City Planning Hears Application for New Mixed-Use Building in Belmont

Part of the rendering of 660 East Fordham Road. Image Credit: NYC CPC.

The building would be the first to offer inclusionary housing along this section of East Fordham Road. On January 5, 2022, the City Planning Commission held a public hearing for a special permit application for 660 East Fordham Road that would facilitate the construction of an eleven-story mixed use commercial and residential building in the Belmont section of the Bronx. The current site features a parking lot, and one-story underused commercial space, including a vacant tax office. The applicant is Sean Daneshvar, represented by Erik Palatnik, P.C.

The mixed-use building would have 145 residential units, with 28 units of affordable housing at 80 percent area median income (AMI). The building will have three affordable studios, twenty affordable one-bedroom, and five affordable two-bedroom units, and will have fourteen market-rate studios, 81 market-rate one-bedrooms, and 22 market-rate two-bedroom units. At 80 percent AMI, a studio would go for $1,314 a month, a one-bedroom would go for $1,651, and a two-bedroom would go for $1,974 a month. This has been approved by the inclusionary housing unit at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). There is currently no other inclusionary housing development in the zoned area, which runs along both sides of East Fordham Road from Bathgate Avenue to Southern Boulevard. 

The building would feature a supermarket to be operated by C-Town on the ground floor. The supermarket would operate through the Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH) program, which provides zoning and tax incentives to encourage the development of supermarkets and other accessible stores for fresh meats, produce, perishable goods and other grocery products. The building will also have 11,500 square feet of community facility space in the cellar intended for ambulatory medical use. 

To facilitate the construction of the building, the applicant is seeking a special permit to waive the off-street accessory residential parking requirement. Fifty-nine spaces would be waived under the special permit, and another 47 would be preserved on-site for the use of an adjacent medical facility under a restrictive declaration. Nine spaces will be preserved for residential parking. Beyond the waiver of the parking, the building would be constructed as-of-right.

According to Mr. Palatnik, all the pieces to move forward with the building are in place – including the design, funding, engineering, and other factors – with the exception of the approval of this special permit by the City Planning Commission. 

The surrounding buildings are primarily two and three story residential or commercial buildings. A three-story medical office and a five-story academic building from Fordham University sit across the street. In his presentation, Mr. Palatnik highlighted that a Fordham University parking garage, which should be the largest source of parking for the area, is currently closed off, even though its construction was facilitated upon the condition it be open to the public. 

Prior to the public hearing, both Bronx Community Board 6 and the Bronx Borough President’s Office issued unfavorable recommendations for the project, although no reasoning was listed in their official documentation with the Department of City Planning. 

At the public hearing, Chair Anita Laremont asked if the spaces of parking were the maximum that could be preserved on site, which Mr. Palatnik said it was when accommodating ADA requirements and maneuverability. 

Commissioner Orlando Marin asked about traffic congestion along Camberleng Avenue, where the applicant expects to access the parking. Mr. Palanik responded by pointing out that the parking spaces already exist, and there have been no current complaints to the community board of traffic along Camberleng Avenue. Mr. Palatnik also highlighted the various options for public transportation along Fordham Road, which includes several bus routes, a Metro-North station, and relatively quick access to subway lines. 

Commissioner Marin also challenged the applicant’s assessment that the building was very family-friendly since most of the units are for studios and one-bedrooms. He was concerned about the low number of two-bedroom units and complete lack of three-bedroom units but wasn’t sure if anything could be done to change that distribution. Mr. Palatnik responded that there wasn’t anything that could be done at this time to change the distribution that wouldn’t jeopardize the project, which is relying on a 421-a tax exemption. As the 421-a tax exemption is expiring this summer, the project would need to start construction prior to the exemption’s expiration to qualify, and changing the distribution of units would delay the entire process.

Commissioner David Burney asked about the unfavorable recommendations from the Community Board and Borough President. According to Mr. Palatnik, the Community Board was concerned with parking, and the Borough President was concerned with the unit distribution. 

Commissioner Leah Goodridge, the newest appointment to the City Planning Commission, asked about the height of the eleven-story building compared to the surrounding buildings and if that had any impact on local institutions like the Botanical Garden. Mr. Palatnik said it wouldn’t have any impact, as the project site is slightly south of the Garden, and the nearby Bronx Zoo has a few buildings of a similar height that have had no negative impact on the Botanical Garden.

Commissioner Anna Hayes Levin questioned the reasoning behind the request for a waiver in parking as one of financial reasons, not for planning purposes. She did not believe that the commission had been provided with the proper information regarding the impact the removal of parking spaces would have on the residents of the building and the community. As the building did not require an environmental impact statement, there was no data collected about this specific project’s impact on parking, although the applicant provided information from a 2013 environmental impact statement when the area was rezoned to its current zoning. 

No members of the public spoke on this application.

City Planning will vote on the project at a later date. 

By: Veronica Rose (Veronica is the CityLaw fellow and a New York Law School graduate, Class of 2018.)