Variances granted for HPD project in Borough Park

Image: Courtesy of Bricolage Designs
Image: Courtesy of Bricolage Designs

HPD claimed site’s former railway use complicated development of seventeen apartment buildings. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development selected the Southern Brooklyn Community Organization to build seventeen, four-story affordable housing buildings on two narrow City-owned parcels on 37th Street in Borough Park, Brooklyn. The block-long parcels are separated by 13th Avenue and were once occupied by the South Brooklyn Railroad and the elevated BMT … <Read More>


Council examines City Charter’s fair share rules

Council held first oversight hearing on criteria established more than twenty years ago to ensure equitable distribution of public facilities. On April 12, 2011, the City Council’s Landmarks, Public Siting & Maritime Uses Subcommittee held the Council’s first oversight hearing to review the City’s Charter-mandated rules established to foster the equitable distribution of City facilities. Following the 1989 revision of the City Charter, the City Planning Commission promulgated the “fair share” criteria to encourage community … <Read More>


Limited rezonings along Carroll Street approved

Courtesy The Center for Negative Thinking LLC

Separate public and private proposals impacted eight lots left out of the Carroll Gardens/Columbia Street rezoning. On April 28, 2011, the City Council approved independent proposals by the Department of City Planning and a private developer, Marshall Sohne, to rezone portions of Carroll Street between Columbia and Van Brunt Streets in Brooklyn’s Columbia Street Waterfront District. The two proposals impacted portions of the north and south side … <Read More>


New Atlantic Avenue BID awaits Council approval

Domenic M. Recchia Jr.

Council Member Recchia warned BID about working with the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership. On April 28, 2011, the City Council’s Finance Committee held  a hearing on the Department of Small Business Services’ plan to create the Atlantic Avenue Business Improvement District for more than 400 commercial businesses in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill and  Boerum Hill neighborhoods. The BID would extend along Atlantic Avenue between Fourth Avenue to the east, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway … <Read More>


South Williamsburg mixed-income project approved

Proposed Wythe Avenue Rezoning.

Developer agreed to community request to exclude bar or restaurant from ground floor of mixed-income project. On March 23, 2011, the City Council approved Bruce Terzano’s proposal to develop a two-building mixed-use project at the corner of Wythe Avenue and South 3rd Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The mixed-income project will include a six-story building with 61 market rate apartments and ground floor commercial space, and a smaller six-story building with eighteen … <Read More>


DEC ordered to admit site into brownfield program

Court previously overturned DEC’s denial of developer’s application and ordered additional analyses. A developer planned to construct a 341-unit mixed-use building on a 17,700 sq.ft. parking lot at 29 Flatbush Avenue in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. An environmental assessment of the site revealed the presence of lead and semi-volatile organic compounds. The developer subsequently applied to the State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Brownfield Cleanup Program.

DEC determined that the … <Read More>