Large Bruckner Boulevard Sign Rejected

OTR Media sought to legalize an 11,297-square-foot billboard visible from the Bruckner Expressway. On January 14, 2013, the Department of Buildings issued a Sign Registration Rejection letter denying registration for a sign leased by OTR Media Group. The 79- by 143-foot sign, constructed in 1962, was located at 330 Bruckner Boulevard in the Bronx—35 feet from and within view of the Bruckner Expressway. Buildings based its rejection on a seven-year gap from 1981 to 1988 … <Read More>



Appellate Division Upholds BSA Permit Denial

Billboard lessee claimed the Board denied its permit arbitrarily.  OTR Media Group leased a billboard on the south wall of an eight-story building at the northeast corner of Tenth Avenue and West 40th Street in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan.  In 2012 the Department of Buildings refused OTR’s request for a permit to operate the billboard because it was within view of an arterial highway, the Lincoln Tunnel, in violation of the Zoning Resolution.  … <Read More>


BSA Amends Variance to Facilitate Development Rights Transfer

Board distinguished the application from relevant case law.  On July 28th, the Board of Standards and Appeals voted to reopen and amend a variance for the applicant, 124 West 24th Street Condominium, to facilitate the conveyance of unused development rights.  The site from which the rights were to be transferred was the subject of a previous Board variance and could not be transferred without Board approval.


Variance Granted for Construction of Brooklyn School for Medically Frail Children

On July 28, 2015, the Board of Standards and Appeals voted to grant a zoning variance to the applicant, Akerman Senterfitt LLP, for the construction of the Brooklyn School for Medically Frail Children in the Ditmas Park neighborhood of Brooklyn.  The construction would yield a pre-kindergarten school at 570 East 21st Street with dormitory facilities for physically-handicapped children who require breathing ventilation and general respiratory care throughout at least part of the school day.  The … <Read More>