The proposed laws seek to enforce existing State regulations by increasing illegal hotel fines and reporting requirements. On October 30, 2015, the City Council Committee on Housing and Buildings heard testimony on three proposed laws that seek to ramp up enforcement of state laws that prohibit the operation of illegal hotels. The proposed legislation would regulate only those residential units located in multiple-dwelling buildings—not one- to four-family homes. The proposed legislation is intended to address … <Read More>
Search Results for: Citywide
CPC Holds Hearing on Proposed Brooklyn Heights Library Redevelopment Plan
The proposed redevelopment would replace the current library with an upgraded library and luxury condominiums. On September 22, 2015, the City Planning Commission held a public hearing on the Department of Citywide Administrative Services’ and Brooklyn Public Library’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure application to redevelop the Brooklyn Heights branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. The proposal would replace the current library with a new 36-story building containing a new library on the … <Read More>
Rent Stabilization: Preserving Low and Middle-Income Housing
Rent regulation is not a new issue for New York City. But the headlines in June 2015 were far larger and the reactions more contentious than at any time in recent memory. For the first time in its 46-year history, the Rent Guidelines Board decided that there would be no increase in rents for one-year renewals on rent-stabilized apartments; it also limited increases on two year renewals to two-percent. Not surprisingly, tenants hailed the decision … <Read More>
Council Approves Conversion of Henry Street Firehouse into Community Space
Community facility will provide on-site social services and improved access to need-based financial benefits. On August 13, 2015, the City Council adopted a resolution to rehabilitate a vacant firehouse and convert it into a community facility. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development submitted the Urban Development Action Area Project proposal to the City Planning Commission on March 31, 2015. The four-story firehouse is located at 269 Henry Street in the Lower East Side neighborhood … <Read More>
BSA Upholds Buildings’ Rejection of Accessory Sign
Board rejected arguments an exterior building treatment did not qualify as an accessory sign under the Zoning Resolution. On June 16, 2015 the Board of Standards and Appeals voted to uphold a Department of Buildings’ determination that a design treatment on the north face of a parking garage in the Hell’s Kitchen area of Manhattan constituted an accessory sign in violation of local zoning. The design treatment, on the north face of the garage … <Read More>
Appellate Division Upholds Sloan-Kettering, Hunter College Expansion
Court held City did not act arbitrarily; parkland-for-floor area was not illegal quid pro quo. On October 9, 2013, the City Council approved an application by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and The City University of New York/Hunter College for development of a former New York City Department of Sanitation garage. (See CityLand’s past coverage here.) Residents for Reasonable Development petitioned for injunctive and declarative relief, arguing the environmental impact statement failed to consider Hunter’s … <Read More>