Remaking, or Preserving, the City's Face

[Kris]

January 18, 2004

Remaking, or Preserving, the City's Face

By JOSH BARBANEL

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/01/18/realestate/cov.650.jpg
Amanda M. Burden, city planning commissioner, with model of far West Side after proposed redevelopment.

BLICKERING before Amanda M. Burden, the city planning commissioner, was a vision of New York City of the future. A computer animation showed the view from a car driving toward the Greenpoint waterfront in Brooklyn. The industrial buildings were gone, replaced by a stately procession of five- and six-story brick and stone apartment buildings, culminating in high-rise towers scattered along a wide landscaped promenade along the East River.

Then she moved on to a cardboard and Lucite model showing a far West Side of offices and apartments in oddly shaped towers and spires rising along a midblock park between 10th and 11th Avenues stretching from 34th to 39th Streets, part of the Hudson Yards development.

In another room was a view of the High Line, the long-abandoned elevated freight railway in West Chelsea, with a description of a complex plan to turn it into a landscaped promenade that could link up with the planned park in Hudson Yards. As part of the plan, owners of nearby properties would be able to sell air rights — enabling new structures to be larger than zoning would otherwise allow — to developers of new buildings.

Down the hall, she pointed out drawings and zoning maps for a planned office and residential center in a section of Downtown Brooklyn where height limitations and design guidelines were choreographed, sometimes building by building, to create what she called "a sense of place, a great place."

These plans are among seven separate projects that are on display through Jan. 30 at the Center for Architecture at 536 La Guardia Place. They show a city transformed, but they are only a small fraction of the planning projects and zoning proposals under study or recently adopted across the city in a burst of activity not seen in many years, planners say. "We are creating the conditions for growth where the city can handle it," Commissioner Burden said, "while preserving the character of neighborhoods."

According to members of the small universe of people who follow the intricacies of city zoning policies, from representatives of the real estate industry to neighborhood advocates who sometimes oppose them, the Bloomberg administration has brought renewed energy to the planning process, working with communities across the city in drafting master plans and refining broadly drawn zoning maps, neighborhood by neighborhood, and sometimes block by block.

For better or worse, these proposals could shape the quality of life and economic vitality of the city for decades into the future. And though they are hugely ambitious, some planners worry that not enough broad thinking has been done about what is being created for future generations of New Yorkers.

In some neighborhoods — the far West Side, Downtown Brooklyn, Long Island City — planners looking decades ahead are creating development rights for new high-rise office buildings, despite a recent glut of office space.

In others — Staten Island, Throgs Neck in the Bronx, Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst in Brooklyn and from College Point to Kew Gardens in Queens — they are assuring that the city of the future looks pretty much as it does now. In these places, the department is celebrating the detached one- and two-family house and the surrounding low-rise neighborhoods, putting in place new restrictive rules that put limits on new apartment buildings and town houses, in the name of neighborhood preservation.

"They have done more rezoning of the waterfront and made more efforts outside Manhattan to modernize and encourage the reuse of industrial property than has ever occurred," said Mitchell Moss, a professor of urban planning at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University.

And Michael Schill, a law professor and director of the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at N.Y.U., said: "You are seeing major planning for lots of areas. Every now and then you get to a period when you say the face of the city may be changed forever."

The municipal archives are full of master plans that never produced a spoonful of mortar, and it could be many years before the final fate of some of the rezoning plans is known. For example, the Hudson Yards plan may require billions in public investment before a new office center goes up. The tall buildings with public promenades envisioned for the Greenpoint waterfront will be expensive, and such projects may be feasible only when market rents or sale prices are even higher than they are now.

Yet some planners worry that the New York City of the future envisioned by city planners and the Bloomberg administration has not embraced some issues critical to the city's future: integrating affordable housing in the new neighborhoods, for example, and preserving manufacturing zones with rents low enough to keep businesses in New York.

And builders who are in the midst of a boom in residential construction outside Manhattan complain that the administration has been too quick to downzone large sections of the city, reducing the size of buildings that can be built in many low-rise neighborhoods. This has the effect of making housing lots larger and more expensive and reducing the supply of housing that is unsubsidized but affordable, especially for members of minority groups seeking their first homes.

R. Randy Lee, a builder who is chairman of the Building Industry Association of New York City, a trade group, said that on Staten Island, builders had lost the ability to build any new town houses or apartments. "Right now the downzonings are rubber stamped — good, bad or indifferent," he said. "It is hard to pinpoint this as racially motivated, but the effect is de facto segregation."

Zoning New York
A System Set Up in 1916

Zoning is a system to regulate land use that limits the right of landowners to do what they want with their property in order to protect public health, safety, morals and general welfare. It began in New York in 1916, a year after the 42-story Equitable Building went up on lower Broadway, raising objections from nearby owners.

The original regulations, as well as a major revision in 1961, divided the city into residential zones and manufacturing zones to keep busy warehouses and noisy, smelly factories away from homes, and set broad rules for each category in neighborhoods across the city.

Almost as soon as the zoning codes took effect, the major thrust of zoning policy shifted to deciding on requests for exceptions. The code was modified to provide more fine-grained distinctions within neighborhoods and to reflect changes across the city as well.

During the Giuliani administration, the planning staff and its chairman, Joseph B. Rose, worked mightily on a vast third citywide revision of the zoning code, but the effort was eventually dropped by City Hall after the real estate industry objected.

Although Mr. Rose said that the department continued to work on many other major projects, some approved only in the last year, many in and outside the agency said that other projects, particularly outside Manhattan, made little progress. They said that under the Bloomberg administration, planning received a high priority, and planners returned to detailed neighborhood by neighborhood studies in all five boroughs, negotiating design guidelines and new zoning maps.

Now that approach has led to custom-tailored zoning regulations. In East Harlem zoning was increased last summer on the avenues to support a new generation of 12-story apartment houses, while the scale of the row houses on side streets was protected.

In Staten Island a plan proposed last month by the mayor would require off-street parking for two cars for each single-family house, and three spaces for a two-family house — and give a space bonus for steeply peaked roofs. Planners are also working with community groups in the borough on plans for a vast new city park on the site of the Fresh Kills Landfill.

Although some crucial projects are in the works in Manhattan below 96th Street, from the huge Hudson Yards project to a fine-grained rezoning of West Chelsea, much of the new effort has followed the revitalization of the housing market in the boroughs outside Manhattan, where planners say they are laying the groundwork for the next generation of office development and tens of thousands of new jobs too.

Just as the Equitable Building led to the creation of the original zoning plan, new out-of-scale developments — what planners sometimes call "sore thumb buildings" — have led community leaders from Throgs Neck to Bay Ridge to ask for zoning help.

"We are seeing six- to seven-story apartment buildings where there is a lot of detached housing, and that is of concern to us," said Regina Meyer, the director of city planning for Brooklyn. "For the first time in decades neighborhoods like Bensonhurst have been asking us for rezonings."

Developers, however, say that much of the new construction is part of a decades-long process of change and some of the neighborhoods already contain a mix of single-family houses and apartments.

There are roughly four different types of projects working their way through the approval process, some in areas where zoning maps have not changed since the current system was established in 1961.

Manufacturing Zones
Offices and Homes to Replace Factories

The most sweeping changes involve the conversion of large tracts of manufacturing zones to offices and residential use, including large waterfront properties, prime locations for apartment houses. City zoning maps showing M for manufacturing are being redrawn to R for residential, or MX, a category that allows both manufacturing and residential.

In the Hudson Yards plan for the far West Side, the last vast frontier of the Manhattan office market, railyards and underused manufacturing areas are to be rezoned for 28 million square foot of office space and 12 million square feet of residential towers to rise in the next four decades around the new midblock Hudson Yards Park between 10th and 11th Avenues.

The plan calls for an expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, a Jets football stadium that city officials have taken to calling a "multiuse facility" and an extension of the No. 7 subway line from Times Square. An environmental impact statement is being drafted, and action on the plan is scheduled by the end of this year. The city and state will have to come up with $5 billion in development costs, but planners hope to recover the costs eventually with income from the projects that are built.

"The Bloomberg administration recognized a basic fact of the modern economy, the transition from a large significantly industrial economy to a postindustrial economy," said Daniel L. Doctoroff, the deputy mayor for economic development.

The West Chelsea plan drastically reshapes another manufacturing zone. On 10th and 11th Avenues in Chelsea and in some midblock areas, sites would be zoned for a mix of loftlike apartment and commercial buildings, along with a few high-rise towers opposite Chelsea Piers and near the Hudson Yards.

Portions of the old manufacturing zoning would be kept to limit redevelopment of an art gallery district that has developed there. The remains of the High Line would be converted to a park and owners of adjacent buildings would be able to sell air rights to allow new buildings in the area to be built larger. Bonus space would be provided on some blocks if developers provide subsidized housing.

In Queens, portions of Long Island City, just across the East River from Midtown Manhattan, were rezoned from manufacturing to office and residential in 2001, and there is a proposal pending to fine-tune the zoning map at Hunters Point.

In Greenpoint and Williamsburg in Brooklyn, a mile and half of waterfront now occupied by factories and warehouses would be opened to the public with a waterfront park and promenade surrounded by a staggered band of apartment towers up to 35 stories high. The maximum height of each building would be set in design guidelines, to create variation in the skyline. Building heights would step down, with the tallest closest to the water, decreasing as they moved inland to the height of the existing low-rise neighborhoods.

The plan was worked out in meetings with Brooklyn's Community Board 1 and elected officials on one hand, and developers and owners of riverfront industrial properties on the other. Community leaders, including Councilman David Yassky, say they are open to the plan but want it to include a requirement that developers who convert manufacturing sites to apartments provide some below-market housing affordable to middle- and low-income families.

City officials say they are studying the housing proposal and other alternatives. But they say that in light of the high cost of construction on the waterfront, providing subsidized housing there might not make sense and if the numbers do not work out developers will not build.

But some planners, who applaud the energy and responsiveness of the Bloomberg development team, say the administration is not beginning with a broad vision — asking what the city should be like 50 or 100 years from now. Instead, they say, planners are often responding to immediate pressures from developers and communities.

These observers want to preserve the diversity of city neighborhoods and assure the survival of manufacturing. "It is not enough to consider highest and best return per square foot," said Eva Hanhardt, a senior adviser to the Municipal Arts Society. "Owners should be able to get a fair return, but we also need to consider what is best for the health and welfare of the city."

Mr. Doctoroff said that the administration was committed to supporting the city's remaining manufacturing and that the Economic Development Corporation was conducting a major study of ways to support and strengthen industry in the city.

He said that after decades of declines in jobs, manufacturing had begun to stabilize. "The manufacturing businesses that remain have a competitive advantage here," he said.

Back-Office Space
Competition for New Jersey

Beyond manufacturing, the administration has been focused on creating an inventory of less expensive back-office space, to compete with 12 million square feet of office space built along the waterfront in New Jersey. The focus is on plans to strengthen Long Island City, across the river from Midtown, and Downtown Brooklyn, across from Lower Manhattan.

In Jamaica, Queens, where a long-awaited new station providing train service to Kennedy International Airport has opened, planners are studying proposals to encourage the creation of offices, hotels, retail space and housing, serving airlines and businesses that need to be near the airports.

The study encompasses a 400-block area in and around Jamaica, both to create the new regional business district and to preserve the character of the nearby residential neighborhoods, like South Jamaica, Jamaica Hill and St. Albans.

The Downtown Brooklyn plan calls for as much as 5.4 million square feet of new office and commercial space and 1,000 apartments, in a minutely designed plan that would allow for tall towers, including some with height limits that would require them to step back from the brownstones of Boerum Hill to the south.

During the Giuliani administration, the plan stalled and was unable to catch the attention of City Hall, said Donald H. Elliot, a lawyer and the planning chairman in the Lindsay administration, who worked on the plan as vice chairman of the Downtown Brooklyn Council, a business group.

"They didn't pay much attention to it," Mr. Elliot said. "The Bloomberg people came in and saw it as an exciting possibility and good for the long term. They went at it very energetically and professionally, harnessing all of the city agencies to participate and cooperate."

Contextual Zoning
Fine-Tuning Broad Categories

A third wave of zoning changes involves what planners call contextual zoning, the fine-tuning of broad zoning categories, to limit the size and appearance of new buildings on side streets, while allowing higher density on major avenues. First used to protect affluent Manhattan neighborhoods threatened with overdevelopment, it has since been used across the city as neighborhoods feel development pressure.

Last year, 100 blocks of East Harlem and in Central Harlem around Frederick Douglass Boulevard were rezoned to allow denser development on the avenues while requiring buildings to step back to preserve the scale and character of midblock streets of row houses and tenements. While the original zoning in the area allowed for tall narrow towers, height limits were established on avenues, setting a maximum of 120 feet, or about 12 stories, in many areas.

A similar study has begun in Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn. Fulton Street, a broad street with good subway access, would be rezoned for denser apartment buildings, while brownstone blocks would have new limits on building heights and design.

In Park Slope, Jerry Armer, the chairman of the local community board, said community leaders had spent a dozen years trying to change the zoning in the southern part of the Slope to protect brownstone neighborhoods that were outside a historic district. The result was a compromise plan that reduced development on side streets, but allowed for bigger buildings on Fourth Avenue, where apartment houses now can be 12 stories tall. As part of the deal, the city agreed to reserve several million dollars for Park Slope in city programs that offer subsidies to developers who produce below-market-rate housing. The plan was adopted last April.

The City Council must approve zoning map changes before they take effect, following a review by the local community board, the borough president and the City Planning Commission. The mayor has the right to veto the changes within five days of Council action. Maps and illustrations of many recent and proposed zoning changes can be found on the City Planning page of the New York City Web site, www.nyc.gov, under "projects/proposals."

Residential Areas
Downzoning Neighborhoods

Finally, there are the plans to downzone many leafy low-rise neighborhoods. Many of these areas are facing pressure from developers amid intense housing construction in the city More than 60,000 building permits were issued in the last 40 months, more than in 1990 through 1998, according to the planning department.

Much of the downzoning is proposed in neighborhoods that voted heavily for Mr. Bloomberg and where he is working hard to rebuild support after the city adopted an 18.5 percent property tax increase. But planning officials said their neighborhood preservation efforts are extending into other neighborhoods too.

Brad Lander, who works with community groups on planning issues, sees a contradiction in the city policy to downzone these neighborhoods. Groups he works with on the Greenpoint waterfront and in West Harlem want provision for housing for lower income people in new developments, and zoning to protect manufacturing. But when they put their alternatives forward, city officials say the market cannot support them, he said.

"They embrace using zoning in an anti-market way on Staten Island for neighborhood preservation, said Mr. Lander, the director of Pratt Institute's Center for Community and Environmental Development, "but they are not willing to use it for broader social and political purposes."

All parties in the discussions agree on one thing: the results of the current zoning initiatives will have lasting consequences. "Right now," Professor Schill said, "you are at a turning point for New York."

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company


http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/home.html

[Kris]

Gotham Gazette - http://www.gothamgazette.com/article//20040209/200/865

Embracing Growth, Preserving Neighborhoods

by Richard Barth
February 02, 2004

New York City is undergoing a building boom, with more than 21,000 housing construction permits issued last year, the highest since 1973. As a result, some neighborhoods are being overwhelmed by development. Many quiet, tree-lined communities are struggling with traffic, a lack of parking, and housing that is vastly out-of-character for areas that are used to single-family homes and big lawns.

New Yorkers in neighborhoods fiercely protect their communities, and with good reason. The problems of congestion affect New York City's long-term prospects for business and job growth.

However, halting development altogether is not the answer. Our need to house a growing population is too great.

Instead, we at the Bloomberg administration are working with local elected officials, community representatives and builders to address real problems in these communities, while still allowing housing development of an appropriate density, type and scale.

OVERDEVELOPMENT AND SOLUTIONS

Many neighborhoods are beyond the reach of subway and bus lines, and so many households often have two or more cars.
Some new developments in these neighborhoods do not have enough off-street parking. A moderate-sized lot that once would have been the site of three single-family homes, might these days be developed with as many as 12 dwellings generating up to 24 cars. Even with driveways, garages and curbside space, many blocks cannot accommodate so many additional automobiles.

These larger dwellings are possible because of zoning rules that go back four decades, which enable new housing to be larger than its neighbors. The very qualities that make these neighborhoods attractive and desirable are being compromised by new multi-family development.In parts of Staten Island, for example, homes once had big back yards; today they often are developed as multiple buildings with minimal front, side or rear yards.

Last fall, Mayor Michael Bloomberg?s Staten Island Growth Management Task Force developed ways to revamp the zoning regulations for the borough that, when implemented later this year, will result in better housing and a better neighborhood fit.

Under the plan, parking requirements would be increased from the current one space per dwelling to two spaces for a single-family house, and three spaces for a two-family home. This will require somewhat wider lots and reduce the number of units on many lots.

New rules for developments on private roads and interior lots would be similar to those for lots that face public streets throughout the city, ensuring that new construction would enhance, not detract, from neighboring homes. There will no longer be any new housing without front and rear yards, or with stoops descending directly into the street.

BALANCING HOUSING GROWTH

The Department of City Planning has an ambitious, two-pronged program that seeks to create new opportunities for housing throughout the city, and to put in place new zoning that responds to local needs and conditions.
In the Bronx, for example, mixed-use zoning has already been adopted to spur housing development in Morrisania, even as special preservation rules were enacted for historic City Island.

Last year, we enacted the first comprehensive revisions to Harlem's zoning in more than 40 years. New zoning for 100 blocks of the community will preserve the row house character of its side streets while greatly increasing housing density on the avenues, which are well served by mass transit.

In Brooklyn, Fourth Avenue in Park Slope will embrace new 12-story residential buildings, while new development on brownstone-lined historic blocks will need to match the existing building heights and footprints.

In Queens, zoning changes will ensure that new development reflects the low-density character of such neighborhoods as Forest Hills, Rego Park and Holliswood, whereas new opportunities for growth will now be directed to Northern Boulevard and North Corona's other broad thoroughfares.

And, in keeping with the mayor's ambitious strategy to create 65,000 new units of housing over five years, thousands of apartments will be built along Brooklyn's East River waterfront, the west side of Manhattan and other neighborhoods throughout the city that are well served by transportation.

Zoning for other areas will also benefit from a fresh look.

In the Bronx, city planning studies are underway in Riverdale and Morris Park. In Brooklyn, we will be updating the zoning for Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, and Bedford-Stuyvesant. And in Queens, we are studying Bellerose, Kew Gardens/Richmond Hill, Bayside, and East Flushing. Lessons learned on Staten Island and in the zoning study of Throgs Neck in the Bronx will be applied elsewhere, if appropriate.

We will insist on tree planting on sidewalks and landscaping that camouflages parking to enhance the look and lifestyle of these neighborhoods. We will distinguish between areas that are far from the city's mass transit system and others that are better served. Our lower density neighborhoods deserve the same level of attention as the brownstone blocks on the Upper East Side, which were rezoned to protect their special character in the mid-1980s.

If we are to continue to accommodate a growing population and protect our precious neighborhood assets, we must preserve the very qualities that make these neighborhoods special without stopping housing construction.

We must continue to pursue new housing opportunities in the right locations and at the right scale. By doing so, we can increase the supply of housing for everyone and preserve one of the special attributes of New York City, the diversity of housing and neighborhood choices. Here in New York, we can choose from center-city high rises; converted warehouses in mixed use areas; the "suburbs" of garden apartments and one- and two-family homes.

With creative and responsible planning, we can balance neighborhood preservation and the need to create housing for New Yorkers, and we will.

Richard Barth is executive director of the Department of City Planning.


The Overdevelopment Debate (http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/issueoftheweek/20040209/200/864)

Thinking Big Again (http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/issueoftheweek/20040301/200/898)

[Kris]

April 12, 2004

A Zoning Board's Quiet Work Has Neighbors Making Noise

By JOSH BARBANEL

The future of Red Hook, Brooklyn, a port and industrial area since the Civil War, may have been sealed last December, when the decision was made to convert a hulking six-story warehouse on Imlay Street, next to a container port, into 150 luxury condominiums with a dramatic view of the harbor and the Manhattan skyline.

The move was cheered by some residents as the start of a renaissance in Red Hook. But it was decried by executives of companies in the industrial area as a turning point that was increasing land prices and driving out businesses, just as they had witnessed on the West Side of Manhattan and along the Williamsburg waterfront in Brooklyn.

Yet this critical choice was made not by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg or by the City Council or the City Planning Commission, with broad powers to regulate land use, but by a little-known five-member body, the Board of Standards and Appeals, with the power only to carve out exceptions to the city's zoning code for individual property owners with unique hardships.

For many years, the board has been quietly carrying out its duties without attracting much attention. But as housing prices and the pressure for development have risen, critics, including planners, civic groups, council members and community leaders, complain that the board has, in hundreds of decisions and with little public oversight, reshaped neighborhoods and altered the fabric of life in communities across the city.

Members say the board is fair to all sides, and closely follows the law. But the critics say that the board has, over time, become too lenient with developers and the consultants who represent them, and lax in applying its legal standards and case law. They say that as a result, the board has been approving an unusually large percentage of developers' requests. What is certain is that despite its modest mission, the board has become a significant arbiter of land use. In 2001 and 2002, the board received 50 applications to build new apartment buildings or convert large warehouses and factories to apartments in manufacturing zones along the waterfront in Williamsburg and Greenpoint and in nearby areas, according to a study by the Municipal Art Society, a civic group that focuses on preservation and planning. During the same period, 10 applications were filed in the far West Village to convert manufacturing sites to housing.

The study also found that all of the 137 requests for zoning variances across the city filed with the board during those two years and decided by April 2003, all but 10 were granted. That 93 percent success rate for developers was an increase of about 10 percentage points since the 1970's, when a similar study was carried out.

As a result, the City Planning Commission, which is charged with overseeing city zoning, is often confronted with de facto changes, and redraws zoning maps to match decisions by the board, a case of the tail wagging the dog, planners and other critics of the standards and appeals board say. They complain that efforts in the 1980's to strengthen the board's staff by hiring financial analysts able to closely challenge developers' complex financial reports and calculations have long been abandoned. As a result, critics say, the board is too deferential to the small number of lawyers and financial consultants who practice regularly before it. Some question private meetings that board members have with applicants and their consultants before a case is filed.

"There is an active underground rezoning going on in the city for guys who are rich enough or smart enough to know how to manipulate the system," said the president of the Municipal Art Society, Kent L. Barwick. "It is totally inappropriate and unanticipated by the people who are responsible for city planning."

Sylvia Deutch, who was a chairman of the Board of Standards and Appeals in the early 1980's and later the head of the City Planning Commission, said that she did bring in financial and planning professionals, but that in recent years things have slipped.

"The problem is that in the last couple of years the board has been lax in strictly enforcing the case law," she said. "There is a perception around that things are pretty loose."

The board's executive director, Pasquale Pacifico, said that because its members functioned in a "quasi-judicial" capacity, they would not comment on any specific cases. But he said the board rigorously applied criteria set forth in the zoning code and interpreted by the courts, and often required developers to make changes in planned projects before approving them.

He said the board's high approval rate could be attributed to several factors. Private meetings with the board, he said, have led some "hopeless cases" to give up before filing applications, while some applicants grew discouraged during hearings and dropped out.

But the Municipal Art Society report said that even when withdrawn applications were included in its calculations, nearly four out of five applicants were approved.

"We do specific sites; we don't do big things," said Mr. Pacifico, who served as executive director of the Mayor's Action Center under Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. He said that while the private meetings with developers were proper, in the face of criticism, he has begun keeping a record of each meeting and everyone in attendance.

The board dates to 1916, when New York City created the first modern zoning code, and it is intended to protect the rights of property owners and prevent court challenges to zoning provisions. The board consists of five full-time commissioners, one of whom serves as chairman, and, by law, must include at least one architect, one engineer and one planner. The salary is $120,000 for commissioners and $152,000 for the chairman.

Until a few months ago, all five board members had been Giuliani appointees. Currently the four commissioners are Giuliani appointees, including two men who served as building commissioners under the former mayor, Satish K. Babbar and Joel A. Miele Sr. In January, Mayor Bloomberg, appointed Meenakshi Srinivasan, a deputy director of the Manhattan City Planning Office as chairman, a move viewed in the planning community as an effort to add a stronger planning perspective to the board.

Ms. Srinivasan would not discuss the board's past actions, but said that she planned to make the initial application process more rigorous and redraft forms to make submissions easier to analyze. "The board should be fair and consistent in its grants or denials," she said.

Conflicting views about the board and how it operates can be seen in a few recent cases.

Last month the board decided that 408 Greenwich Street in TriBeCa, formerly a gas station, could be turned into a nine-story office and apartment building because of the site's "unique physical conditions" - mainly its small size - and troublesome "subsurface conditions."

But Doris Diether, a zoning consultant for opponents to the planned building and a member of a Community Board 2 in Greenwich Village since 1964, pointed out that the unique subsoil conditions - fill and loose rock because the site was built beyond the original Manhattan shoreline - were common to acres of West Side properties, and that the lot was as large as or larger than 80 percent of the properties within 400 feet of the site.

"Everything west of Hudson Street is built on fill," she said, "There is nothing unique about it."

In its findings, however, the board discounted this testimony because, it said, the opponents had failed to provide evidence of specific lots "in the immediate vicinity" with similar conditions. It also said that while there were other small lots in the area, they "were not underdeveloped to the same degree" as 408 Greenwich Street.

Many cases hinge on owners' ability to show that they would face an economic hardship without a variance, and only a small return if they receive the full variance they seek.

But many groups who challenge applications say that the board is too quick to accept the selective statistics provided to them by developers, and does not investigate too deeply into their conclusions.

In one case cited by the Municipal Art Society - a plan to build the blocklong Morton Square residential development on the site of a truck terminal in an industrial zone on West Street - opponents complained that the developers' financial analysis underestimated the return on the new building, by stating that the project, with spectacular Hudson River views, would be a rental, not a condominium.

After the variance was approved and upheld in court, a 14-story tower with river views was marketed as a condominium, the report said.

"There is some questionable evidence that is submitted," said Christopher Rizzo, a lawyer who has a fellowship with the Municipal Art Society and is the principal researcher on the report. "In some cases the comparable rents and sale prices seem to be selected to support a low number and a hardship claim."

But Howard Weiss, a lawyer who represented the owners at 408 Greenwich Street, said he thought the board's approval process was fair and did not favor developers. "As someone who is put to the test by the board every time we file an application, I thinks it works," he said.

Mr. Weiss said the financial consultants who work with him and other lawyers were effective because they "understand what the board looks for."

Concern about the board goes beyond urban planners and good-government groups in Manhattan to community boards and elected officials in other parts of the city facing renewed development pressures.

In Queens, City Councilman Tony Avello, chairman of a Council subcommittee on zoning and franchises, said that he has long been concerned about the board's impact in his district in Northeast Queens. When he raised the issue in his subcommittee, he said, he found similar complaints from council members across the city. "I was surprised to find there is total agreement from everybody that the B.S.A. has gotten out of control," he said.

He has scheduled a hearing on April 19 on a proposal to amend the city charter to give the City Council the right to review the board's decisions, similar to the authority it has to review some City Planning Commission rulings.

The Municipal Art Society report recommended a series of smaller steps to strengthen the board's review system, from hiring financial analysts to requiring sworn testimony. It also called for changes to zoning rules to make variances tougher to win.

For instance, an investor can currently pay a high price for a building and immediately argue that he faces an economic hardship. The society is proposing that there be a presumption, open to challenge, that the price recently paid for a property already accounts for any hardships on the site.

The bitter fight over the Red Hook warehouse at 160 Imlay Street, built by the New York Dock Company in 1913, raised the same issues that have come up in similar cases in Williamsburg.

Was the area a wasteland, as the developer contended, or a stable industrial zone attracting new small businesses? Did the developers try and fail to find tenants, or was the search a sham? Was there a unique hardship because the building was outmoded, or was it typical of industrial buildings in use across the city?

In the end, the board sided with the developer on all those issues. It voted 3 to 1, with one member absent, to allow the conversion of the upper four floors to apartments, but turned aside a request to build an additional three floors on top.

Although 85 percent of board's decisions are upheld in the courts, The Red Hook-Gowanus Chamber of Commerce has filed suit to challenge the Imlay Street decision. But Matt Yates, a board member of the chamber and the director of the container port, says it may be too late.

"This is a huge building, a symbolic building, and it's fanning the winds of speculation," he said. "Rents are rising now, and long term leases are not being offered'' to local business, he said, adding, We are not even able to get two- or three-year leases."

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[Kris]

In Big Projects, Where Do The Jobs Go? (http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/issueoftheweek/20040419/200/955)

[Derek2k3]

I wonder how New York will look in like 50 years. Just the five years I've been keeping track of projects have been amazing. The city almost completed one 500 footer every season on average since 1999 and has built nearly 200 12 story buildings since. More importantly, I've also noticed that the quality of architecture seems to increase every year. Here's a quick list of the 500 footers so far.


1999

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/Four_Times_Square_25_Suns_Hung_Associates.jpg
Conde' Nast Building
Four Times Square
48 stories 809 feet/1087 feet
Fox & Fowle Architects
Completed 1996-1999

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/Paramount_Tower_1_Glenwood.gif
Paramount Tower
240 East 39th Street
51/52 stories 567 feet
Costas Kondylis & Partners
Completed January 1999

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/515_Park_Avenue_3.jpg
515 Park Avenue
42/43 stories 531 feet
Frank Williams & Associates
Completed November 1999


2000

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/The_Madison_Belvedere_1_10east29.jpg
The Belvedere/The Madison Belvedere
10 East 29th Street
48/50/55 stories 554 feet
SLCE Architect
Completed 1997-1999/January 2000


2001

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/Trump_World_Tower_3_Richard_Baehr.jpg
Trump World Tower
845 United Nations Plaza
72 stories 861 feet
Costas Kondylis & Associates
Completed 1999-2001

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/383_Madison_Avenue_2_DBox.jpg
Bear Stearns Building
383 Madison Avenue
45/47 stories 757/773/777 feet
Skidmore Owings, & Merrill
Completed 1999-2001

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/The_W_Hotel_2_JBB.jpg
W Times Square Hotel
1567 Broadway
52/53 stories 582 feet
Frank Williams & Associates
Completed late 2001

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/745_Seventh_Avenue_6_DBOX.jpg
Lehman Brothers Building
745 Seventh Avenue
32/33/38 stories 575 feet
Kohn Pedersen & Fox
Completed Fall 1999-November 15, 2001

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/Three_Times_Square_3.jpg
Reuters Building
3 Times Square
30/32 stories 555ft (659ft to tip)
Fox & Fowle Architects
Completed 1998-2001

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/The_Metropolis_5_Perspective_Arts.jpg
The Metropolis
150 East 44th Street
48/52 stories 528/550 + feet
SLCE Architects
Completed 2000-2001

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/The_Pennmark_3_thepennmark.jpg
The Pennmark/Pennmark Towers
315 West 33rd Street/304 West 34th Street/17 Penn Plaza
35/36 stories 500 feet
SBLM Architects
Completed 2001


2002

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/5_Times_Square_1_5.jpg
Ernst & Young Building
5 Times Square/590 Seventh Avenue
37/38/40 stories 575 feet
Kohn Pedersen & Fox
Completed Fall 2002

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/Ewalk_Westin_Hotel_12_cornishproductions.jpg
Ewalk Westin Hotel
270 West 43rd Street
45 stories 532 feet
Arquitetonica/D'Agostino Izzo Quirk
Completed Summer 2000-October 2002


2003

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/The_Park_Imperial_6.jpg
Random House - Park Imperial
1739 Broadway/230 West 56th Street/1745 Broadway
50/52 stories 682/684 feet
Skidmore Owings & Merrill
Completed 2000-2003

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/425_Fifth_Avenue_1_5.jpg
425 Fifth Avenue
55/56/60 stories 618 feet
Michael Graves & Associates/ H. Thomas O' Hara
Under Construction 2001-2003

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/300_Madison_Avenue_14_300Madison.jpg
PricewaterhouseCoopers Center (Formerly CIBC Tower)
300 Madison Avenue
35 stories 535/575 feet
Skidmore Owings & Merrill
Under Construction 2001-2003

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/220_Riverside_Boulevard_3.gif
220 Riverside Boulevard
Building B @ Trump Place
542 feet 48/49 stories
Costas Kondylis & Partners
Completed 2001-2003

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/Biltmore_Tower_3_Moinian_Group_SLCE.jpg
The Biltmore Tower
261-269/271 West 47th Street
51/53 stories 521 feet
SLCE Architects
Completed 2001-Spring 2003



2004

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/Columbus_Center_23.jpg
AOL Time Warner Center Tower I
10 Columbus Circle
55 stories 750 feet
Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill
Under Construction 2000-2004

AOL Time Warner Center Tower II
10 Columbus Circle
55 stories 750 feet
Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill
Under Construction 2000-2004

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/Times_Square_Tower_16.jpg
Times Square Tower
10 Times Square/7 Times Square
47/49 stories 689 feet/721 feet/726/730 feet
Skidmore Owings & Merrill
Under Construction 2001-2004

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/10_Liberty_Street_3_Glenwood_Management.jpg
Liberty Plaza
10 Liberty Street/68-72 William Street
42/45 stories 509' 7" feet
Stephen B. Jacobs Group
Under Construction 2002-2004


2005

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/731_Lexington_Avenue_11_Mr_Office_Space.jpg
Bloomberg Tower/One Beacon Court
731 Lexington Avenue/151 East 51st Street
52/54 stories 855 feet/805' 10"
Cesar Pelli & Associates
Under Construction 2001-March 2005

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/7_World_Trade_Center_25_AMD_Rendering.jpg
7 World Trade Center
52 stories 750ft
Skidmore Owings & Merrill
Under Construction 2002-2005/2006

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/2_Gold_Street_2_Rockrose.jpg
2 Gold Street
95 Maiden Lane
51 stories 623 feet/542' 11' feet
Avinash K. Malhotra Architects
Under COnstruction 2003-early 2005


2006

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/Hearst_Tower_1_Foster_and_Partners.jpg
Hearst Magazine Tower
959 Eighth Avenue
42 stories 597 feet
Norman Foster & Partners
Under Construction May 2003-June 2006

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/6_12_Barclay_Street_7_Costas_Kondylis_Partners.jpg
6-12 Barclay Street
6-12/10 Barclay Street
56 stories
Costas Kondylis & Partners
Under Construction 2004-2006

Friars' Residential Tower
btw. 6th & 7th Ave. & 31st & 32nd
57 stories
Fox & Fowle/SLCE Architects
Proposed 2004-2006

2 Gold Street Tower II
Pearl Street
45/41 stories 558 feet
Avinash K. Malhotra Architects
Proposed 2004-2006

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/Harlem_Park_18_Ten_Arquitectos.jpg
Harlem Park
1800 Park Avenue
42 story 475/550 feet
Ten Acquitectos/Design International
Proposed Summer 2004-2006

2007

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/New_York_Times_Tower_39_AMD_Rendering.jpg
The New York Times Building
620 Eighth Avenue
52 stories 748 feet to roof-840 to ceramic screens- 1,142ft to tip of spire
Renzo Piano/ Fox & Fowle Architects
Proposed 1st quarter 2004-2007

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/80_South_Street_Tower_8_Calatrava.jpg
80 South Street Tower
80 South Street
54 stories 835 feet to roof-1,000 feet to spire
Santiago Calatrava
Proposed 2005/2006-2007

170 William Street
~60 stories
Dev- Forest City Ratner
Frank Gehry & Partners
Proposed 2005-2007?

2008

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/Freedom_Tower_33_LMDC.jpg
Freedom Tower
World Trade Center Site
70 stories 1,776 feet 2,100 feet
Studio Daniel Libeskind
Proposed July 4,2004-2008/2009

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/One_Bryant_Park_9_Cook_Fox_001.jpg
One Bryant Park
Sixth & West 42nd/1101 Avenue of the Americas
57 stories 960 ft/1,200 to antenna
Cook + Fox Architects
Proposed 2003-Early 2008

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/Battery_Park_City_Site_26_3_DowntownExpress.jpg
Goldman Sachs Tower
Battery Park City Site 26
40/48 stories 800 feet
Pei, Cobb, Freed & Partners
Proposed 2005-2008/2009

New U.N. Building
East 42nd Street
Fumihiko Maki
35 stories 500 feet
Proposed 2005-2008


Some projects that don't have dates yet:

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/WTC_Studio_Daniel_Libeskind_82_Studio_Libeskind.jp g
WTC Studio Daniel Libeskind Tower II
World Trade Center Site
70 stories 1,110 feet
Studio Daniel Libeskind
Proposed

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/1_New_York_Place_1_NYT_JMGarcia.jpg
1 New York Place/First New York Place
Broadway, between Fulton and John Streets
90 stories 1,050 feet
Dev-Davis & Parteners ?KPF?
Proposed

WTC Studio Daniel Libeskind Tower III
WTC Site
65 stories 1,025 ft
Studio Daniel Libeskind
Proposed

WTC Studio Daniel Libeskind Tower IV
WTC Site
60 stories 960 ft
Studio Daniel Libeskind
Proposed

WTC Studio Daniel Libeskind Tower V
Deutche Bank Site/130 Liberty Street
50 stories 871 feet
Studio Daniel Libeskind
Proposed

708 First Avenue
FSM East River Development
~880 feet/1,100 feet
SKidmore Owings & Merrill/Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
Proposed

Ninth Avenue Tower
375 Ninth Avenue/401 West 31st Street
51 stories 754 feet
Kohn Pedersen & Fox
Proposed

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/Pennsylvania_Hotel_Tower_4_Dbox.jpg
Pennsylvania Hotel Tower
15 Penn Plaza/ 1 Penn Plaza
64 stories
Dev-Vornado Realty Trust
Proposed

Max Capital Residential Tower
Tenth Avenue & 33rd Street
~64 stories
Kohn Pedersen & Fox
Proposed

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/PABT_Tower_6_Dbox.jpg
Port Authority Bus Terminal Tower
20 Times Square/ SW corner of 42nd & Eighth
42 stories ~600 ft
Skidmore Owings & Merrill
Proposed

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/270_Greenwich_Street_13_SOM.jpg
270 Greenwich Street
38 stories 596 feet 8 inches/50-60 story residential tower
Skidmore Owings & Merrill
Proposed

235 West 51st Street
55 story 585 feet
Fox & Fowle Architects
Proposed

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/11_Times_Square_5_Fox_Fowle_NYPost.jpg
Times Square Plaza
11 Times Square
35 stories 565 feet
Fox & Fowle Architects
Proposed

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/River_Place_Phase_II_4_Silverstein_Properties.jpg
River Place Phase II/Javitz Center Hotel??
53 stories 559 feet
600 West 42nd Street
Costas Kondylis & Partners
Proposed 2003-2004

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/QueensPort_1_QueensWest_LCOR.jpg
QueensPort Tower I
Queens West
530 feet
Kohn Pedersen & Fox
Proposed

QueensPort Tower II
Queens West
530 feet
Kohn Pedersen & Fox
Proposed

QueensPort Tower III
Queens West
530 feet
Kohn Pedersen & Fox
Proposed

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/Willoughby_and_Flatbush_Tower_2_Gulcrapek.jpg
Willoughby and Flatbush Tower
Willoughby and Flatbush Avenues
33 stories >512 feet
Kohn Pedersen & Fox ?
Proposed

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/237_Park_Avenue_2_Skidmore_Owings_Merrill.jpg
237 Park Avenue
50 stories
Skidmore Owings & Merrill/ Kohn Pedersen & Fox
Proposed (earliest completion date is 2007)

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/4_Hudson_Square_4_Mr_Office_Space.jpg
4 Hudson Square
304 Hudson Street
32/38 stories 1.2 msf ~500 feet
Kohn Pedersen & Fox Architects
Proposed

400 West 33rd Street
Zoned for 33 stories 1.1 msf (1,091,000) Previous design 3 stories 486 feet.
Developers-Schulweis Realty and Tishman Speyer
Proposed

450 West 33rd Street Expansion
450 West 33rd Street
atleast 20 additional office floors of office above 16 existing
Kohn Pedersen & Fox
Proposed

Courtyard by Marriott
~400 room hotel w/ luxury condos possibly on top
northwest corner of Broadway and 54th Street
Dev-Harry Gross
Proposed

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/FSM_East_River_Development_6_Richard_Meier_Partner s.jpg
- ~5 more 500+ towers at the East River Realty Development Site
http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/Brooklyn_Nets_Stadium_64_Kris.jpg
- 2 towers at the Brooklyn Atlantic Yards Site
http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/Midtown_East_5.jpg
- Atleast 1 tower in the Midtown East plan.

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Derek2k3/West_Side_Master_Plan_24_3D_Win.jpg
- And God knows how many in the plans for the Madison Square Garden
Site, The Far West Side, Trump Place Office Development, and Manhattan Landing.

[Archit_K]

Sweet!!!!!!!!!!!

[Derek2k3]

:roll: lol

[Archit_K]

lol :lol:

[Gulcrapek]

You da man.

You might want to take 270 Greenwich off and just leave it a site name. The office building (or at least that incarnation) is dead.

[NewYorkYankee]

How exciting! Kudos to the Derek!

[Derek2k3]

Thanks

[krulltime]

City lives, dies by Silver sword
Assembly speaker's obstruction tactics delay key projects; are gains worth it?

By Anne Michaud
Published on May 24, 2004

It's a typical morning at the South Ferry subway station. Passengers crowd out of the front five cars, the only section of train that fits along the stunted platform. They rush up a single concrete stairway in time to meet hundreds of people, just off the Staten Island Ferry, pushing down the same packed staircase.

An impressive group of powerful officials, including the governor and the mayor, and an array of transportation interests that rarely stand together, agree that the South Ferry station needs renovating. But when the station expansion came before a legislative panel last month, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver told his representative on the panel to vote no.

Mr. Silver's office says he wants to protect a temporary World Trade Center memorial in Battery Park. But the memorial is scheduled to move anyway. Insiders say that Mr. Silver's real motivation is to net himself another bargaining chip to trade for something else that he wants later.

After 10 years as the hard-dealing speaker of the state Assembly, this is how Mr. Silver has come to operate. When he negotiates, he refuses to settle on anything until he has won agreement on everything.

This strategy has enormous consequences for New York City because it has resulted in inaction on a long list of issues that are crucial to the city, home to Mr. Silver's own Assembly district on the Lower East Side.

The stakes are especially high now, with several projects waiting for the logjam to break: public school funding; the development of Manhattan's far West Side; renewal of the Relocation Employment and Assistance Program, which is needed to keep companies from leaving the city; and the Article X energy plant siting law, which holds the key to resolving the city's growing electricity shortage.

"He generally holds up everything so he can use it to get his bills through," says an industry source who requested anonymity--like more than a dozen people interviewed who do not want to antagonize Mr. Silver. "I could argue that it's a great strategy or a terrible way to run a government, depending on which side of the issue I'm on for that day."

Three peas in a pod

Many observers of state politics say his tactics are no different from those of the other members of the fabled "three men in a room," who hammer out the major decisions of state government: Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Gov. George Pataki. Some say Mr. Silver's actions are more extreme because he is the only Democrat of the three.

"They all do it. Anything of consequence gets held hostage," says Blair Horner, chief legislative analyst for the New York Public Interest Research Group. "Silver does it, and as the one Democrat, he is in a more defensive position."

Assessing whether the strategy is successful or not is difficult. In 1996, Mr. Pataki held out for a package of reforms of workers' compensation, and the pressure to pass a budget grew so great that Mr. Silver had to give in without gaining anything in return. Last year, Mr. Bruno won the struggle over strengthening the rent control law by threatening to let it lapse.

At other times, the speaker's tactics have won the day, as in 1997, when he held up the state budget to win concessions on rent control, or last year, when he refused to settle on a budget until he received funds for the Second Avenue subway.

Mr. Silver's admirers credit him with gaining millions of dollars for health care and education, for passing laws against bias crime and assault weapons, and for fighting a full decade for a state bottle bill.

"With Bruno and Pataki in control, the only way we could have gotten the money we've gotten for those issues was to agree not to agree," says one Assembly Democrat. "The things we want are as important as what they want."

A spokesman for Mr. Silver adds that his every position reflects the wishes of the Democratic majority members. "This is where he gets his authority," the spokesman says.

Despite gains, important issues stay unresolved year after year, such as tort reform, Medicaid cost containment and brownfields development, which was passed in a watered-down form last year.

Today, for example, industry and unions are pressing for more reform of workers' compensation, which in singular Albany logic has been tied to raising the minimum wage. On one hand, employers claim that the high insurance rates are putting them out of business. On the other hand, unions say New York families cannot survive on low disability payments or a $5.15-per-hour minimum wage.

Also hanging on Albany's approval is the most important Manhattan commercial expansion in decades, on the far West Side. Mr. Silver recently has signaled his intent to put the brakes on the development by vetoing $5 million to study the No. 7 subway line extension and by decrying the shift of $350 million in profits from the Battery Park City Authority to the expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.

The West Side project includes infrastructure improvements to support office development and the construction of a stadium. Not only is the project key to New York City's 2012 Olympics bid, but it also would boost tourism and jobs and capture firms that are now finding homes elsewhere, often across the Hudson River in New Jersey.

Consistent tardiness

The hostage-taking is on display each year when it comes time to pass economic development funding. It is always one of the last items to be negotiated, partly because it is discretionary spending. With the state budget behind schedule for the 20th straight year, companies must scramble to stretch their budgets while awaiting promised grant money.

When the Sept. 11 terrorist attack hit, the Empire State Development Corp. did not have its usual $40 million to $50 million in funding to assist businesses because the state budget was especially late that year.

Small wonder, observers say, that lower Manhattan failed to win an ESDC designation as a tax-free Empire Zone.

"Quite frankly, people pay him (Mr. Silver) back by not doing things for him," says the leader of a statewide industry group.

Back at South Ferry, the city stands to lose $400 million in federal funds set aside for the project. Peter Kalikow, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, met with Mr. Silver earlier this month to try to change his mind. Spokesmen for both sides refused to say whether they had made any progress toward a compromise.

Blocking a project blessed by the federal government makes New York appear absurd in Washington, D.C., and, very possibly, to people thinking of bringing their business here.

"Maybe it works for Shelly to be enigmatic in negotiations," says one critic. "But to the degree that these things drag on and on, it makes New York look like a Third World country."

Copyright 2004, Crain Communications, Inc

[krulltime]

Back at South Ferry, the city stands to lose $400 million in federal funds set aside for the project. Peter Kalikow, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, met with Mr. Silver earlier this month to try to change his mind. Spokesmen for both sides refused to say whether they had made any progress toward a compromise.

Please Mr. Silver change your mind!!! What are you thinking? ~ Words from a true democrat.

[krulltime]

Where is Manhattan’s next hot area?
“Bridging Neighborhoods” concept shows developers where to build next to reap returns

By Melissa Dehncke-McGill, April 2004

Manhattanites are famously particular in their hunt for bargains, particularly when it comes to real estate. On the crowded, pricey island, livable and desirable neighborhoods that haven’t felt the hand of gentrification and rising prices are thin on the ground.

So where do developers turn?

Bellmarc principal Neil Binder says many developers use a method called "bridging neighborhoods," when they look for deals in Manhattan.

Development is expensive in Manhattan, and so the search for pockets of space that can be improved needs to account for existing areas of prosperity and established cost levels that can be expanded to support new residential buildings. Binder says developers use two basic methods to bridge neighborhoods.

The most common approach developers take is "expanding the coast," by determining where the area of prosperity in a neighborhood terminates and then going up a block.

The other involves "bridging between two islands of prosperity," says Binder, "This is more exciting, because you can usually buy a property cheaper there than with expanding the coast."

Jon McMillan, director of planning at Rockrose Development, calls the concept "pushing" - expanding the boundaries in an existing neighborhood.

"More or less it’s pushing the boundaries from two directions and meeting in the middle," he said.

"The Park Imperial is in an area that I consider bridging to the Time Warner Center and is presenting itself as a premier building," Binder says.

With prices of $1,800 to $2,000 per foot, the Park Imperial is 25 percent per foot less than Time Warner. "When a few more buildings are built around that area its price will go up considerably," he says.

David Picket, president of development at the Gotham Organization, believes there are clear signs when a neighborhood is about to become hot, and the trick is to get there first before the prices become insanely expensive.

"If a couple of hip trendy restaurants open, usually after galleries do, it is a good indication of where things are going," he said. "Hopefully your building goes up once everyone has figured out it is a hot area and not before."

Zoning changes, current city planning and the proximity of transportation are also important factors. "It’s applying common sense and your knowledge of the city," Picket said. "The magic is the timing."

According to Binder, typical apartment prices relate to the "island of prosperity" near it, and are generally 15 to 20 percent lower in the areas between. Exceptions depend on the quality of the building.

[b]The city is currently working on zoning changes along the High Line, the elevated railroad stretching from the Javits Center to Gansevoort Street and Midtown West. Both developers agree that over the next five to 10 years there will be a lot of activity in the areas between 10th Ave. and 37th St. and between midtown and the Javits Center.

"As a developer, there are very few places left to develop," says Picket. "With the city’s remapping of the High Line, it’s a feeding frenzy going on over there from the 20s and 30s on the far West Side. In rezoning, there are some reasonable sites."

McMillan also notes there are underdeveloped swaths in the center of Manhattan, from Fifth Avenue to Broadway, between 23rd and 42nd Streets. "No one has invested anything in years," he says.

He says that Broadway between 23rd and 34th streets, in particular, is a land that time forgot. With the profusion of street vendors in the area, it’s like a "third world bazaar" that exists in the center of Manhattan, says McMillan.

"Those are areas that could be bridges or incorporated into the existing community, but it can’t happen until the city decides to do it on a policy level," he says.

Both McMillan and Picket agree that the financial district will be very interesting to watch as development moves forward.

"It’s hard to take a neighborhood with an entrenched character and change it," says McMillan. "It’s harder to change people’s ideas and get them to think in an entirely different way about an office market that does not have a lot of sunlight, trees, or parks."

"Down there you are close to the waterfront and the sense of history is so profound," he says. "It’s never going to be family central, but it could be fascinating, challenging and dramatic on its own terms."

Binder believes that right now Times Square along the theater district is where the next big value is going to be, and McMillan agrees its only a matter of time before residential pockets pop up there. In particular, Binder points to the area around Eighth Avenue , between 44th and 58th streets.

Another up and coming area is East Midtown, from 54th St. to 65th St. The nearly completed Bloomberg Tower will help make the area more desirable, Binder says.

Copyright 2003-2004 The Real Deal.

[billyblancoNYC]

Yeah, 5th to B'way in the 20's and 30's is decrepit. Just the parking lots alone would allow for a housing boom. It's a matter of time...by Flatiron, Chelsea, Hell's Kitchen, etc.

[Kris]

December 29, 2004

An Aesthetic Watchdog in the City Planning Office

By ROBIN POGREBIN

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2004/12/29/arts/burd.1.184.jpg
Amanda M. Burden in her office.

She is loath to go into detail, but Amanda M. Burden is clearly not crazy about the design for a Jets stadium on the Far West Side of Manhattan. As director of the City Planning Department, she has built her reputation on concern for aesthetics: how a building looks, how it relates to the street, how it serves the people who use its public spaces. The proposed $1.4 billion stadium, a colossal complex with blinking images on its facade, has been faulted by critics for its visual noise and the way it would block views of the Hudson.

Yet much is riding on the proposal. For one thing, it is a pet project of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his deputy mayor, Daniel L. Doctoroff, who say it would advance New York's bid for the 2012 Olympics.

And Ms. Burden is a good soldier. In a recent interview, she would go only so far as to say the stadium could be "even better."

"We've been pushing the Jets very, very hard to improve the design - I am very intent on doing that," she said. "It should be an exciting experience."

Such is the balancing act for the city planning director as she strives to raise the bar for new architecture in New York. Yet Ms. Burden is making a significant impact, architects and planning experts say. She has not only repeatedly sent architects back to the drawing board, but also spurred commercial development in once-dormant neighborhoods like downtown Brooklyn and Long Island City, Queens; sought to preserve the character of others like the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx through zoning changes; and improved plazas and parks by backing the current renovation of Columbus Circle, for example, or by proposing new design guidelines for all privately owned public spaces.

"I believe that by raising expectations, higher standards will become the norm," she said in an interview at her office.

Compared with a Robert Moses, the think-big public works czar who imposed a sweeping vision on highways and parks across the city from the 1930's to the 60's, Ms. Burden might be considered an aesthetic watchdog. "She is the design conscience of New York," said Robert Yaro, president of the Regional Plan Association, an influential private research agency that opposes the stadium. "We just haven't had this design sensibility in City Hall - maybe ever. You're seeing that in the quality of public and private design, whether it's an office building in Midtown or the Brooklyn waterfront."

Historically, the City Planning Department has focused more on responding to developers' proposals than on trying to mold them. The last time the city took an aggressive role in architecture was in the 1960's, when the heady social ideals of urban planning drew many architects to public service in the Lindsay administration.

"It's hard because New York doesn't believe in planning," said Hugh Hardy, a prominent architect. "The plan was the grid - and to make money by increasing density."

In devising urban design master plans, Ms. Burden has set enforceable guidelines like those for Hudson Yards that mandate retail spaces with a sense of continuity and transparency, ample sidewalk widths, trees along the street, adequate tower setbacks and limits on tower widths. Without Ms. Burden, there might be no High Line project, its supporters say, a plan for a 22-block elevated garden stretching from the downtown meatpacking district to 34th Street on Manhattan's West Side. Friends of the High Line, a nonprofit group, says that Ms. Burden made a compelling case for the project to Mayor Bloomberg, who initially opposed it, and fostered the design competition that attracted top-flight architects, including the winners, Diller, Scofidio & Renfro.

Other prominent commissions awarded through Ms. Burden's influence include Richard Rogers's new East River waterfront in Lower Manhattan - which calls for better access, amenities and open space - and the transformation of Staten Island's Fresh Kills landfill into 2,200 acres of new park and recreation. Ms. Burden is overseeing the master planning process for both.

Some might assume that Ms. Burden coasted into office because of her social connections: she is a stepdaughter of the CBS founder William S. Paley, the former wife of media moguls (Carter Burden, then Steve Ross) and the companion of Charlie Rose, the talk show host, with whom she is frequently photographed at glamorous events.

But she was hardly a shoo-in: she had supported Mark Green, Mr. Bloomberg's opponent, in the mayoral race, and Mr. Doctoroff wanted Alexander Garvin, then chief planner for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.

Yet she had earned her credentials, overseeing the planning of Battery Park City for 10 years, starting in 1983, while pursuing her master's degree in urban planning at Columbia University.

And although her elegant black suits and demeanor are not what you might ordinarily expect to find under the fluorescent lights at public hearings, she appears to be holding her own, even in politically charged projects like rebuilding ground zero.

"She's been a strong advocate for a large amount of public space - ensuring that it is integrated within the site but also with the Lower Manhattan community," said Kevin M. Rampe, the president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. At the same time, Ms. Burden is fiercely discreet, those who have worked with her say. On the stadium, for example, she has made a point of keeping her differences with Mr. Doctoroff under wraps.

In person, Ms. Burden is similarly opaque: expansive about her projects but circumspect about personal matters or interdepartmental dynamics.

Ms. Burden also serves as chairwoman of the City Planning Commission, the department's policymaking body, through which she sets design standards.

"Good architecture is good economic development," she said.

Historically, developers have chafed at being saddled with prominent architects, because architects can slow the building process with design concerns. But these days, they often have little choice.

"Developers now go to better architects because they know excellence is required," said Frederic Schwartz, a Manhattan architect.

John E. Zuccotti, co-chairman of the Brookfield Properties Corporation, the largest downtown landlord, said Ms. Burden's design agenda occasionally made waves because it slowed or complicated the building process.

"It sometimes annoys people because the City Planning Department is not supposed to focus on architecture," said Mr. Zuccotti, himself a former Planning Commission chairman. "It's sometimes not the most efficient approach, but she has her role. Only time will tell whether she pushes it too far."

By many accounts, she has been careful not to push it too far with Mr. Doctoroff, who as deputy mayor for economic development is a booster for timely construction. Mr. Doctoroff said he and Ms. Burden had clashed "from time to time" on such matters but added that the disagreements were "nothing terribly dramatic."

"She clearly pushes people," he said, "but I think in ways that most have found helpful."

"Sure it costs more," Mr. Doctoroff said of the design process. "It's more difficult when you hire a famous architect; you have sometimes less control over your project. You're dealing with people who have a real desire to put art into buildings, and that complicates the building process."

Ms. Burden also makes a point of sounding out neighborhoods about development projects, like asking Harlem residents about their hopes for 125th Street. "The community is not going to buy in unless it reflects their culture," she said.

Being heard on development projects doesn't mean residents are happy about them. The Greenpoint Waterfront Association for Parks and Planning, an advocacy group for North Brooklyn, has yet to support plans for the Greenpoint-Williamsburg waterfront, a residential and park project. The group argues that the plan fails to guarantee affordable housing and enough new parks and open space.

At the same time, the community advocates say, they do not fault Ms. Burden. "Amanda is doing her job," said Joseph Vance, a co-chairman of the association. "She doesn't control the purse strings. She can only do what she can do."

Members of Community Board 4, which covers the Far West Side, oppose the Jets stadium but say Ms. Burden is not to blame. "Amanda clearly has a commitment to community input into land-use planning, and that is a refreshing change from prior administrations," said Anna Hayes Levin, a vice chairwoman of the community board. "But she has a boss who is determined to make this plan work and therefore has her hands tied."

Ms. Burden defends the project. "This is for long-term growth - and that's just 10 percent growth over the next 30 or 40 years," she said. "We think that's the right thing to do."

She said she had already made a difference in the project, proposing parks on four sides and insisting on retail and active public uses to create more sidewalk vitality.

"You can measure the health of the city in the vitality of the street life," Ms. Burden said. "That's true in Bayside, Tottenville or on Madison Avenue. That's what people focus on - what's right in front of them."

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[Kris]

Guess Who the City Is Hiring to Do Some Planning

BY CHRISTINA ROGERS - Special to the Sun

March 3, 2005

New York has long lagged behind such cities as Paris, London, and Tokyo in its reputation for cutting edge architecture. Recently, though, it has had its internationally recognized triumphs, such as Yashio Taniguchi's expansion of the Museum of Modern Art and Richard Meier's shiny new condominiums in Chelsea. While private developers and wealthy cultural institutions are busy molding the city's skyline, the Department of City Planning has begun helping to bring some of that high design to the streets below.

As part of an initiative to step up the quality of urban design, the city agency is hiring high-profile, trend-savvy architects who are in effect acting as urban planners, in the first widespread planning effort since the 1960s that includes a comprehensive rezoning effort, several large-scale building projects, and architectural competitions.

"We are not just rezoning but trying to think comprehensively about how to preserve affordability, street vitality, and open public spaces," the director of the department, Amanda Burden, said. The idea, she said, is to be proactive and think intelligently about urban growth. By offering well-articulated master plans, the city hopes to give developers blueprints to build upon.

While architects have been involved for decades in city planning initiatives, not since the 1960s has the city taken such bold steps or given so much prominence to progressive architectural ideas in the realm of city planning, architecture experts say.

"Before, it was always the firms that did business as usual that got all the planning commissions," a partner at SHoP/Sharples Holden Pasquarelli, Gregg Pasquarelli, said. "Now there is a clear indication that 'business as usual' is not enough for a city as important as New York."

The city, under the direction of Ms. Burden, is both raising the bar on New York's design expectations and attracting attention through its use of design competitions, a method long favored by many cities in Europe. Architects who have excelled on the international scene are winning some of New York City's most coveted planning projects.

"If you had told me in January 2001 that Libeskind would be doing a major master plan in Lower Manhattan, I would have said you are crazy," a senior editor at Architectural Record magazine, Clifford Pearson, said, speaking of Daniel Libeskind, who created a master plan for ground zero. "But a lot has changed since then."

Mr. Libeskind's plan may be New York's most prominent, but more than a dozen other large-scale planning projects are on the drafting boards for sites in all the boroughs.

A leading British architectural firm, Richard Rogers Partners, along with a seven-year-old design firm, ShoP/Sharples Holden Pasquarelli, is working on a master plan for a stretch of the East River waterfront. The plan, which curves around the tip of Manhattan from Battery Park City to the East River Park, is intended to open public access to the waterfront for much of the Financial District by building a series of parks and recreational spaces, as well as a two-mile esplanade.

On the West Side, a New York-based architectural firm, Diller, Scofidio+Renfro, has teamed up with Field Operations to redesign the High Line, 1.45 miles of elevated railroad track meandering through Chelsea. In the 1990s, Diller Scofidio won the praise of critics with such high-tech design installations as a manmade "cloud" on a lake in Switzerland. The two architectural firms plan to transform the abandoned High Line into a series of gardens and public spaces linked by a walkway more than two stories up, offering views of the neighborhoods below.

Diller, Scofidio+Renfro is also working on a master plan for Lincoln Center, which will mold the concrete corridor on 65th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway into a main campus thoroughfare.

"It's a hot scene in New York now," the director and founder of Field Operations, James Corner, said. "Ten or 15 years ago, architects would have to go to Paris or London to make names for themselves, even architects based in New York."

Meanwhile, Field Operations is turning a garbage dump into a cluster of parks and sports fields, and a patchwork of swamps and wetlands into a cohesive landscape. The 2,200-acre redevelopment of Fresh Kills, the city landfill on Staten Island, is scheduled to begin as early as 2007.

Perhaps the most provocative project is Thom Mayne's design of the Olympic Village in Long Island City. Whether or not the city wins its bid for the 2012 Olympics, Queens will still get a new master plan from Mr. Mayne, whose buildings are known for their angular forms. His East River design will include 4,600 units of new housing, including a serpent-like structure along the riverfront.

"It is not just about a business model anymore," Mr. Mayne, of Santa Monica, Calif.-based Morphosis, told The New York Sun. "Rather, these projects are about balancing human needs with economic concerns at a large scale."

Historically, the city's planning department has been more focused on reviewing development bids than molding them. That began to change when the fabled planning tsar Robert Moses started to make sweeping changes to the city.

In the 1950s and 1960s era of urban renewal - now considered by many planners and architects to be a disaster - entire neighborhoods, such as Downtown Brooklyn, were bulldozed to make room for boxy residential towers. For decades, the failures of urban renewal have haunted planning efforts throughout the city.

"In New York, there has been 30 years of paralysis in terms of planning," Mr. Pasquarelli said, "and we are just starting to shake that hangover off, and it is time to think big again."

Many architects attribute the renewed interest in planning and architecture to the widely publicized process of choosing a design for the master plan of ground zero, which drew the attention not only of architects but also of the public.

"There was this big meeting at the Javits Center, where architects like Beyer Blinder Belle presented their plans," said Architectural Record's Mr. Pearson." And the people said, 'No, this is not what we want.' I think it initiated a conversation that is still going on and convinced developers in the city that design is something that can help sell their project."

Rebuilding ground zero may have brought the issue into the public consciousness. But according to Ms. Burden, Mayor Bloomberg has long understood that it is not enough to promote development, the city needs to recognize that sophisticated design choices directly contribute to the public's welfare.

"The bottom line is that great architects and great architecture translates into economic development," Ms. Burden said. "It brings jobs, it brings investment, and raises the property value. And the mayor has always understood this and is making a push for the city to be more proactive in bring architectural excellence to New York."

Architects are beginning to take notice.

"This administration, for the first time in a long time, has understood the bigger picture, that New York City is a world capital and therefore is worthy of the highest levels of design," Mr. Pasquarelli said. "They see it doesn't cost more money to have design excellence. It is just about making an effort to find the best people to think creatively to make a positive environment."

As many large-scale planning projects await public review and approval, however, some planners are reluctant to declare success before seeing the final product.

"The question here is, architects spend all their time designing individual buildings, so when they are given the job of designing an area or a neighborhood, are those details and design schemes able to translate on such a large scale so they will fit in with the social fabric," an urban planner and architect, Craig Whitaker, said.

For many critics, though, it is too soon to tell.

"I think the jury is still out," Mr. Pearson said. "There haven't been that many successful large-scale urban projects, but there is starting to be some."

URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/9992

[billyblancoNYC]

Study puts industrial area in strike zone

Transit a priority; other uses debated

By Anita Jain
Published on March 28, 2005

The city planning commission is studying whether to rezone 5,700 acres of industrial property on Staten Island's West Shore.

Possible options for the prime real estate, a vast area that accounts for 15% of the borough's total land mass, include business and residential development, as well as transportation upgrades.

Currently, 3,200 acres are used by industrial concerns--ExxonMobil and New York Container Terminal, among others--but manufacturing continues to flee the area. The other 2,500 acres, dotted with brownfields and wetlands, are vacant.

While small manufacturing parcels have been given over to other uses in recent years, the West Shore is the largest such area in the borough ever considered for rezoning.

"Rather than do piecemeal rezoning, we are looking at all the issues on the West Shore," says Len Garcia-Duran, director of the Staten Island office for the planning commission.

The study, slated to be finished by the end of 2006, is funded by a $150,000 grant from the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, a planning group that includes the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey and other agencies.

New auto routes or mass-transit projects are likely to be among the study's recommendations, because of Staten Island's major traffic congestion. One possibility, already reviewed by the city's Economic Development Corp., is a light-rail system for commuters.

"There absolutely has to be a transportation component," says James Molinaro, the borough's president. "There's no public transportation at all on Staten Island."

City Councilman James Oddo, who represents a part of the area covered by the manufacturing zone, agrees that transportation has to be improved. He also calls for commercial rezoning, citing the success of Teleport, a 100-acre office park with dozens of corporate tenants that's located in northern Staten Island.

Mr. Oddo opposes residential development, saying that the borough already has too much housing. "No elected Staten Island official would embrace unchecked residential development," he says.

Randy Lee, a Staten Island developer and chair of the Building Industry Association of New York City, argues that the borough--one of the state's fastest-growing counties--does need housing. "The highest and best use of the area is residential use," he says. "There's already an excess of office space and a limited number of tenants."

Whatever city officials decide, any rezoning is likely to take several years to complete. But officials are pleased that the process is at least under way.

"I don't want there to be any more ad hoc development," says Mr. Oddo. "Staten Island in 2005 is a by-product of absolutely no planning."

[NewYorkYankee]

Does anyone have any pics of the Teleport?

[billyblancoNYC]

It looks like a typical, low-rise, suburban office park. I support that, though, b/c it is a NYC alternative to NJ, and even Westchester and LI. It's something the city should push more of.

[TLOZ Link5]

For you, Yankee. Granted, not ground-breaking architecture.

http://www.murrayconstruction.com/teleport.htm

[NewYorkYankee]

Yuck, thanks for the link though! They are ugly! How close are these from the ferry terminal? Say, if you were walking (If thats an option). Also, what companies are in these buildings?

[TLOZ Link5]

The Teleport is pretty far from the Staten Island Ferry, which is at pretty much the northeast corner of the island; the Teleport is moreover in the middle of the northwest, pretty close to the center of the island. I doubt that it's a place you can walk to, and certainly not walking distance from St. George. A lot of telecommunications offices are there.

From the Port Authority's Website:

http://panynj.gov/DoingBusinessWith/economic/custom_images/02_03_02b.jpg

"The Teleport in Staten Island, New York, is a joint economic development venture of the Port Authority, the City of New York and Teleport Communication Group (TCG), a private telecommunications service provider. The 100-acre business park houses five Class A office and specialized buildings and a communications center that includes a 400-mile regional fiber optic network operating center linked to a satellite transmission facility.

"The Port Authority, originator of the Teleport concept and overall project developer, has real estate development and management responsibility for the business park, with a long term lease arrangement with the City of New York. TCG has sole responsibility for developing, operating and maintaining the communications facilities and services associated with The Teleport, including on-site shared tenant services.

"Over 22,500 square feet of technologically enhanced office space at the Telecenter building and approximately 30 acres for development are available."

[NewYorkYankee]

Thanks TLOZ. Is Staten Island very walkable?

[TLOZ Link5]

Thanks TLOZ. Is Staten Island very walkable?

HAH! ROFLMAO hahaha lol lol lol ROFL — ::suddenly sotto vocce:: No.

[NewYorkYankee]

lol, okay, thanks. :)

[Derek2k3]

WHERE'S THE REF?
Why New York needs London's development rules.
By Aaron Naparstek
naparstek@nypress.com

In the bloodsport of New York City real estate development, city planners are supposed to function as the referees. In theory, planners mediate between the aggressive, profit-focused real estate developers and the protective, neighborhood NIMBYs. In practice, New York City's referees kick back and watch Team Developer commit hard fouls and run up the score. When urban planning is working, it helps these inherently conflicting parties come to terms with each other and establishes a solid framework for healthy, long-term growth. When urban planning isn't working, you get New York City 2005: a city planned by and for real estate developers.....

http://www.nypress.com/18/18/news&columns/aaronnaparstek.cfm

[krulltime]

The face of New York City 2025


http://www.nydailynews.com/ips_rich_content/902-chelsea.JPG
The High Line/Chelsea

http://www.nydailynews.com/ips_rich_content/523-freshkills.JPG
Fresh Kills/Staten Island

http://www.nydailynews.com/ips_rich_content/28-greenpoint.JPG
Greenpoint/Williamsburg


By CELESTE KATZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

If we could look into the future, and see New York City two decades from now, what would we see?

For starters, in 2025, the city will probably be home to well over 8.5 million people - a half a million more than today - not to mention those who flock here daily and nightly to work and play.

"I see the city right now in an era of dramatic transformation," says Dan Doctoroff, deputy mayor for economic development.

"I do believe when we look back on this period of time, the post-9/11 decade, people will view this as one of the most significant building periods in the city's history."

As the city grows, Planning Department chief Amanda Burden and Doctoroff say they envision a future New York that is laid out more reasonably, is more attractive and doesn't force out all but the richest.

There are a handful of tenets driving the new New York:

*Increasing the amount of waterfront space available, and having more water taxis, marinas and other new recreational uses, such as parks and playing fields.

*Creating more mixed-use areas that seamlessly weave together business, shopping and residential areas.

*Bringing streets back to life with bustling outdoor cafes and better pedestrian access, and vastly expanding the amount of public green space for people to enjoy.

*Responding to community concerns so their specific areas are preserved and maintained rather than remade.

The spirit of rejuvenating the waterfronts wouldn't be limited to Brooklyn, Doctoroff said.

"All over the city, there's a recognition that many of the old uses of lands along the waterfronts, in many of the old industrial areas, [can] be put to use with other things that are more appropriate for this century," Doctoroff said.

In open space, a perfect example of innovative new park space planned for the future is Manhattan's High Line, an abandoned railroad track that runs for 22 blocks high above west Chelsea.

Business and residential districts would blossom around public transportation hubs such as Long Island City in Queens and downtown Brooklyn, as well as Hudson Yards on the West Side.

Much of that development is intended to keep crucial jobs from bleeding into New Jersey. Doctoroff sees a 2025 city with an array of new sports stadiums - the Jets in Manhattan, and new homes for both the Yankees and Mets.

He also speaks of a New York with enough new housing for 200,000 to 250,000 people, a good deal of it in formerly distressed areas like the South Bronx, Bedford-Stuyvesant and the Rockaways. "There will be many more options for everyone at different income levels, different kinds of jobs, to live, work and visit," Doctoroff said.

But some places will resist change as much as others cry out for it, Burden noted.

"Those neighborhoods you grew up in and your grandmother grew up in will look a lot the same," she said.


THE HIGH LINE/CHELSEA


The elevated freight rail line that snakes across Manhattan's West Side will, they say, one day become what one designer called "a mile-and-a-half of surreal gardens in the sky."

Right now, the site - owned by CSX Transportation - is off limits to the average hiker. There are plans to convert it to public land.

The city already has committed upwards of $43 million in planning and construction money to transform the High Line into a ribbon of suspended parkland running between the hip Meatpacking District and W. 34th St.

"By preserving and reusing a fantastic piece of our industrial heritage, we will create an innovative public open space unlike any other in the world," said Joshua David of the non-profit group Friends of the High Line.

Plans for West Chelsea also foresee more development of the area's burgeoning art gallery scene and the inclusion of more affordable housing.


FRESH KILLS/STATEN ISLAND


Covering 2,200 acres on Staten Island, the former Fresh Kills landfill is ultimately envisioned as a sprawling park that encompasses any number of activities and landscapes.

"[Parks Commissioner] Adrian Benepe has already said it's going to be greater than Central Park - it'll be much more naturalistic ... something we don't have anywhere in the metro region," said Planning Department Director Amanda Burden.

There have been any number of suggestions as to what the Fresh Kills site - which is 2.5 times the size of the 840-acre Central Park - could accommodate: Biking, golf, ballfields, canoeing, tennis, bridle paths, a wildlife refuge and even a dude ranch.

Fresh Kills also is projected to include miles of car paths, a mountain biking course, horse trails and a running track. The various habitats for wildlife will include marshes, woodlands and prairies.

Although decomposition of the trash at Fresh Kills won't be complete for decades, work on some parts of the new parkland can begin in 2007, after the master plan undergoes public scrutiny. Parts of the refurbished park could be created and opened to the public between 2008 and 2012, with new stages opening about every five years.


GREENPOINT/WILLIAMSBURG


In these immigrant neighborhoods that have become renowned centers for hipsters, there will be a renaissance of activity centering on two miles of waterfront.

"There will be ... water taxis, boat launches, fishing, ways for people to finally access that waterfront," Burden said.

There would be a long public esplanade to stroll, and a mixture of light manufacturing and residential areas.

Importantly, thousands upon thousands of new housing units would be built, although limits would be set to keep building heights down near the water.

Several new parks would open to the public, including the Newtown Barge Park at the end of Greenpoint Ave., a park at the end of Manhattan Ave. and a state park on the waterfront between Williamsburg's N. Seventh and Ninth Sts.

If the city won the 2012 Olympics, the waterfront between N. 9th St. and the edge of the Bushwick inlet would become parkland. On that land and the state land, Olympians would compete in events such as archery and beach volleyball.


DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN


In the city's vision, downtown Brooklyn will vie with New Jersey for any Manhattan companies looking to relocate.

With rough boundaries of Tillary St. to the north, Ashland Place to the east, Schermerhorn St. to the south, and Court St. to the west, the downtown area would see 1,000 new homes and 200,000 square feet of new retail space.

A total of 4.5 million square feet of new office space would also come with 700,000 square feet of retail.

Years into the future, the area is slated to become a mecca not only for shopping and business but for cultural institutions, libraries and performance spaces, all fueled by new housing and new jobs.

Public plazas, such as Willoughby Square, south of MetroTech, would rise, some with parking garages built below.

Flatbush Ave., Atlantic Ave., Willoughby and Court Sts. would be revamped to become more friendly to pedestrian traffic.


Originally published on May 7, 2005

All contents © 2005 Daily News, L.P.

[krulltime]

Infrastructure Fuels City’s Vitality


By Barbara Jarvie
Last updated: September 22, 2005 07:48am

NEW YORK CITY-In order to keep New York a world financial capital, the city needs to “pay attention to infrastructure, transportation and public education,” said Peter Malkin, chairman of W& M Properties, during the RealShare New York conference yesterday. One of the speakers on a “New York Power Panel” presentation, his sentiments were echoed by others on the panel as well as during another discussion dealing with the Lower Manhattan marketplace. Stefan Pryor, president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., noted that over the next six months there will be nearly $10 billion of construction activity in Lower Manhattan--a high percentage of that is for the Fulton Street and World Trade Center transportation hub efforts.

Peter Kalikow, president HJ Kalikow & Co. and MTA chairman, noted that the outcome of transportation bond act on the November ballot is the “live-or-die” moment for the proposed subway expansions on the West Side. “Investing in infrastructure is critical for New York City,” said Rudin Management Co. president Bill Rudin, during the panel moderated by Real Estate Media president and CEO Jonathan Schein. “If companies don’t want to be here our buildings are useless. Pound for pound we’re the most efficient city not using automobiles.” Rudin added that Lower Manhattan rail link connections are “really critical for the future of Downtown.”

Boston Properties chairman Mort Zuckerman noted that the public schools have a “long way to go” and that the affordable housing stock needs to increase to attract younger people. “We’re lucky that the industries that power the city are growth industries.”

When it comes to the much talked about real estate “bubble” Bruce Wasserstein, chairman and CEO of Lazard & Co. said that “internationally there is a great concern.” He also noted that the “calculus on value is multifaceted.” He said real estate here is “cheap by international standards. People forget that.”

More than 450 were in attendance at the event, produced by Real Estate Media, publisher of Real Estate Forum. Real Estate New York and GlobeSt.com. It is the fourth annual conference held here.


Copyright © 2005 Real Estate Media.

[lofter1]

Boston Properties chairman Mort Zuckerman noted that the public schools have a “long way to go” and that the affordable housing stock needs to increase to attract younger people. “We’re lucky that the industries that power the city are growth industries.”

When it comes to the much talked about real estate “bubble” Bruce Wasserstein, chairman and CEO of Lazard & Co. said that “internationally there is a great concern.” He also noted that the “calculus on value is multifaceted.” He said real estate here is “cheap by international standards. People forget that.”
The fact that NYC real estate is cheap by international standards means nothing for those NY citizens who need an affordable place to live. Wasserstein's statement has interest / value mainly to:

1) Citizens of another country and want to invest here.

2) Building owner's / developers who reallly don't give a hoot about making NYC a viable place for the millions of people who keep this city running and who do not earn enough to pay $1,000 / sq. ft.

3) The tax man.

[Kris]

October 10, 2005

In a Still-Growing City, Some Neighborhoods Say Slow Down

By JANNY SCOTT

A swelling population, an overheated real estate market and the biggest building boom in 30 years are fueling a counterrevolution in New York City (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/classifieds/realestate/locations/newyork/newyorkcity/manhattan/?inline=nyt-geo): Dozens of neighborhoods have asked the Bloomberg administration to rewrite zoning rules to rein in what residents see as runaway development and growth.

In what some housing experts are calling "the downzoning uprising," communities throughout the city want to see an end to an influx of apartments, additional people, and what they consider McMansions - and to preserve neighborhoods of limestone town houses, 1950's ranch houses, even humble wood-frame houses wrapped in aluminum siding.

The administration has agreed, with enthusiasm. Since 2002, 42 rezonings "to preserve neighborhood character," as the administration puts it, have been approved or are under review. About 3,600 blocks have been rezoned, and more proposals are on the way. By contrast, officials say, the city approved only eight such rezonings in the three years before 2002.

The demand to control neighborhood density comes as the city's population is projected to reach 8.4 million by 2010, up from an estimated 8.1 million today. There is already a shortage of housing that moderate and middle-income people can afford. So the push for downzoning pits the rights of neighborhoods against the city's broader need to equitably accommodate its growth.

The downzoning issue also underscores the ambivalence of many New Yorkers toward density. New Yorkers celebrate the city's vitality, changeability and allure, and many recognize density as somehow crucial to New York's energy and life. Yet they balk at the prospect of too much density and change close to home - their homes.

"New York's greatness is based on a concentration of population," said Julia Vitullo-Martin, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute who specializes in housing, planning and development. "And New York's great neighborhoods are the ones served by public transportation and built for density."

She said there had often been "an odd antidensity zeitgeist in New York," then added, "Density is good for New York."

Those in favor of the recent downzonings say they will protect neighborhoods against out-of-scale development, especially in places without the infrastructure needed to handle growth. When balanced by increases in density elsewhere, they say, the downzonings will also stop real estate speculation and keep communities stable.

"If you allow the character of a neighborhood to be eroded, the people who live in that neighborhood will leave the city," said Amanda M. Burden, chairwoman of the City Planning Commission. "We can't allow that to happen. Protecting these different neighborhoods, we are providing New Yorkers with a diversity of housing choices."

But others worry that the downzonings are beginning to outweigh the effect of upzonings elsewhere in the city. It is easier, they say, to decrease density than to increase it, especially in an election year. They worry that rezoning the neighborhoods will make them more homogenous, and the home prices higher.

"There are real reasons why people feel they'd rather not have new development, good and bad," said Brad Lander, executive director of the Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development. But, he added, "It seems to me that if you refuse growth, you are either implicitly saying we should change our immigration policies and not let people in, or immigrants should live in basements and attics or in the Poconos."

The rush to rezone primarily to reduce density has been felt throughout the city. Much of Staten Island (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/classifieds/realestate/locations/newyork/newyorkcity/statenisland/?inline=nyt-geo), the fastest-growing county in the state in the 1990's, was rezoned last year to reduce the density of new residential development. In Queens (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/classifieds/realestate/locations/newyork/newyorkcity/queens/?inline=nyt-geo), the city has agreed to rezone Bayside, Cambria Heights and half a dozen other neighborhoods. Rezonings of Whitestone and College Point are also in the works.

In the Bronx (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/classifieds/realestate/locations/newyork/newyorkcity/bronx/?inline=nyt-geo), proposals for Morris Park, Woodlawn, Olinville and Riverdale are under public review. Pelham Gardens, Throgs Neck and others have already been rezoned. So have Bensonhurst and Park Slope in Brooklyn (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/classifieds/realestate/locations/newyork/newyorkcity/brooklyn/?inline=nyt-geo). Even in Manhattan (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/classifieds/realestate/locations/newyork/newyorkcity/manhattan/?inline=nyt-geo), where the city has recently rezoned former manufacturing areas to make high-rise residential development possible, it has at the same time downzoned parts of the West Village.

"Because of confidence in the city, investment in housing and growth in population, we are finding neighborhoods where there's a real mismatch between the ability to build and the character of the neighborhood," said Ms. Burden, who is also the director of the Department of City Planning. "That's where communities have come to us, in every single borough, saying, 'Protect our neighborhood.' "

The problem, as she and others see it, is that the city's zoning resolution had its last major revision in 1961 - at a time when some imagined the city's population to be heading toward 16 million. Many areas ended up zoned for more development than actually occurred. As a result, much of Staten Island, Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx are less densely developed than zoning permits. Until recently, it did not really matter.

But the record-breaking growth in the city's population in the 1990's and the real estate boom that followed made it lucrative for developers to begin taking advantage of the old rules. They started replacing moderate-size homes with big ones, doubling the number of houses on lots, building multifamily housing in single-family neighborhoods. Longtime residents balked.

"People generally plant themselves in neighborhoods for a reason," said Tony Avella, a city councilman from northeast Queens who made overdevelopment a campaign issue when he ran for office in 2001. "It's usually the quality of life. If we allow the quality of life and the neighborhood character to disappear because of overdevelopment, then you lose something that the city will never get back."

Mr. Avella began making the rounds of civic associations in Queens and Brooklyn, spreading the downzoning gospel. In his own district, he hired a planning consultant, Paul Graziano, to do an independent zoning study and make recommendations. Then the Department of City Planning was asked to rewrite much of the district's zoning.

"We thought this would be a good way to jump-start this issue not only in my district but throughout the city," Mr. Avella said. "It really started a groundswell. People started to realize: 'This is a problem in my neighborhood. You know what? This is leading to overcrowding in my school. This is why we have a traffic problem. We're getting sewer backups because the infrastructure can't handle these developments.' People started to realize, 'Wow, this really does affect our quality of life.' "

Mr. Avella had his doubts about a balanced approach.

"There had always been a philosophy in previous administrations in City Planning: 'Well, if we're going to do a downzoning, we have to do an upzoning, too,' " he said. "My argument is, if a neighborhood is improperly zoned and wants a downzoning, they shouldn't have to do an upzoning. They should have it regardless of what happens somewhere else."

One of the first communities in his district to be rezoned was Bayside. There, most of the housing consisted of one- and two-family detached and semidetached homes, but the old zoning allowed row houses and apartment houses as well. So Bayside was rezoned in April to permit for the most part only one- and two-family houses in the future, with new limits on floor area and height to stop out-of-scale development. Similar changes are in the works in other communities. Sean M. Walsh, president of the Queens Civic Congress, attributes the communities' success in part to timing. "We seem to be more successful in the election cycle than in the nonelection cycle," he said. "Because I think you need votes and you try to appease or please people in the neighborhoods."

The impact of downzonings on the city's property tax revenues is not clear, housing experts said. In theory, a downzoning could hurt tax revenues in the short run by limiting new construction; but in the longer run, it could help them if it enhanced the viability of a neighborhood and raised property values.

Rachaele Raynoff, a spokeswoman for the Department of City Planning, said the city was doing nothing different this year than it had in the past. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's administration took office with an economic development plan for the five boroughs, she said, and when it encountered concerns about development pressures in the neighborhoods, the city incorporated those concerns.

Not everyone sees the rezonings as an unalloyed good. Mr. Lander said many of the recent downzonings have not been balanced with upzonings nearby, even in neighborhoods that he believes have the infrastructure to accommodate growth.

For example, he said: "They've effectively downzoned all of Staten Island. That's not smart and balanced rezoning."

He added: "This is a real problem throughout the city, preserving what people love about their neighborhoods and equitably meeting the needs of a growing city. But a fair-share approach to that problem is to ask places to balance it within some reasonable geography, rather than saying: 'We'll preserve our neighborhood. Somebody else should deal with the growth.' "

Vicki Been, director of the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at New York University and an expert on land-use law, said there is usually a trade-off between low density and affordability. "If people want low density, then there's a cost to affordability, and vice versa," she said. "If you're limiting the building in one place and you've got a growing population and increased housing demand, you've got to provide for it someplace."

Ms. Burden pointed out that the administration has encouraged housing development. The recent rezonings of former manufacturing areas in Greenpoint and Williamsburg in Brooklyn and West Chelsea and the Hudson Yards in Manhattan are expected to produce 29,000 new units. Other possible areas of growth in the future, she said, include Long Island City in Queens and the area known as the Hub in the Bronx.

On a recent afternoon, Mr. Graziano, the 34-year-old planning consultant hired by Councilman Avella, drove through the northeast Queens neighborhoods where he has spent his life, and that he is now intent on preserving. He admired the charm of north Flushing's tree-lined streets, fulminated against development excesses and pondered the struggle still to come.

"For better or worse, this has been kind of a revolution that's gone on here," Mr. Graziano had said earlier. "A very quiet, nontraditional type of revolution. I think it has changed the way that City Planning operates. It has changed the discussion. Which is all that I wanted."

He added: "These neighborhoods substantially have not changed in 40 years. What we're trying to do is make sure they are recognizable 40 years from now. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. In fact, in many other places in the country, that is celebrated. So why shouldn't we celebrate it as well?"

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/10/10/nyregion/10density_graphic.gif

Copyright 2005 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

[krulltime]

AFFORDABLE HOUSING VISION


By Lois Weiss
Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Mayor Mike Bloomberg presented his vision for building affordable housing during his next term when he expects the City will expand its current New Housing Marketplace Plan from building and preserving 68,000 units by 2008 to 165,000 units by 2013. The Ten-Year New Housing Marketplace plan will be funded without new taxes and will provide affordable homes for 500,000 people. The Mayor made the announcement at the Housing Partnership Development Corporation 2005 Recognition Luncheon on Wed. Oct. 19th.

As part of this plan, the administration will create a ‘new Mitchell-Lama’ program for the 21st century that will create at least 22,000 units of housing targeted at middle-class New Yorkers, and potentially tens of thousands more.


Expansion of Housing Program to 165,000 Units:

• 94,000 of the 165,000 units will be new units and the remaining 71,000 will be preservation. 70% of the units will be affordable to those earning less than 80% of average median income ($50,250 for a family of four) and the remaining 30% of units will serve moderate and middle-income families.


Preservation of Affordable Units with Expiring Subsidies:

• The new ten-year housing plan will preserve 37,000 units of Mitchell-Lama and other housing whose subsidies will expire and are at risk of converting to market rate apartments. As part of this proposal, the City will preserve as many as 5,000 units of Section 202 senior housing across the City. In addition, the Mayor has called upon the Commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development to work with our State, Federal, and local partners to craft a comprehensive expiring-use housing preservation strategy, the centerpiece of which will be the creation of a new public/private preservation entity to implement the strategy.


A New Middle Class Housing Program for the 21st Century:

• Similar to the Mitchell Lama plan of the 20th Century, the new ten-year housing plan will create a new program to provide homes for the middle-class.. To ensure the development of these new units, the City will create a program to lower the cost of housing construction by 25%. The cost of housing will be lowered through a variety of mechanisms, including the creation of a new public purpose