City Council

Limited rezonings along Carroll Street approved

Courtesy The Center for Negative Thinking LLC

Separate public and private proposals impacted eight lots left out of the Carroll Gardens/Columbia Street rezoning. On April 28, 2011, the City Council approved independent proposals by the Department of City Planning and a private developer, Marshall Sohne, to rezone portions of Carroll Street between Columbia and Van Brunt Streets in Brooklyn’s Columbia Street Waterfront District. The two proposals impacted portions of the north and south side … <Read More>

New Atlantic Avenue BID awaits Council approval

Domenic M. Recchia Jr.

Council Member Recchia warned BID about working with the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership. On April 28, 2011, the City Council’s Finance Committee held  a hearing on the Department of Small Business Services’ plan to create the Atlantic Avenue Business Improvement District for more than 400 commercial businesses in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill and  Boerum Hill neighborhoods. The BID would extend along Atlantic Avenue between Fourth Avenue to the east, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway … <Read More>

Public Cafes OK’d in Water Street Corridor Arcades

Planning seeks to enliven privately owned public spaces along the Water Street by allowing tables and seating.

On May 4, 2011, the City Council’s Land Use Committee approved the Department of City Planning’s proposal to permit public and cafe seating within arcades along the Water Street corridor in Lower Manhattan. Arcades are privately owned, publicly accessible covered areas along the perimeter of commercial buildings that were developed in exchange for a floor area bonus. The

… <Read More>

Second Avenue mixed-income housing approved

Tenants displaced by project can purchase or rent affordable apartments in new building. On April 6, 2011, the City Council approved the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s proposal to allow BFC Partners and The Urban Homesteading Assistance Board to redevelop three lots at the corner of Second Avenue and East 1st Street in the East Village. The development team will build a twelve-story, 79-unit affordable housing project with ground floor commercial  space. The … <Read More>

Council approves Bronx contextual rezoning

Proposed Webster Avenue/Bedford Park/Norwood rezoning. Image Courtesy of Department of City Planning.

Eighty-block rezoning encourages residential development along Webster Avenue and limits out-of-character development in Norwood and Bedford Park neighborhoods. On March 23, 2011, the City Council approved the Department of City Planning’s 80-block Webster Avenue/Bedford Park/Norwood Rezoning plan. The rezoning affected thirteen blocks along Webster Avenue between 193rd and 211th Streets and the surrounding residential side streets of Bedford Park and Norwood. … <Read More>

Central Bronx affordable housing project approved

Three-building project on former railway site will include 141 affordable rental apartments. On April 6, 2011, the City Council approved a proposal by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development to allow Phipps Houses to develop a three-building affordable housing project on two vacant through-block lots in the East Tremont section of the Bronx. Phipps will construct an eight-story residential building and a ten-story mixed-use building at 1155 East Tremont Avenue, and a … <Read More>