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October 2006 CITYLAND OCTOBER 15, 2006 center for new york city law VOLUME 3, NUMBER 9 Highlights CITY COUNCIL Industrial zone proposal . .133 CITY PLANNING COMMISSION Atlantic Yards too big . .135 College Point development . .136 BOARD OF STANDARDS & APPEALS Park Slope controversy . .136 SoHo lot gets five variances . .137 Queens waterfront home OK'ed 139 LANDMARKS 15 stories OK'ed for Chelsea . .139 E.Village horse mart hearing . .140 BSA’s denial of grandfathering application prevented new development in South Park Slope from Hearing on new Bklyn HD . .141 blocking this view of the Statute of Liberty from the famous Minerva Statue. Photo: Morgan Kunz. Flatbush HD to be considered . .141 Manhattan & SI designations . .142 CITY COUNCIL al character. These new zones DEPARTMENT OF BUILDINGS would allow manufacturing and warehouses as of right, but would Proposed self cert. changes . .143 Hearing Citywide require any new superstores, hotels, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORP. and municipal buildings to obtain a Council holds hearing on special permit. Bronx Armory RFP . .143 industrial employment zone Katz argued that manufactur- ing jobs pay, on average, $10,000 COURT DECISIONS Proposal would add protections for more per year than jobs in the retail BSA Queens denial upheld . .144 manufacturing by requiring non- and restaurant sectors, and the NYU dorms proceed in E.Vill. .144 industrial uses to obtain special per- industry has a high percentage of UES locals oppose waste plant .144 mits. On September 18, 2006, the minority and immigrant workers. City Council’s Subcommittee on Katz also stressed that the industry CITYLAND PROFILES Zoning & Franchises held a public provides a vital source of materials Hoffman . 145 hearing on a proposal to create and supplies for the city’s other Industrial Employment Districts. business sectors. IEDs would allow CHARTS Current zoning laws permit non- manufacturers to invest in their DCP Pipeline . .136 industrial buildings, such as com- businesses and create jobs, accord- mercial or retail uses, in manufac- ing to Katz. ULURP Pipeline . .137 turing zones, which can destabilize Mark Foggin, from the Mayor’s BSA Pipeline . .138 an area and cause rent increases. Office of Industrial and Manufac- Landmarks Pipeline . .140 The proposal, sponsored by turing Businesses, testified that the Landmarks Actions . .142 Council Member Melinda Katz, City had a program in place to pro- Citylaw.org New Decisions . .146-7 would create IEDs within existing mote industrial businesses. The industrial zones where there is a City has identified 17 Industrial New DOB Permits . .147 consensus to maintain the industri- Business Zones (cont’d on page 135) October 15, 2006 Volume 3 CITYLAND 133 COMMENTARY Subways and Affordable Housing The need for affordable housing during the last decade of the nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth Century did not lead to direct governmental subsidies; it led to expansion of the City’s boundaries through consolidation, construction of the East River and Harlem River bridge, and creation of the subway sys- tem, all of which had as a central purpose the opening up of cheaper, available land for housing. Direct subsi- dies in the form of public housing only began in the 1930s. Rent control and rent stabilization followed in the 1940s, but with little or no support for their extension today. Few officials, however, make the connection between transit and the creation of affordable housing. Zoning protections, zoning bonuses and tax incentives currently are the favored methods to encourage affordable housing. These strategies have the advantage of no or low direct budget impacts, and achieve the political goal of mixing economic classes. But time can erode these strategies as the maturation of Mitchell/Lama housing and the proposed sale of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village show. The energetic rebirth of the Lower East Side and the new vitality of many attractive areas of Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx provide another lesson. These areas all have something in common; good access to rapid transit. There are many areas of New York City not so favored. The MTA’s ambitious 1968 expansion plan identified many of these areas. The plan drew lines on a map for future construction, but then failed to con- struct any of the more significant recommendations. It is time to revisit such plans. Moving forward on construction of the Second Avenue subway project in Manhattan is a good start, but there are other projects that could have much greater impact on opportunities for affordable housing. Some of these plans could involve New Jersey and upstate counties. New York governmental leaders who are serious about affordable housing should, along with zoning and tax strategies, dust off the rapid transit strategies that worked so well 100 years ago. Ross Sandler CITYLAND Ross Sandler Wessel Graphics Caitlin Hannon Executive Editor and Director, Design Director Subscription Center for New York City Law Coordinator The Center expresses appreciation to the individu- Kevin Schultz ’05 Melanie Cash ’02 als and foundations supporting the Center and its Morgan Kunz ’06 Caitlin J. Walsh ’08 Associate Director work: The Steven and Sheila Aresty Foundation, Fellows in New York City Law Shane M. Tattan ’08 Managing Editor Harlan Scholar Interns The Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, The Horace Molly Brennan Jesse Denno W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Murray Goodgold Editor, CityLand Publication Prod. Assistant Foundation, Jerry Gottesman, The Marc Haas CITYLAND ADVISORY BOARD Foundations, The Prospect Hill Foundation, and The Revson Foundation. Kent Barwick Howard Goldman Carol E. Rosenthal CITYLAN D Andrew Berman David Karnovsky Michael T. Sillerman (ISSN 1551-711X) is published 11 times Albert K. Butzel Ross Moskowitz ’84 Paul D. Selver a year by the Center for New York City Law at New Frank Munger York Law School, 57 Worth St., New York City, New York 10013, tel. (212) 431-2115, fax (212) 941-4735, CENTER FOR NEW YORK CITY LAW ADVISORY COUNCIL e-mail: [email protected], website: www.city- law.org © Center for New York City Law, 2006. All Stanley S. Shuman, Michael D. Hess Norman Redlich rights reserved. Printed on recycled paper. Maps CITYLAND Chair Lawrence S. Huntington ’64 Joseph B. Rose presented in are from Map-PLUTO Arthur N. Abbey ’59 William F. Kuntz II Ernst H. Rosenberger ’58 copyrighted by the New York City Department of Harold Baer, Jr. City Planning. City Landmarks and Historic Dis- Eric Lane Rose Luttan Rubin David R. Baker tricts printed with permission of New York City Randy M. Mastro Frederick P. Schaffer Anthony Coles Landmarks Preservation Commission. Richard Matasar Edward N. Costikyan Frederick A.O. Schwarz, Jr. Robert J. McGuire O. Peter Sherwood POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Paul A. Crotty CITYLAND Richard J. Davis Francis McArdle Edward Wallace , 57 Worth Street, New York, New York Michael B. Gerrard John D. McMahon ’76 Richard M. Weinberg 10013-2960. Periodicals postage paid at New York, Judah Gribetz Thomas L. McMahon ’83 Peter L. Zimroth New York. Kathleen Grimm ’80 Gary P. Naftalis James D. Zirin Eric Hatzimemos ’92 Steven M. Polan 134 Volume 3 CITYLAND October 15, 2006 where it provides expanded assis- tial/commercial overlay districts, tance services to industrial firms, and that the site’s residential zoning offers a one-time relocation tax prohibited the proposed commer- credit of up to $1,000 per employee cial uses. to move to the area, and opposes all The Commission examined residential use applications. Foggin two distinct development plans for argued that these programs offer a the Atlantic Yards site: a residential more flexible way to protect indus- variation with 6.7 million sq.ft. of trial jobs than the IEDs. housing (6,860 units), 600,000 sq.ft. In support of the IEDs, Josh of office space, and a 180-room Mason from the Working Family hotel, and a commercial variation Party testified that flexibility for the with 1.8 million sq.ft. of office space City meant instability for the indus- and 5.7 million sq.ft. of housing (5,790 units). Both variations try. While the Mayor’s program Map showing current Industrial Business helps promote and protect industri- Zones. Image courtesy of Office of Industrial included a Nets arena with 18,000 al business, it could be changed and Manufacturing Businesses. game seats and a 20,500 person without community or business capacity for events. The Commission noted that consultation because it is only a CITY PLANNING COMMISSION policy and not a law. Steve Hindy, the project “builds on the City’s ongoing efforts to continue the President and Founder of Brooklyn General Project Plan Review growth of Downtown Brooklyn,” Brewery, testified that he, like many Downtown Brooklyn employers, would like to expand his but called for an eight percent business, but high rent and pur- Planning Commission files reduction in floor area concentrat- chase prices in the area surround- comments on Atlantic Yards ed on three buildings. At Dean ing his Williamsburg, Brooklyn fac- Street and Sixth Avenue, the Com- tory make industrial uses infeasible. Commission recommends that the mission recommended that the He argued that reserving areas of project be reduced by 635,000 sq.ft. 428-foot tall, 530,000-square-foot the city for industrial uses will make and its open space increased. On building be reduced to a 220-foot, it easier for employers to expand September 27, 2006, the Planning 275,000-square-foot maximum. At Commission recommended to the their businesses. Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues, the Empire State Development Corpo- The Subcommittee closed the Commission suggested that the ration that Forest City Ratner Com- hearing without voting on the proposed 350-foot-tall, 572,000- panies reduce the overall size of its proposal. square-foot complex be reduced to proposed downtown Brooklyn a 250-foot height and 392,000- Public Hearing of City Council’s Zoning Atlantic Yards project by eight per- square-foot maximum floor area.
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