Council wants more Willets Point info
Faced with a Nov. 12 vote to approve the controversial redevelopment of Willets Point, City Council members are complaining that not enough specifics about the plan’s costs have been revealed, the New York Daily News reported. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has earmarked $400 million in the city’s annual fiscal budget for the plan, but has not shown how that total breaks down. The city has not provided details about the five land-lease deals it signed in the project’s footprint, which account for three acres of the 62-acre site. Rep. Hiram Monserrate of Jackson Heights said that the plan’s 32 opponents in the City Council are also skeptical because a developer has not been named.
Retail rent stabilization proposed
Council Member Robert Jackson plans to introduce a bill that would require small businesses and landlords to submit to arbitration in negotiating retail lease renewals if the parties can’t agree on a fair rent. The legislation aims to preserve small businesses by prohibiting large rent hikes in short-term lease renewals. The bill states that lease renewals would be set at a minimum of 10 years, unless otherwise agreed upon, and arbitration would be triggered if either party disputes the rent increase rate. The rates would allow for no more than a 3 percent rent increase each year, the Villager reported.
Affordable housing funds struggle
The New York City Acquisition Fund, which Mayor Michael Bloomberg tapped in his campaign to build 165,000 units of affordable housing, may be in trouble as the private-sector banks contributing to it falter, the Daily News reported. Partners in the $240 million fund include Washington Mutual, Wachovia and Fannie Mae. The city already faces a shortage of 100,000 to 300,000 units of affordable housing, according to the Pratt Center for Community Development.
DOB releases new crane license requirements
The city’s Department of Buildings released new requirements last month for individuals seeking Class C licenses to operate mobile cranes. New applicants must obtain certification from the National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators, a nonprofit organization that develops performance assessments for safe crane operations nationwide. Written and practical exams are part of the organization’s certification, as well as criminal background checks and compliance with a substance abuse policy. Contractors who are already licensed to operate mobile cranes must obtain the certification by Sept. 30, 2009 to keep their licenses.
Preservationists want West End Avenue to be designated historic district
Preservation group Landmark West is calling on the Landmarks Preservation Commission to designate a new historic district on the Upper West Side, including all of West End Avenue between 70th and 107th streets, the New York Times reported. The group said developers have been seizing individual rowhouses along the avenue, demolishing them and replacing them with glass apartment buildings. The Upper West Side is already home to seven historic districts.
LiMandri sworn in as DOB commissioner
Robert LiMandri was sworn in as commissioner of the Department of Buildings last month. LiMandri has more than 19 years of engineering, real estate and construction management experience, and has been part of the Department of Buildings’ senior management since 2002 as the deputy commissioner of operations and first deputy commissioner. He took over as acting commissioner in April after then-commissioner Patricia Lancaster resigned under pressure following two fatal crane accidents that killed nine people.
Compiled by Linden Lim