Residents of Manhattan’s Upper East Side and Bensonhurst vigorously opposed Sanitation’s proposed sites. Sanitation sought site selection approval to construct four 90,000- square-foot, three-story marine transfer stations on sites formerly used as waste transfer stations or garbage incinerators. In Manhattan, Sanitation sought to reuse the site at East 91st Street and the East River, which had contained a waste transfer station until 1999. In Brooklyn, sites at Shore Parkway in Bensonhurst and at Hamilton Avenue … <Read More>
Council Modifies Massive Rezoning Plan for Brooklyn
Affordable housing incentive increased; new industrial protection zone proposed. The City Council’s Land Use Committee voted to modify the 183-block rezoning plan for the two-mile East River waterfront in Greenpoint and Williamsburg at a May 2, 2005 hearing attended by Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, Planning Commission Chair Amanda M. Burden, and HPD Commissioner Shaun Donovan.
The Land Use Committee had scheduled the vote at 11:00 a.m., but delayed the hearing until late afternoon to allow … <Read More>
Council down-zones 68 blocks in Queens
Springfield Gardens residents petitioned City to initiate down-zoning. On April 12, 2005, the City Council down-zoned 68 blocks of Springfield Gardens, Queens, completing a three-year process initiated by a local community group, the United Neighbors Civic Association.
Concerned about the proliferation of multi-family apartment buildings replacing small, single-family homes, members of United Neighbors canvassed Springfield Gardens with a petition requesting that the City down-zone the neighborhood to hinder future demolition. Acting on the request, the … <Read More>
Project Greenhope gets green light
UDAAP approved for transitional housing facility for formerly incarcerated women. On April 12, 2005, the City Council approved Project Greenhope’s proposal to construct a new seven-story, 49- unit transitional housing facility at 435 East 119th Street in East Harlem. Project Greenhope provides transitional housing and support services, including vocational, clinical and educational programs to formerly incarcerated women, as well as housing in-lieu of incarceration at its existing facility on East 119th Street.
The new 35,355-square-foot … <Read More>
Lofts above nightclub legalized if soundproofed
Nightclub fought permanent housing in its building. Three co-op owners, living for years in their units on the top three stories of a loft building at 253 West 28th Street in Manhattan, applied to BSA to legalize the residential use, claiming that the loft’s antiquated electrical system, narrow floor plates and small elevator made it unsuitable for manufacturing or commercial. In 1979, the building had been divided into five units and converted to a co-op. … <Read More>
Artists ok’ed to convert manufacturing building
4-story building to be converted to 2 dwellings. Four artists sought to convert a four-story industrial building into two dwelling units in an M1-2 zoning district in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. Located at 469 Carroll Street between Nevins and Third Avenue, the building is separated from the established residential district in Carroll Gardens by the Gowanus Canal and sits slightly west of Park Slope’s residential core. Until 2003, a manufacturer of machine components had occupied the … <Read More>