Council flip-flops on Sanitation garage

Council granted 21-month lease for controversial Williamsburg garage after heated debate. The Department of Sanitation, with a last minute compromise, obtained Council’s approval to extend its Williamsburg garage lease at 306 Rutledge Street for 21 months.

Williamsburg’s Community Board 1 and local residents had opposed any extension of Sanitation’s lease term at the Rutledge street location. Despite complaints that Sanitation blocked parking spaces and washed trucks along the street and sidewalk, the Planning Commission granted … <Read More>


Marine transfer stations cause controversy

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>


Residential and commercial complex approved

Two four-story residential buildings approved after reduction in size and addition of commercial space. Southside Realty Holdings LLC, owner of an L-shaped group of eight lots located at 291 Kent Avenue in a Williamsburg manufacturing district, sought a variance in 2003 to construct two 11-story residential towers, totaling 122,905 sq.ft., and underground parking. The Planning Commission and Brooklyn Community Board 1 both opposed the application due to the site’s adjacency to the Domino Sugar Plant, … <Read More>


Anticipated Rezoning Approved with Changes

Affordable housing incentives, as well as height, massing and manufacturing zones, revised before approval. Over the disapproval votes of Commissioners Karen Phillips and Dolly Williams, the remaining members of the Planning Commission approved the rezoning of a two-mile area along the East River waterfront in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint and Williamsburg neighborhoods after modifications were crafted to address public officials and residents’ comments.

The six linked applications, including text, map and City map amendments to create park … <Read More>


Water taxi dock approved

Dock to be located on the East River next to the Schaefer Landing luxury building. The Planning Commission unanimously approved an application by the Department of Parks and Recreation for the construction of a water taxi dock in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The dock is to be located on the East River adjacent to the waterfront esplanade of the Schaefer Landing luxury apartment building, west of Kent Avenue between South 8th and South 11th Streets.

The floating … <Read More>