quarters for Artists.  The permit as originally requested would have allowed Use Group 2 on portions of the first floor and all of the second through sixth floors.

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