From left: City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and a Cornell NYC Tech rendering

Cornell University has the city’s go-ahead to build a technology campus on Roosevelt Island, which paves the way for construction to begin next year on the 2.1 million-square-foot project, Crain’s reported. [more]

Hudson Square

The City Planning Commission voted today to approve a proposal to rezone Hudson Square to allow for a more mixed-use neighborhood with larger buildings. The proposal now heads to City Council, which will have 50 days to conduct a public hearing and vote on whether the rezoning will take effect. [more]

Speaker Christine Quinn

The City Council unanimously approved a new bill Wednesday aimed at cracking down on landlords who maintain unsafe and unsanitary conditions, the New York Daily News reported. The bill would have landlords pay steep fines–$1,000 per unit or $5,000 per building—or sign an affidavit swearing they’ve repaired dangerous or dirty conditions. Landlords who lie in the affidavit could face criminal charges. Though the city currently requires landlords to maintain buildings in good condition, critics say that landlords have been getting away with stopgap fixes…. [more]

Speaker Christine Quinn

A bill that takes aim at city landlords who make surface cosmetic repairs to their properties but do not address underlying structural issues is expected to get approval from the City Council today, the Wall Street Journal reported. This bill, according to experts and city elected officials, addresses an increasing problem of investors who acquire older properties to flip them for profit without making needed repairs, such as finding the source of a leak rather than just plastering over a water-logged wall. [more]

Upper West Side stoops

The City Council’s Landmarks committee has approved an expansion of the Upper West Side’s historic district. The district will expand to include blocks between Broadway and Riverside Drive, between 79th and 87th streets. It is one of several proposed expansions of the historic districts on the Upper West Side. The City Council, in a full vote, is expected to approve the expansion, okayed by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, as well. [more]

Jamaica Avenue

In an effort to preserve the suburban character of the area, City Council voted to approve the rezoning of approximately 200 blocks in Woodhaven and Richmond Hill – the first zoning changes to the neighborhoods since 1961 – to limit multi-family construction, the Queens Chronicle reported.  Pressure to rezone the area came after developers had begun demolishing freestanding homes and replacing them with apartment complexes to appeal to the many low-income and immigrant families moving to the area. However, the council did modify the proposal to allow larger-scale development on the block between 135th Avenue and Van Wyck Expressway north of Liberty Avenue. [more]

Christine Quinn and a rendering of NYU's modified expansion

The City Council approved New York University’s modified expansion plan last night by a 44-to-1 vote, meaning the school has cleared the final hurdle in its effort to develop 2 million square feet of classrooms, dorm rooms and office space on the Greenwich Village superblock south of Washington Square Park.

“I think this plan appropriately balances the need of an important university to grow and expand — which is good for our city — with the historic neighborhood it’s in,” Speaker Christine Quinn said before the vote. The size of the approved plan has been reduced by 26 percent since its initial proposal. [more]

From left: renderings of the proposed Mercer Street building and the zipper building

The City Council’s Committee on Land Use voted 19 to 1 to approve a further scaled-back version of New York University’s expansion plan today. Council Member Margaret Chin, who represents the Greenwich Village area, brokered a deal that further reduced the above-ground square-footage of the expansion plan by 17.4 percent. The university will reduce the height of the Mercer Street building to four stories from 11, and the so-called “zipper building” was also scaled back, eliminating a total of 212,000 square feet. [more]

Open space between the planned boomerang buildings

Though City Council is expected to vote on the New York University expansion next week, the design of all aspects of that expansion may not be complete for decades. According to the Wall Street Journal, in their efforts to finalize a plan before that vote, NYU and City Council are nearing an agreement to hold off on setting in stone a design for the open space slated for inclusion on the northern end of the Greenwich Village superblock between the two “boomerang” buildings. [more]

City Council Member Margaret Chin and a rendering of NYU Expansion

New York University’s expansion plan passed through the Department of City Planning mostly in tact, but according to the Wall Street Journal, it’s unlikely to overcome the next hurdle — a review by the City Council — without enduring significant changes. City Council Member Margaret Chin, who represents the Greenwich Village area, said she supports, and would seek to implement, many of the changes for which local community groups are advocating. [more]