Brooklyn BP and Council Crony Restler want to disqualify residents who drive cars from living in affordable housing.

Brooklyn Paper 

Borough President Antonio Reynoso and northern Brooklyn Councilmember Lincoln Restler are demanding an end to minimum parking requirements for new construction in transit-rich areas. 

When a developer seeks a rezoning to build taller developments, they’re often forced to build off-street parking — which is designed to reduce the impact that new construction has on parking in the neighborhood. 

But now, the group of electeds signed a petition letter calling on the Department of City Planning (DCP) to fully waive parking constraints for all residential developers of any rezoning projects in public transit-rich areas.

The representatives aim to disincentivize people living in areas with access to subways and buses from using and buying cars, with the intention to reduce carbon emissions and improve the “borough’s urban fabric” — all while providing developers with the option to redirect space toward construction of more affordable housing, said Restler in an exclusive to the Brooklyn paper.

“The accessory parking in buildings on key mixed-use corridors like Fourth Avenue, Flatbush Avenue, and Fulton Street disrupt our borough’s urban fabric, making our City less affordable, less walkable, and incentivizes car ownership,” read the electeds’ letter to the DCP. “The last place we need developers to build accessory parking is in areas with substantial access to public transportation. We need to reduce car ownership in our city, and requiring new parking within close proximity to public transit has the opposite effect.”

Restler pointed to one 28-unit rising project just outside the Bedford subway station, which includes 14 required parking spots on the ground level — saying that, in addition to other problems, such requirements often make the construction “drab, dark, and lifeless.” 

“Because below-grade parking is so expensive to construct, many developments across the city do so on the ground-floor, leading to drab, dark, lifeless streets rather than dynamic ground floor retail and community facility spaces that generate jobs and fulfill critical neighborhood’s needs,” said a statement from Restler on Monday.

Even though there are many businesses around the crossroad of Bedford Ave. and North Seventh Street, it is not confirmed that the new building will have commercial spaces.

Within slightly over 2 square miles, Williamsburg residents have access to the four bus lines and seven subway stations.

“This is an example of an area that doesn’t need more parking, doesn’t need more cars, for sure,” said Reynoso. “So it’s a model development for us to use as a first shot at showing people that parking requirements should not be used here. Also, I think the most important thing is that the parking requirements being removed, allows for more housing to be built. It makes the projects less expensive. It also makes it so that instead of taking down, you can build up, so we got more housing out of this proposal.”

City wants to allow massage parlors in residential areas

From the Department of City Planning:

The Health and Fitness Text Amendment eliminates the special permit that is currently required for gyms, spas, and licensed massage therapy – referred to as Physical Culture or Health Establishments in the Zoning Resolution.

The proposed changes could apply to a range of health and fitness businesses such as gyms, martial arts studios, indoor cycling spaces, yoga studios and licensed massage therapy studios.

Gyms and spas would be allowed to open and operate in commercial and manufacturing districts around the city. (Learn more about Zoning Districts here.) Similar to other neighborhood services such as restaurants, drug stores, and dry cleaners, these businesses would be allowed along all local retail streets. In certain commercial districts generally characterized by smaller establishments, gyms and spas would be limited to 10,000 square feet.

Licensed massage therapy studios would be allowed just as are other health care practices licensed by the State, such as physical therapy or outpatient doctors’ offices. These are permitted in residential, commercial, and manufacturing districts.

Well folks, Big Bird's gone bonkers.

On his way out the door, BDB wants to legalize sex work so badly he is now encouraging massage parlors to open up next to your kid's school, on your quiet residential street and in your apartment building. The City already does practically nothing to close illegal spas and massage parlors located along commercial corridors. Lifting restrictions on gyms and martial arts studios makes sense, but why we're inviting sex trafficking to proliferate in residential areas now is mind boggling. To tie this latest push to "COVID recovery" is a bit of a stretch.

This is making its way through the community boards now so you might want to make your thoughts known to them and your elected representatives.

Corey Johnson is fooling absolutely no one

Add CB7 to the list of community boards rejecting "Planning Together"... (love the racism angle)

CB7 response to Planning Together by queenscrapper on Scribd

So, let me remind you that the hearing is Tuesday, February 23rd at 10am. You can sign up to testify in person or submit written testimony here. Choose the following from the dropdown menu:

Community Boards overwhelmingly against "Planning Together"

From the Queens Chronicle:

Land use advocate Paul Graziano continued his Queens lobbying crusade against the City Council speaker’s proposed comprehensive planning bill in Community Board 9 on Tuesday night.

Graziano, a zoning specialist and staunch opponent of the ambitious land use legislation created by Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Manhattan), presented at a special meeting of the board’s Executive and Land Use committees.

Graziano has been making the rounds of community boards arguing against the plan. So far boards 8, 11 and 13 have all voted against the proposal. On Tuesday, CB 9 nearly unanimously joined the group of boards opposing the bill.

Hey folks, because Corey Johnson cares so much about the voices of People of Color, he scheduled his hearing on this bill the same day as the Special Election for Council District 31! What a guy! Here's the letter of oppositiont that CB8 sent to the Speaker. It's a doozy!

Planning Together - Letter From CB8Q by queenscrapper on Scribd

Planner rebuts Corey Johnson's BS zoning report with actual facts

If you're concerned about the hard work your neighborhood has done to achieve the proper zoning, please read the entire report presented below and sign the petition to stop it.

From the Queens Chronicle:

City Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Manhattan) wants to eliminate single-family zoning across New York City, but some community representatives are concerned the change will cause more bad than good.

The plan, introduced in December, is intended to “streamline” housing development by establishing a new commission, made up of members appointed by the mayor, City Council and borough presidents, which would set construction targets for each community district.

Johnson claims the Planning Together initiative would close racial and economic disparities, but urban planner Paul Graziano argues it would instead ruin the character of Queens.

“This is what set off the red flags for me: the main pillar of this report is based off a complete lie — I’ll just say it straight out,” Graziano said at a Jan. 20 Community Board 8 meeting. “The complete lie is that the rezonings that occurred under the Bloomberg administration were to help white, wealthy neighborhoods at the expense of all others ... This isn’t true.”

Graziano, who presented before CB 8 on his own accord, said he had designed about half of the Bloomberg-era rezonings and called Johnson’s statements “outrageous” and “dangerous.”

The majority of single-family zones in the borough are in northeastern and southeastern Queens, Graziano said, and most neighborhoods there are not largely white. To illustrate his point, he presented maps of each borough neighborhood that was rezoned between 2005 and 2013 with maps courtesy of the CUNY Graduate Center that show demographics by block.

Planning Together Final Report December 16 2020 by queenscrapper on Scribd

Response Memo RE Planning Together - 1-15-2021 by queenscrapper on Scribd

Response Memo RE Planning Together - Appendix A - Demographics - 1-15-2021 by queenscrapper on Scribd

Response Memo RE Planning Together - Appendix B - Single-Family Zoning - 1-15-2021 by queenscrapper on Scribd

Legislation Details (With Text) by queenscrapper on Scribd

Food for thought on density

From the NY Post/AP:

Crowded houses and apartments are often cited as a source of spread, particularly in Los Angeles, which has some of the densest neighborhoods in the US Households in and around LA often have several generations — or multiple families — living under one roof. Those tend to be lower-income areas where residents work essential jobs that can expose them to the virus at work or while commuting.

This is exactly the pattern in NYC as well. High income areas, where 2-3 people live together in an apartment, such as LIC, Greenpoint and most of Manhattan, have low spread. A lot of people living together in a small space is going to encourage spread. When Cuomo talks of this being a virus of density, he means the city as a whole. But it's the indoor density that counts.

But also remember that for decades the city's position was that if you push for lower zoning in neighborhoods where illegal conversions are rampant, or demand enforcement of existing occupancy codes, you are a racist. We have groups now pushing for legalizing cellar and attic apartments, which in many cases have no ventilation. This isn't going to stop the spread, but rather encourage it.

Remember this as the dope-a-crats chide people over wearing masks and wanting to eat indoors. This entire pandemic response is a classic case of tweeding in lieu of actually governing effectively.

Anyone see a common thread here?

From the NY Times:

The chockablock density that defines this part of Queens may have also have been its undoing. Doctors and community leaders say poverty, notoriously overcrowded homes and government inaction left residents especially vulnerable to the virus.

From Huffington Post:

You call your district the “epicenter of the epicenter.” What makes your district specifically so vulnerable to all this?

"Well, we have a lot of service workers that live here, undocumented folks that live here, immigrants who are here, and oftentimes, we see that those folks are of lower income, and in order to survive, they have to live in overcrowded, illegally converted homes, which only makes the spread of COVID worse. So there’s really no place for many people who live in my community to self-isolate because sometimes they live 20 to 25 people in a house. We’ve seen this on numerous occasions here in the district." - King Tweeder Council Member Danny Dromm

But remember, folks, if you want to downzone your neighborhood or prevent out of character development, you're racist and should move to the suburbs.

Judge orders circumcision on luxury tower development

New York Times

 In an extraordinary ruling, a State Supreme Court judge has ordered the developers of a nearly completed 668-foot condo tower on the Upper West Side to remove as many as 20 or more floors from the top of the building.

The decision is a major victory for community groups who opposed the project on the grounds that the developers used a zoning loophole to create the tallest building on the West Side north of 61st Street. A lawyer representing the project said the developers would appeal the decision.

Justice W. Franc Perry ordered on Thursday that the Department of Buildings revoke the building permit for the tower at 200 Amsterdam Avenue near West 69th Street and remove all floors that exceed the zoning limit. Exactly how many floors might need to be deconstructed has yet to be determined, but under one interpretation of the law, the building might have to remove 20 floors or more from the 52-story tower to conform to the regulation.

“We’re elated,” said Olive Freud, the president of the Committee for Environmentally Sound Development, one of the community groups that brought the suit.

“The developers knew that they were building at their own peril,” said Richard D. Emery, a lawyer representing the community groups that challenged the project before the foundation was even completed. Mr. Emery said this decision sent a warning to other developers who proceed with construction in spite of pending litigation.

The question at the heart of the suit was whether the developers had abused zoning rules to justify the project’s size.

It is common for developers to purchase the unused development rights of adjacent buildings to add height and bulk to their project. But in this case opponents of the project argued that the developers, SJP Properties and Mitsui Fudosan America, created a “gerrymandered,” highly unusual 39-sided zoning lot to take advantage of the development rights from a number of tenuously connected lots. Without this technique, the tower might have been little more than 20 stories tall, instead of the nearly finished 52-story tower that now stands.

The decision also sets an important precedent, said Elizabeth Goldstein, the president of the Municipal Art Society of New York, one of the advocacy groups that brought the suit against the project.

“The way this zoning lot was constructed has been invalidated, and that is extremely important,” Ms. Goldstein said, adding that the decision would deter other developers from attempting similar strategies.

Scott Mollen, a lawyer with the firm Herrick, Feinstein, which is representing the project, said the ruling contradicted earlier decisions from the Department of Buildings and the Board of Standards and Appeals that were based on a long-established zoning interpretation. SJP, one of the developers, said they would “appeal this decision vigorously.”

Council Speaker Corey Johnson proposes more zoning permits for developers to build elevators for train stations

AM New York


Changes to the city's zoning rules could greatly expand the accessibility of the New York subway system at a fraction of the cost to the MTA, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson hopes.


In a new report, Johnson outlines still vague proposals to expand through zoning the number of areas where developers are permitted to bulk up the size of their projects in exchange for undertaking accessibility upgrades in nearby subway stations. Only a limited number of areas are currently zoned for that. 


The speaker also suggested speeding up the lengthy approval process for allowing such accessibility projects once the areas are rezoned.

“All New Yorkers deserve equal access to their city and we must do everything in our power to accelerate the implementation of ADA accessibility in the transit system,” said Johnson. “Zoning is a tool that the City has within our control and with stronger and more widely applied zoning tools, we can ensure that developers who build near subway stations coordinate with the MTA and help deliver the station improvements like elevators that we so desperately need."


The subway system is embarrassingly inaccessible to riders with disabilities, with just about a quarter of all 472 stations equipped with elevators. After what advocates say were decades of neglect and underinvestment, MTA Transit President Andy Byford last year joined the authority pledging to improve accessibility. The MTA’s proposed capital plan would make up to 70 stations ADA accessible — but at an average of $81 million per project, a figure that alarmed some and appears much higher than peer cities, according to researchers.

“

Variance granted for property that city messed up

From the Queens Chronicle:

Community Board 3 last Thursday overwhelmingly voted in support of a variance that would allow for a two-story home to be built at 31-41 97th St. The lot, not far from the Louis Armstrong Middle School, has been vacant since the city tore down a home at the location in 1976.

“We feel that this resolves a hardship in a unique situation, fills a lot that has been vacant for 40 years and fits with the character of the neighborhood,” said architect Arthur Yellin, who is working with the owner, Luisa Beneby, to develop the property.

Yellin said the situation is a result of the city’s decision years ago to subdivide the lot after it condemned and demolished the dilapidated structure that previously existed there. Officials sold the parcels separately and Beneby bought one of the lots in 1978.

Developing the 20-foot-wide lot has proven to be a challenge, according to Yellin. A variance is needed because the property doesn’t have enough space to include a side yard. It is also not feasible to have a driveway or garage with two parking spaces side-by-side.

“It cannot be developed in any way without a variance,” Yellin said.

Beneby has filed plans with the Buildings Department to construct a two-story, twofamily home. It would include a garage underneath the building with vehicles parked in tandem, one in front of the other. The sides of the home would be on the lot lines.

One of the conditions for the variance is that the hardship for which relief is being sought wasn’t created by the owner. The proposed home is also required to fit within the context of the neighborhood. Yellin said both requirements were satisfied.

“The situation was actually created by the city itself. The city took a legal lot and subdivided it, making it an illegal lot,” said Yellin, adding that the proposed home is “very contextual.”

One community's zoning victory

From the NY Post:

A state appeals panel has yanked the permit to build an Upper West Side nursing home, a controversial project with the mayor’s support.

Neighbors of the 20-story Jewish Home Lifecare project at 125 W. 97th St. had sued to block construction, arguing the area is already too densely populated.

In 2016, the mayor’s ­Office of Sustainability greenlit the project, even though a state environmental review had expressed concern about noise and hazardous material related to planned construction.

But on Tuesday the Appellate Division put the kibosh on the plan, saying it violated zoning regulations about open space.

Stop work order issued over zoning at controversial Elmhurst site

From the Times Ledger:

The city Department of Buildings issued a stop work order as of Aug. 29 on the controversial development at 82nd Street and Baxter Avenue in Elmhurst after the application to have the plot rezoned was challenged in City Council.

Anti-gentrification group Queens Neighborhoods United and City Councilman Francisco Moya (D-Jackson Heights) praised the challenge, claiming the Target slated for the location was no different than any other proposal brought forward by the developers, Sun Equity and Heskel Group, which would only drive residents and business out of the community.

The area is zoned R6/C1-3 which allows for businesses that serve “local consumer needs,” such as laundromats and bodegas. The challenge through the DOB labels the development at 40-31 82nd St. as a “department store,” which is not allowed under the zoning.

Kew Gardens jail requires zoning change

From the Forest Hills Post:

The mayor’s office has released the first details about plans for four borough-based jails, which includes the redevelopment and expansion of the former Queens Detention Complex in Kew Gardens.

The overhaul would significantly expand the size of the facility at 126-01 82nd Ave., which closed in 2002. The existing building is 497,600 square feet and housed about 500 inmates; the new facility would be 1,910,000 square feet and house 1,510 inmates.

The jail reopening is part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to close the troubled Rikers Island jail facility and shift the city’s jail inmates to smaller jail facilities. The mayor’s office plans for the four facilities to offer 6,040 beds, which would accommodate the roughly 5,000 people in detention daily.

The mayor’s office says that the smaller facilities would be safer and enable inmates to maintain contact with their families and communities, and to have better access to their legal representatives and the court system. The new facilities would also give inmates increased access to rehabilitative and reentry services, as well as to more sunlight and outdoor space.

The Kew Gardens facility would also offer a centralized care area for inmates with an infirmary and a maternity ward.

The new development would offer parking for visitors to the jail and for the general public. A total of 429 parking spaces would be available within the detention facility, and the public would have access to an adjacent above-ground parking lot with 676 public spaces at the northwest of the property.

A community space would also be constructed along 126th Street, the mayor’s office said.

The city has not yet an anticipated a completion date or an estimate of the length of the construction period, but it would need to seek zoning changes in order to expand the existing facility.

The mayor’s office said that the city would need to make an amendment to the zoning text to modify the “requirements for bulk” such as the floor area, height and setback, as well as the parking requirement. The city would seek a special permit to de-map 82nd Ave. between 126th Street and 132nd Street.

Upstate senators support a denser New York City

From Crains:

Support for a state Senate bill allowing the city to zone for denser apartment buildings is breaking down along geographic lines.

Representatives from within the five boroughs—aside from the Bronx's state Sen. Jeff Klein—voted against the proposal earlier this month, while lawmakers from outside the city were in favor.

The bill would roll back a state law capping residential development at 12 times a city property's lot area. The legislation's stated aim is to give the city greater leeway to address the housing crisis by zoning for denser development wherever the City Planning Commission deems appropriate. Doing so would bring residential planning in line with commercial properties, which are not subject to a state-imposed cap. That idea is supported by the de Blasio administration, the Regional Plan Association and the Real Estate Board of New York. But new housing is often opposed by preservation and community groups, a dynamic that makes the geographic split in the Senate Committee on Rules, which voted May 7, unsurprising.

Developers causing low-rise grief

From QNS:

On May 3, local civic leaders and state Senator Avella held a press conference to call attention to the trend — observed in areas including Bayside, College Point and Bellerose — where semi-attached houses are being re-built by developers to tower over the adjacent home.

The group called on the city to establish new building and zoning codes that protect semi-attached and row houses from this “inappropriate construction.”

“There’s nothing to stop this,” Avella said, referencing a photo of new home built up against a smaller residence in Queens. A firewall was built to separate the two structures.

This construction causes the property value of the attached home to plummet, Avella claimed, and opens adjacent homeowners up to ventilation and quality-of-life concerns.

“The only thing [the homeowner] can do is then sell to somebody else who’s going to do something like this on the other end,” Avella said. “We have to come up with some sort of proposal where at least the adjacent homeowner has some rights.”

LIC will get more hotels, like it or not

From LIC Post:

A large stretch of Long Island City will be exempt from the city’s new plan to curb hotel development throughout the five boroughs.

The city’s proposal would require hotel developers to obtain a special permit–requiring a lengthy public approval process–to build in certain manufacturing and industrial districts around the city. The Department of City Planning, the agency behind the effort, began the public review process to amend the zoning text that would require these permits just days ago.

The city, which has been working on the proposal since 2015, says the special mixed use district was excluded because it has the infrastructure in place to support hotel development without it detrimentally affecting communities in it.

“The M1 Hotel Text Amendment provides much needed control in the Industrial Business Zone but it does not provide protection in the low rise residential areas,” said the LIC Coalition, a local community group.

“There is no reason to believe that once squeezed out of the M1 zone, hotel developers would not seek opportunities where they can,” the group added.

Other areas exempt from the special permit requirement include sections of East Elmhurst, Ozone Park, and Springfield Gardens, given their proximity to the airports. The city will also be exempt from the special permit requirement if it operates hotels to provide temporary shelter to the homeless and other public purposes.

Translation: The City wants more homeless hotels in LIC.

Illegal truck lot was very bad neighbor

From the Times Ledger:

From December 2017 to March 2018 there were several complaints made to the city Department of Buildings regarding illegal commercial vehicle storage.

Hollingworth said he and neighbors, who are mostly elderly, did not know who to turn to. He said they felt hopeless when 311 was not taking action. Hollingworth contacted Times Ledger on March 14 where he was directed to DOB and City Councilman Peter Koo (D-Flushing) for further assistance. Two days later on March 16 DOB inspected the lot and issued violations for illegal commercial use of the property in a residential area. The violations had a cure date of April 25 or a date by which the property owner was compelled to correct the violating conditions. DOB’s padlock unit also sent a warning letter to the property owner April 17 directing him to cease illegal use of the lot.

Neighbors speculate that Frank Camisi loaned the lot to Arnoldo and told him if he cleaned the lot out for him, he would be able to park his trucks there for free or at a low rate.

On April 22 neighbors said the the truckers were gone from the lot, but debris remained that reminded them of their misery.

City Planning's hotel bill will dump most of city's homeless in Queens

From the Commercial Observer:

The City Planning Commission earlier this week kicked off public review for a zoning change that would create a special permit to limit hotel development in industrial zones. While many in the real estate industry loathe the special permits, some hotel owners are surprisingly in favor of them.

The amendment would require hotel builders in M1-zoned areas to undergo a full public review process in order to get the special permit, which means sign-offs from community boards, borough presidents, the City Planning Commission and the City Council. Unless a developer secures the special permit, the New York City Department of Buildings won’t give the go-ahead to a new hotel project.

Well, this sounds good!

Developers will be allowed to build hotels in only three industrial neighborhoods as-of-right in New York City—East Elmhurst by LaGuardia Airport and Ozone Park and Springfield Gardens by John F. Kennedy International Airport (all in Queens). Special mixed-use districts like Long Island City will also be exempt from the special permits.

Ah, no, this is not what we want. As of right in 4 Queens neighborhoods only?

However, the zoning text amendment does include a potentially controversial carve-out for new hotels that will be used as homeless shelters. Hotels “operated for a public purpose” will not need to go through the special permit process, and hotel-to-shelter conversions will also be exempt from the permit requirement, according to zoning documents from the Department of City Planning.

And there we have it.

Fugazy on Forest Avenue

Forest Avenue in Ridgewood has seen some dramatic changes recently, but there still are a lot of smaller homes along the way. This stretch is pretty modest.

Unfortunately, there is crap underway.

3 STORY DWELLING FOR TWO FAMILY WITH ONE OPEN OFF-STREET PARKING SPACE, BATHROOM IN CELLAR SHALL BE USED SOLELY IN CONNECTION WITH THE DWELLING UNIT ABOVE.

Why would you convert a 2-story, 2-family building into a 3-story, 2-family building? And how is that thing jutting up from the top not a 4th story?

Red brick rowhouse horror in Elmhurst

At one time, Judge Street had a cute row of red brick homes along it. But what real estate mavens and politicians call "progress" happened to it. The hedges have been torn out and replaced with cars. One home, at 43-22, experienced a fire in 2014 that it still hasn't recovered from. In recent months, the owner has taken advantage of the lax zoning and has applied for a "vertical enlargement" which means further crappification of a once lovely streetscape. This month, a stop work order was put into effect.