High-rises may be nixed on upper Upper West Side
Any plans for building high-rises on the upper Upper West Side may be stopped by an effort to rezone a stretch of the neighborhood. The local community board voted last month to prevent any developers from building above 125 feet on Broadway and above 75 feet on other streets in an area bounded by 97th and 110th streets and Riverside Drive and Central Park West, the New York Sun reported.
Manhattan DA investigating major landlord
A major city landlord accused of using aggressive methods to evict rent-stabilized tenants is now being investigated by the Manhattan district attorney, the New York Daily News reported. District Attorney Robert Morgenthau’s office subpoenaed housing records that the Pinnacle Group filed with the state’s Division of Housing and Community Renewal.
Commission OKs Queens inclusionary housing
The city Planning Commission recently approved the first inclusionary housing program in Queens, the Daily News reported. It comes as part of a proposed rezoning of about 130 blocks in Maspeth and Woodside that would allow developers to build bigger along part of Queens Boulevard so long as they provide affordable housing.
Battery Park Authority reaches east
The Battery Park City Authority wants to expand its reach eastward to the Greenwich Street South project to add parks and better walkways to the area, the Downtown Express reported. The state-funded project has been stalled financially since Gov. Pataki last year set aside $80 million for it.
City, state at loggerheads on Moynihan hub
A brouhaha between the state and the city is apparently breaking out over the proposal to turn the Farley Post Office into the Moynihan transit hub, the New York Observer reported. The state wants to start construction on the station by the end of the year. But the city wants to wait until two of New York’s largest real estate developers, Vornado Realty Trust and the Related Companies, complete a deal to move Madison Square Garden into a new arena space taking up the western half of the Farley site.
Columbia wants rezoning for Harlem moves
Columbia University is asking the city for a special rezoning to nudge further into Harlem, according to the Village Voice. The university wants to add nearly 7 million square feet of offices, research space and school housing on 18 acres roughly north of 125th Street and just east of 12th Avenue.
Public school could be part of WTC site
In response to a surge in families moving Downtown, the city is considering opening a public school in one of the new World Trade Center site towers, the New York Post reported. A proposal calls for an intermediate school in Tower 5, which will go up a block south of the main World Trade Center campus, where the Deutsche Bank building now stands.
Fulton Transit Center plans scaled back
Plans for the Fulton Transit Center in Lower Manhattan are being scaled back as the costs for demolishing buildings to make room for the project rise, the Daily News reported. The price tag now to acquire and demolish buildings for the transit center will be about $40 million higher than previously anticipated, according to officials from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Also, the center won’t be completed until at least June 2009, about two years later than previously planned.
Central Park goes wireless
Parks Department officials plan to have Central Park ready for wireless Internet access by the end of July, the Post reported. Every other city park will get the technology by the end of the summer.
City seeks proposals for West Side piers
The New York City Economic Development Corporation is requesting proposals for the lease and redevelopment of Piers 92 and 94 and their adjacent upland areas as a mid-sized trade-show facility. The piers are located between West 51st and 54th streets.