Affordable Housing at Domino Sugar Hearing Dominated Council Concerns

Local Williamsburg Council Members Antonio Reynoso and Stephen Levin led questioning of Two Trees Management on Domino Project.  On April 1, 2014, the City Council Land Use Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises heard Two Tree Management’s application for special permits and a zoning text amendment to transform the Domino Sugar Refinery into a mixed-use development.  The City Planning Commission voted unanimously in favor of the application on March 5, 2014 following Mayor Bill de … <Read More>


Ferris Wheel and Staten Island Revitalization Project Approved

Council gives go ahead for world’s largest Ferris wheel and outlet complex.  On October 30, 2013, City Council unanimously voted 45-0 to approve the construction of the largest Ferris Wheel in the western hemisphere, which along with other developments, is intended to transform Staten Island’s St. George Waterfront. The New York Wheel (the Wheel), designed and manufactured by Starneth, will be built just north of the Richmond County Bank Ballpark, and will provide … <Read More>


Chelsea Market Expansion Plan Runs Into Opposition and Concerns About the High Line

Borough president and local community board oppose current plan to build additions to the eastern and western sides of block-long Chelsea Market. On July 25, 2012, the City Planning Commission held a public hearing on Jamestown Properties’ expansion plan for Chelsea Market at 75 Ninth Avenue in Manhattan. The Market is a complex of 18 different buildings occupying the entire block bounded by West 14th and West 15th Streets and Ninth and Tenth Avenues … <Read More>


NYU Campus Expansion Plan Reduced Again [UPDATE: Plan Approved by Full Council]

This article was originally published on 7/20/2012 (see below for update).

NYU agreed to limit heights of the Zipper Building and Boomerang Buildings, and to provide community center if no public school is built on site. On July 17, 2012, the City Council’s Land Use Committee modified New York University’s campus expansion proposal in Greenwich Village. Opposition to the project, which had already been reduced by the City Planning Commission, remained when it … <Read More>


Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District approved

Opposition claimed that costs associated with designation would be too burdensome. The City Council approved Landmarks’ designation of the Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District in Brooklyn. The district includes 21 buildings along Court, Montague, Remsen, Joralemon, and Livingston Streets.

Business groups and property owners, including the owners of 186 Remsen Street and the residents of 75 Livingston Street, opposed the district. At Landmarks’ public hearing in February 2011, they argued that some buildings in the … <Read More>


Ten-building project approved in Central Bronx

Crotona Park East. Image: Courtesy of Dattner Architects.

Proposed 1,300-unit project near the Bronx River led by Gifford Miller would include a mix of affordable and market-rate apartments. On October 5, 2011, the City Council approved Signature Urban Properties’ proposal to build a ten-building mixed-use project overlooking the Sheridan Expressway and the Bronx River in the Crotona Park East and West Farms sections of the Bronx. To facilitate the approximately 1,300- unit project, Signature submitted … <Read More>