A group of City Council members sent Mayor Bill de Blasio a letter this week urging him to allow owners of landmarked nonprofits to sell a combined 25 million square feet of their air rights, which would then be used by developers in a few selected areas across the city to build taller buildings.
Democratic Councilmen Peter Koo of Queens and Ritchie Torres and Fernando Cabrera of the Bronx argued in the Feb. 24 letter that such a system would allow 180 landmarked nonprofit institutions to cash in on their full property values. Under current rules, those unused rights can be transferred only to sites close by.
"As you know, many religious and nonprofit institutions housed in individually designated landmarked structures struggle to maintain their buildings while providing services to further their mission," the letter stated. Mr. Koo is chair of the Committee on Landmarks, Public Siting and Maritime Uses and Mr. Torres is deputy leader of the council.
The trio used concepts and numbers contained in a proposal advanced by a group called Iconplans, which is led by former real estate broker and grocery store executive Lawrence Daitch, and real estate investor Michael Lipstein. The duo first floated their idea years ago, during the Bloomberg administration.
22 comments:
How high up in the air do the "air rights" actually go? To Alpha Centauri and beyond?
So I sell my church's air rights,take the money and in a few years my dilapidated building burns down and bingo I sell to a developer who builds big!! I don't think that would ever happen lol.
Since they are non-profit, they shouldn't make money from selling their air right.
anon2 the property wouldn't be worth much, because you'd only be able to build as tall as the existing church.
anon3 non-profits routinely sell assets to fund their endeavors.
Daitch, as in good ol' Daitch Shopwell? Maybe he's just chillin' wit da Bohacks! Nah!
That's so stupid and GREEDY. Koo is ridiculous. I'm so sick of the constant threat to a decent quality of life.
There are too many people in Flushing.
Stop!!!!
Stop the madness, Koo should be worried about making his community cleaner, safer and functional.
Everyday the traffic is worse, crime is up and it has the dirtiest streets of any neighborhood in Queens. It's disgusting.
Yet more abuse and chicanery, these people are fiends. Using the same tactics as the tax-dodging loophole scumbag friends of Albany and Mayor Fun Size with the 421a.
The Blaz better say no, but these are his enlightened liberal buddies so that won't happen. Everything they do is righteous and good because they acknowledge poverty and police abuse occasionally.
Can homeowners sell their air rights?
When will the stupidity end? We should be focusing on reducing the population in the city and fixing our transportation and utilities not jamming more people in.
What about the flight plans for LaGuardia Airport? Planes have to fly somewhere...
"Can homeowners sell their air rights?" Good question. When the City presented us with Zoning in the 60s, the biggest hurdle was owners' view that zoning represented a "taking" of their property. That's why we have the god forsaken BSA, btw. The air rights are potentially worth big bucks if they get rid of the adjacent property transfer provisions. And, while we can't cash in, who wants to bet Finance hits us with an up-tick in assessed value?
If you get breaks on your taxes and then sell these 'rights', doesn't the money belong to the state?
FYI.
Flushing Friends Meeting House (the Quakers) on Northern Blvd. was once offered ONE MILLION DOLLARS if they would sell their air rights to the Ciampa organization. Ciampa built the apartment complex to the right of their meeting house. FLASH...the Quakers refused! Their answer was that they were the "stewards" of the historic house of worship for now and the future. If the Quakers had complied, Ciampa could have built a huge complex. The Quakers are not exactly a rich group.one might say they're as poor as church mice. Bravo! They stood their ground as they have many times in the past.
Leave it to Peter Koo to butter his toast with developers' campaign contributions. Besides, why the hell should he care? He lives in Port Washington. Would he allow that kind of density in his own backyard? We think not. BTW....why aren't the Feds investigating him? He lives in Nassau County while serving as a NYC council member. Forget about it. Laundered Chinese money buys a lot of judges.
I personally do not see anything positive that councilman Peter Koo has done to ease the congestion and filth of Flushing. Apparently, the downtown hub has its own practices which do not coincide with established laws. The solution among its politicians appears to be to just look the other way. Koo's term will be over. Maybe a better representative will be elected.
Anon #2:
Thats not how this works. Thats not how any of this works.
Can homeowners sell their air rights?
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Sure, but you have to have them in the first place to sell. For example, if you have a Single family home in a zoning area that can go to 20 stories, sure, but if your home is only zoned for single family homes (limited to, say 35' tall), then you dont have any rights to sell.
It is my understanding that air rights can be used up to two miles from the site which is selling them. Am I correct?
Do you mean a free pass for the dumping of his hot air all over his district? LOL....Peter Cuckoo wants air rights to continue expelling his wind!
Let's see what Koo has to say on March 9th regarding RKO Keith's Flushing theater at the CB7 public hearing. The new RKO's developer's headquarters are located in Port Washington, where Koo himself lives. A coincidence? Perhaps!
You don't want your house to have air rights anon. Because air rights are development rights. And that means your neighbor's single family home can be knocked down and replaced with a three or more unit structure.
Air rights can generally only be transferred to the neighboring properties, but in some cases if there is a chain of properties with continuous ownership it can be transferred further, but in practice that's limited to a couple blocks. That's the point of this bill, to let these properties sell their air rights to development projects further away.
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