HPD’s Cornerstone Housing Program audited

Comptroller found that HPD was successful in ensuring that the primary housing goals of the Cornerstone Program were met. In 2000, HPD established the Cornerstone Program, a new construction initiative designed to expand private housing and increase the City’s affordable unit housing stock. The primary goals of the Cornerstone Program are two-fold: sell City-owned land, usually for a small fee, to encourage private residential development, and create affordable rental and homeownership units in specific neighborhoods. … <Read More>


Council OKs housing project along Gowanus Canal

Aerial view of Toll Brothers’ proposed development. Image:GreenbergFarrow.

Council approves waterfront project despite community’s concerns about affordable housing component. On March 11, 2009, the City Council approved Toll Brothers’ proposed development at 363-365 Bond Street in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. The 525,309-sq.ft. development will provide 447 residential units, including 130 affordable units. The project, located on two blocks along the Gowanus Canal, bounded by Carroll, Second, and Bond Streets, includes two five-story buildings, a series of … <Read More>


Melrose housing project approved by Council

Council approves plan after HPD modifies affordable housing component. On December 18, 2008, the City Council modified the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s plan to build a mixed-use, mixed-income development in the Melrose section of the Bronx. The award-winning project, known as Via Verde/The Green Way, integrates sustainable design with affordable cooperative and rental housing. 5 CityLand 169 (Dec. 2008).

At the Council’s Planning, Disposition & Concessions Subcommittee hearing, Council Member Maria del Carmen … <Read More>


Local Law to preserve housing preempted

Affordable housing programs controlled by federal and state law. After multiple hearings on the declining number of affordable housing units, the City Council passed Local Law 79 of 2005 over a mayoral veto. The law gave tenants the right of first refusal to purchase their buildings when the owners sought to remove the properties from certain assisted rental housing programs. The law also allowed tenants who did not purchase their building to stay in their … <Read More>


Rezoning and inclusionary housing approved

South Park Slope rezoned to protect low-rise character and provide affordable housing. On November 16, 2005, the City Council rezoned 50 blocks of South Park Slope and applied the inclusionary housing program to specific R8A districts along Fourth Avenue, allowing an increase in a building’s floor area with the developers’ commitment to build affordable housing on or off site. The proposal called for the rezoning of an area generally bounded by 15th Street on the … <Read More>


313-Unit Housing Project to Front Coney Island Boardwalk

First unsubsidized project built in Coney Island in past 50 years gets Commission approval. Coney Island developer, David Weisz & Sons, sought to rezone five lots along Surf Avenue and Coney Island Beach to allow the construction of two seven-story residential condominium towers with 313 market-rate units to be called Ocean Dreams. When compiled, the five lots would comprise a 133,843-square-foot development site stretching from West 35th to West 37th Streets along the Riegelmann Boardwalk.… <Read More>