Court rejects challenge to Brooklyn rezoning

Owner claimed that City illegally spot zoned his two lots. In 2006, the City Council voted to rezone 80 blocks of Midwood, Brooklyn, including two lots on Ocean Avenue owned by Jacob Fetman. When the City Council voted on the plan, it modified the initial district proposed by City Planning for the west side of Ocean Avenue between Avenues L and M, giving the west side of that block a different zoning district than the … <Read More>


Air rights deal in downtown Brooklyn approved

 

Transfer of 75,000 sq.ft. of development rights from City property will increase Brooklyn residential tower. On June 27, 2007, the City Council approved a plan by DCAS to sell 75,000 sq.ft. of air rights from a City-owned property at 287 Gold Street in downtown Brooklyn, containing two, two-story buildings used by the FDNY and the NYPD. The sale of the air rights necessitated Council’s approval of a negative easement limiting the City’s future ability … <Read More>


Sites adjacent to Brooklyn jail offered for development

 

Proposed EDC and DOC plan encompassing former jail. Image: NYC EDC.

Developers must expand Brooklyn jail along with new development on adjacent sites. The New York City Economic Development Corporation and the Department of Correction issued a request to gauge interest in the potential development of two vacant parcels in downtown Brooklyn located next to the Brooklyn House of Detention, a 759-individual- cell detention center, which the City closed in 2003. DOC hopes to … <Read More>


New district for Brooklyn’s Crown Heights approved

Final Crown Heights North Historic District. Map: LPC.

Landmarks credited the residents of Crown Heights for generating designation. On April 24, 2007, Landmarks voted unanimously to designate the Crown Heights North Historic District encompassing 472 Brooklyn buildings built between the 1860s and the 1930s.

Landmarks Chair Robert Tierney opened the comments by saying that the importance of the designation became clear to him when he stood within the homes of Crown Heights’ residents and viewed … <Read More>


Brooklyn Botanical Garden building designated

Landmarks votes to designate this early 1900s Brooklyn Botanical Garden’s building. Photo: LPC.

Administration building designed by McKim,Mead & White. On March 13, 2007, Landmarks voted unanimously to designate the Laboratory Administration Building within the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. Constructed in phases between 1912 and 1917, the building originally housed a physiological and elementary laboratory along with photography dark rooms and research space. Currently, the building houses the Garden’s library and administrative offices, as well as … <Read More>


$3.2 million tax exemption awarded Brooklyn developer

The Albee Street Mall on Gold Street will be razed to make way for one of the tallest buildings in downtown Brooklyn. Image courtesy of Greenberg Farrow.

Downtown Brooklyn mall to be demolished for large mixed-use retail, office, and residential center. On February 13, 2007, the New York City Industrial Development Agency, a component of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, approved financial assistance for the construction of a new 1.8-million-square-foot mixed-use development in … <Read More>