BSA okays hotel only after reduction of 18,000 sq.ft. After four proposals and five public hearings, BSA approved development of a 48-foot tall, four-story transient hotel in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. The site of the hotel, at 806/814 Coney Island Avenue, is comprised of five contiguous lots totaling 32,153 sq.ft., split by commercial (C8-2) and residential (R5) districts and currently contains a one-story garage. The owner required a variance to permit the hotel’s proposed size in … <Read More>
Search Results for: Variance
After ten years, Third Avenue Equinox gym legalized
Equinox Fitness approved after six failed cases in which BSA found it lied to the Board. In its seventh case before BSA, Equinox Fitness Club obtained approval to legalize its 26,600-square-foot gym at 1511 Third Avenue at East 85th Street. Equinox has operated its Third Avenue gym for over ten years without a permit. The zoning restricts gyms to the first and second stories, but Equinox’s Third Avenue gym occupies space on four stories.
In … <Read More>
Residential building OK’ed on narrow Chelsea lot
Opponents asked that owner re-use existing four-story building. Jack Ancona proposed to demolish a four-story, 3,375-square-foot building at 132 West 26th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, replacing it with a twelve-story, 135-foot retail and residential project. Because the lot retained its manufacturing zoning, the proposal required a use variance.
Ancona claimed that his site’s narrow 18-foot, 9-inch width made it unique and rendered manufacturing uses impractical. Ancona provided documents showing only six other lots … <Read More>
HPD’s conversion of vacant school approved
- Former school at 217 W. 147th Street in Harlem. Photo: Kevin E. Schultz
HPD argued that variance would avoid demolition of 1905 school building. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development, owner of 217 West 147th Street, a 29,975-square-foot lot in Harlem, proposed to convert a vacant school into a 56-unit residential building with a community facility space in the cellar. The school, constructed in 1905 and declared obsolete by the Board of Education in … <Read More>
Church wins right to review use in industrial zone
Church converted warehouse within industrial area and held services. In 2002, Abundant Life Alliance Church of New York bought a condo warehouse unit located within the College Point II Urban Renewal Area in Queens to operate a church. At the time of purchase Abundant knew there were restrictions on the warehouse’s use: the urban renewal plan did not list churches as a permitted use, the deed contained a restrictive covenant that required Abundant to comply … <Read More>
Court remands decision on homeless housing to BSA
Provider of transitional housing appealed denial of variance. Homes for the Homeless, Inc. operated the Saratoga, a transitional housing facility for the homeless on Rockaway Boulevard in Queens. After receiving a request for proposals for added units, Homes applied to BSA for two variances: to legalize the use of its homeless facility, which was located in an M-1 district zoned for light manufacturing, and to expand its homeless units by constructing a new building.
BSA … <Read More>