The New York City Council is expected to vote next week on the Zone Green text amendment, which is intended to remove zoning impediments to the construction and retrofitting of green buildings.  The City Planning Commission approved the text amendment on March 28, 2012, subject to modifications, and now it moves to the City Council for a vote.  The text amendment is part of a larger green initiative by the Department of City Planning to promote sustainable communities throughout the City. Read the rest of this entry »

The term “Smart Growth” has become common parlance in the world of land use planning and zoning.  There is no one definition of “Smart Growth”.  The term is used frequently and in various contexts.  Nonetheless, generally speaking, Smart Growth is associated with the establishment of pedestrian-friendly communities that encourage residents and neighbors to shop and to interact in a community with mixed-use development.  Advocates of “Smart Growth” argue that the suburbs built after World War II, which depended on access to highways and brought about the reliance on automobiles to commute to and from a city or metropolitan area for work, are no longer sustainable.  The argument is that Smart Growth is sustainable growth because it does not depend on highways and roadways to sustain a standard of living, the economy and for employment. Read the rest of this entry »

The New York State Legislature amended Section 32-7(c) of the New York State General City Law, Section 7-728-7(c) of the New York State Village Law and Section 276-7(c) of the New York State Town Law.

These amendments permit the Planning Board or other municipal body having subdivision jurisdiction to grant more than two (2) extensions of conditional approval of final plats if warranted by the particular circumstances of each application. Previously, conditional approval of a final plat expired after 180 days, with a maximum of two ninety day extensions. The new amendment gives Boards greater discretion to extend the duration of the conditional approval of the final plat for periods of ninety days at a time, with no limit to the number of extensions. Read the rest of this entry »

In February, Section 103(e) of Article 7 of the New York State Public Officers Law (“Open Meetings Law”) became effective.  The new provisions of Section 103(e) provide:

“Agency records available to the public pursuant to article six of this chapter, as well as any proposed resolution, law, rule, regulation, policy, or any amendments thereto, that is scheduled to be the subject of discussion by a public body during an open meeting shall be made available, upon request therefor, to the extent practicable as determined by the agency or department, prior to or at the meeting during which the records will discussed.  Copies of such records may be made available for a reasonable fee, determined in the same manner as provided therefor in article six of this chapter. If the agency in which a public body functions maintains a regularly and routinely updated website and utilizes a high speed internet connection, such records shall be posted on the website to the extent practicable as determined by the agency or department prior to that meeting.  An agency may, but shall not be required to, expend additional moneys to implement the provisions of this subdivision.” Read the rest of this entry »

On January 23, 2012, the City Planning Commission unanimously approved the Rudin family’s controversial plan for the redevelopment of the former St. Vincent’s Hospital campus.  Click here to see our previous blog item from September 20, 2011, which provides details on the project.  Some opponents of the plan argue that the proposal is out of scale and too dense, would create traffic, and should incorporate affordable housing, and that the site should be redeveloped with a new full service hospital.  However, despite the opposition, the City Planning Commission determined that the project would revitalize and reactivate the neighborhood.  The City Council has until March 12, 2012 to review the plan. Read the rest of this entry »

The New York City Department of City Planning (“DCP”) has introduced a new rezoning plan for the upper-west side of Manhattan intended to preserve the multi-store character of the neighborhood.  By limiting allowable retail store frontage, the City seeks to maintain and promote a diverse retail environment by ensuring that block-fronts along certain avenues continue to offer multiple retail venues, and that block-fronts are not dominated by banks, and large chain stores and pharmacies like CVS or Duane Reade.

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Christopher B. Leinberger, Visiting Fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program at The Brookings Institution, Professor of Practice and Director of the graduate Real Estate Program at The University of Michigan, and Founding Partner of the Arcadia Land Company, recently authored an analysis of the impact of the housing collapse and the rapidly changing demographics of America’s population on the future of suburbia.  His analysis was explained in an article published in the New York Times in November 2011, titled, “The Death of the Fringe Suburb.”

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The NYC Zoning Resolution turned 50 years old last year.  In conjunction with this anniversary, the NYC Department of City Planning (“DCP”) is releasing historical documents relating to the 1961 Zoning Resolution, including the 1916 Zoning Resolution, the original 1961 Zoning Resolution, as well as minutes from public hearings held by the City Planning Commission in connection with the 1961 Zoning Resolution, the Commission’s report outlining the need for new zoning regulations, and reports obtained from consultants throughout the 1950’s in preparation for the 1961 zoning resolution overhaul.  The intent is that DCP will continue to catalog years of historical planning documents and release them so that they can be researchable by the public.   Click on the following link for more information:  http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/history_project/index.shtml

In the first group of decisions to be issued in the New Year, the Second Department begins with a lesson in constitutional law.  In ATM One, LLC v. Incorporated Vil. of Hempstead, 2012 NY Slip. Op. 00173 (2d Dept. 2012), the Court held that a provision of the Village Code of the Village of Hempstead was unconstitutional on its face.  The Code provision in question conditioned the issuance of residential rental permits on a mandatory inspection of the rental unit by the Village Building Department.  The Court found that the Village could not use the issuance of a rental permit to coerce a property owner to submit to a warrantless inspection in violations of the rights guaranteed to him or her under the Constitution.  Read the rest of this entry »

The Appellate Division, Second Department re-affirmed the well established standard that the statute of limitations for a zoning board’s determination under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) must be commenced within  thirty days of the filing of such decision in the office of the town clerk pursuant to Town Law § 267-c[1].  Matter of 92 MM Motel, Inc. v Zoning Bd. of Appeals of Town of Newburgh, 2011 NY Slip Op 08945 (December 6, 2011).  However, of particular interest in this case was that the Court held that the thirty day statutory period began to run upon the date of the filing of the minutes of the public hearing at which the board rendered a verbal decision, not at the later date upon which the formal written decision of the board was filed in the office of the town clerk.  This distinction is of great importance, as in many instances a zoning boards will grant or deny an application at a public hearing and then follow up on their verbal decision with a formal written decision that contains findings of fact in support of the decision. Read the rest of this entry »