City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden has announced a rezoning proposal for 181 blocks in the Williamsbridge and Baychester neighborhoods in the north Bronx to encourage development and still protect lower density blocks from out-of-character buildings.

The proposed area is bound by the Bronx River and Shoelace Park to the west, the New England Thruway to the east, 233rd Street to the north and East Gun Hill Road, Lurting Avenue, Givan Avenue, and Hammersley Avenue to the south.

The rezoning, City Planning said, would “channel moderate new growth opportunities to wide corridors with better access to transit that can accommodate future growth, including White Plains Road and East Gun Hill Road.” --Katherine Clarke [more]

While previous rezonings have transformed Fourth Avenue in Park Slope from an auto-oriented, industrial block to one ripe with residential development, the area still isn’t the “complete neighborhood” the city envisioned, the Department of City Planning said. Retail is still sorely lacking. As a result, City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden announced she is submitting a new rezoning proposal for public review that would require new developments to have at least 50 percent of ground-floor frontage be literally transparent and occupied by retail uses. “Fourth Avenue is a wide, transit-rich corridor with new housing and residents, but often lacks an active pedestrian environment,” Burden said in a statement. “This new proposal will help ensure the continued transformation of the avenue into a dynamic commercial corridor and provide much needed services to its surrounding communities.” – Adam Fusfeld [more]

A 20,000-square-foot corner at 400 Park Avenue South at 28th Street, which can support a 420,000-square-foot project, is going on the market via Studley. The site was assembled by developers A & R Kalimian, who were granted approval from the New York City Department of Planning for a “daring” design by French architect Christian de Portzamparc and Handel Architects. It was a favorite project of City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden, according to the New York Post.

After clearing most of the site, the developers have now opted to sell. [more]

Edison Properties has made it known why it was leading the city’s drive to land a new zoning designation for the old Fur District just south of Penn Station. The developer plans to build a 407-unit residential tower at 249 West 28th Street, according to the Observer. As The Real Deal previously reported, City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden wants to create a new designation and apply it to the area to encourage growth and development around the neighborhood’s Class B and C office space.  [more]

City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden sent the proposal for a new zoning designation, to be used first for part of the old Fur District in an effort to encourage growth of the area’s Class B and C office space, for public review. Edison Properties wants to use the designation to develop the area bounded by West 28th and 30th streets and Seventh and Eighth avenues. The neighborhood has affordable office space that could attract new media, architectural firms, creative arts and other emerging businesses but lacks retail and residencies necessary for a thriving, mixed-use 24/7 neighborhood, according to Burden. TRD Comments

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The Department of City Planning will hold a conference this fall in hopes of finding a way to simplify the 1,500-page zoning resolution, whose current complexity apparently stifles developers and architects. According to the Wall Street Journal, urban planners find the current document so confusing that they’re discouraged from development, and a recent court ruling forced the city to rewrite hundreds of sections because of the imprecise meanings of the words “development” and “building.” In fact, earlier this year, City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden organized the publication of a 168-page handbook, with cartoon illustrations, to explain some of the law’s intricacies. Comments

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The city has launched its public review process for a preservationist-friendly rezoning of a 31-block swath of Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill that would discourage out-of-scale building and prevent commercial development from intruding onto residential blocks in the neighborhood, City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden announced today. The proposal covers the mostly rowhouse-filled blocks bounded by Atlantic Avenue to the north, Fourth Avenue to the east, Warren and Wyckoff streets to the south and Court Street to the west, Burden said. TRD [more]

A proposal to rezone a 130-block swath of Queens’ Sunnyside and Woodside neighborhoods — what would be the first rezoning of the area since 1974 — has entered its public review period, City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden announced today. The proposed zoning changes would target Queens Boulevard’s main corridor for “moderate new development” by setting height limits on other, mostly-residential blocks and would provide incentives for affordable housing through the city’s Inclusionary Housing Program. In Sunnyside, the rezoning would allow for small sidewalk cafes on Queens Boulevard in order to liven up the neighborhood. TRD [more]

A new handbook coming out Monday seeks to “demystify” the zoning rules in New York City, a project organized by Amanda Burden, the commissioner of the Department of City Planning, the New York Times reported. Prior to the creation of the new handbook, zoning rules could only be found in the zoning resolution, a 1,500-page book that was virtually incomprehensible to laypeople and even to city officials, the Times said. Since the resolution is “impossible to understand,” Burden said, it took the tool of zoning out of the hands of the public. With her new handbook, she hopes to change that. [more]

Top row, from left: Howard and Steve Rubenstein, Donald Trump, Mort Zuckerman; bottom row, from left: Jerry Speyer, Dottie Herman and Pamela Liebman

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is the most powerful man in New York City — so says the New York Observer, which released its annual list of the top 150 most powerful New Yorkers. This year’s ranking included 24 influential real estate players, including real estate PR bigwigs Howard and Steve Rubenstein of Rubenstein Communications (ranked 17th and 78th, respectively), Donald Trump (19th), Boston Properties honcho Mort Zuckerman (20th), Tishman Speyer co-founder Jerry Speyer, Prudential Douglas Elliman CEO Dottie Herman (53rd) and Pamela Liebman, president and CEO of the Corcoran Group (89th). The list included a handful of surprises, as well. TRD [more]