From left: greenhouse (credit: Ari Burling, NY Sun Works); wind turbine (credit: Zimmer Gunsul, Frasca Architects); insulation (credit: Chris Benedict, R. A) and City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden

The City Planning Commission unveiled a proposal today to amend New York City’s zoning code to make it easier for buildings to incorporate environmentally friendly additions such as solar panels, wind turbines and wall insulation.

New Yorkers spend $15 billion annually to heat and power buildings, contributing 80 percent of the city’s carbon emissions. But building owners currently face height and floor area restrictions that can stand in the way of adding energy-saving features on building exteriors. In November, City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden said her department would soon propose rule changes to do away with these hurdles, but she declined to provide details . [more]

Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden

From the December issue: This year marks the 50th anniversary of the city’s comprehensive “Zoning Resolution,” which dictated what types of development could go where.

The rules have undergone changes since taking effect in 1961, but in many ways, they continue to reflect the concerns of a prior era — when the automobile was king, manufacturing a steady source of employment and the Internet a far-off dream.

“We are occupying a social realm that’s different than [what] we constructed 50 years ago,” developer Jonathan Rose, founder of the eponymous real estate firm, said at a conference last month organized by the Department of City Planning, the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and the Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute of Baruch College. 

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From left: William Rudin, CEO of Rudin Management, a rendering of Rudin’s conversion of the St. Vincent’s hospital canvas, and Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden

Developer William Rudin said the “economics” of his company’s $1 billion conversion of the St. Vincent’s hospital campus into a 450-unit luxury residential development could not support affordable housing, as he came under fire from community officials for not doing enough to justify a requested rezoning of the Greenwich Village site.

Rudin, the CEO of Rudin Management, appeared today at the first public hearing in the uniform land use review procedure, or ULURP, to decide whether the developer can proceed with the controversial project, already four years in the making. [more]

The New York State Supreme Court appellate division issued a decision yesterday stating that the city can proceed with the 2009 rezoning of the Brooklyn neighborhood of Sunset Park, Crain’s reported.

The city rezoned a 128-block area in Sunset Park in 2009, putting 50-foot height limits on side streets, but allowing for taller residential projects on Fourth and Seventh avenues. Opponents of the changes — residences, churches and the non-profit Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association — said that the rezoning would displace the area’s low-income families, and filed in New York State Supreme Court against the city’s Planning Department, claiming that the department had not conducted environmental reviews required for zoning changes.
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Bill Rudin and a rendering of the St. Vincent’s development

Just this morning, it was reported that St. Vincent’s Hospital is the subject of an investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s fraud unit over accusations that it purposely allowed its finances to slip so it could be sold to a private developer. Now, that private developer is making strides towards getting a residential project off the ground at the site.

Proposed development plans were certified this afternoon by the City Planning Commission, marking the first step in the public review process for a mixed-use project by the Rudin family.

Rudin, which purchased St. Vincent’s property parcels in an area bound by 11th and 12th streets and Sixth and Seventh avenues for $260 million earlier this year, is proposing a 590,000-square-foot residential development with 450 units, 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, 20,000 square feet of medical offices, 15,000 square feet of public space and a 152-space parking garage at the site. [more]

Michael Marrella, the City Planning Department’s project director for waterfront plan Vision 2020, has been appointed overall director of the Waterfront and Open Space Planning Division, Commissioner Amanda Burden announced today. Marrella oversaw all aspects of Vision 2020, a plan for a sustainable blueprint for the city’s waterfront and waterways revealed earlier this year.

“Marrella ably advanced the agenda for reclaiming the city’s waterfront and making it part of the everyday lives of New Yorkers,” Burden said in a statement. “He will provide strong and capable leadership as we go forward.”

In his new role, the former environmental planning manager will be responsible for directing waterfront land use policy for the agency and will advise Burden and members of the planning commission on planning and land use issues as they relate to waterfront and open space areas. – Katherine Clarke [more]

Extell Development intends to increase the level of below-market rate housing — to 20 percent, from 12 percent — in its planned 2,500-unit project at Riverside Center on the Upper West Side, the Observer reported. Based on filings submitted to the Department of City Planning, Extell plans to rezone the area by the West Side Highway and 59th Street to qualify for the city’s inclusionary zoning program, which gives an extra density bonus in exchange for low- or moderate-income housing. During the seven-month review process, Community Board 7 has criticized Extell over the density, and they also want one of the towers to be removed, a move which is supported by City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden. [NYO]

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Domino Sugar Factory

(Updated: 4:45 p.m.) The City Planning Commission has approved the redevelopment
the Williamsburg waterfront’s Domino Suga [more]

Domino Sugar Factory

(Updated: 4:45 p.m.) The City Planning Commission has approved the redevelopment
the Williamsburg waterfront’s Domino Sugar[more]

West Village zoning proposal

The City Planning Commission has officially certified a proposed rezoning of six blocks in the far West Village, beginning the public review process. The rezoning would impose height limits on new construction, reduce the maximum allowable size of new development,
and eliminate the current zoning bonus afforded for hotel and dorm development in the area. The rezoning was first proposed by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation in April 2008, when plans surfaced for a 100-foot-tall hotel at Perry and Washington streets. The city initially refused to consider the rezoning, but finally relented in November 2009, after aggressive campaigning by the GVSHP and other community groups. Today, the commission began the process of formally considering the proposal. Public hearings and votes of approval will be required by the local community board, borough president, City Planning Commission, and City Council. Once the Council votes to approve, the new zoning would take effect in about six months. TRD

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