Gene Kaufman (Kaufman Architects, iStock)
A “death knell” to hotels in Midtown. A “big f-u to the rest of the world.”
These were just some of the comments by real estate professionals Wednesday about a measure to require special permits for new hotels citywide.
The City Planning Commission held a hearing on the text amendment that would force hotel projects to endure the city’s seven-month land use review gauntlet. The proposal enjoys support from the hotel workers union and various elected officials but has drawn the ire of land use experts, developers and hoteliers. City Planning officials have also raised doubts.
Corey Johnson (background) and (from left) Ross Moskowitz, Ken Fisher and Paul Selver (Getty)
The City Council is taking the first step toward transforming how land use decisions are made in New York, but it has a long road ahead.
Council Speaker Corey Johnson will introduce legislation Thursday that would create a new framework for city planning by setting long-term goals for housing, infrastructure, climate resiliency and other resources. The bill lays out a 10-year planning cycle that incorporates more opportunities for community members to weigh in on land use decisions in their neighborhoods.
The proposal follows a series of controversial rezonings and mounting pressure from Council members to change the city’s land use review process. During a press conference on Thursday, Johnson said he didn’t have a timeline for passage of the measure, but that it’s a priority before his term ends next year. He said he is hopeful that the new framework would put communities in a “
By MARC BUSSANICH
Credits: Dusan Petkovic
December 16, 2020 at 6:49 PM
New York, NY The New York Blood Center explained during an environmental scoping session to the Department of City Planning why it needs to upzone its property on E 67
th. Street to build a 16-story, nearly 600,000-square foot campus while members of the public expressed both support and opposition to the redevelopment.
Robert Purvis, executive vice president and chief of staff at the New York Blood Center, said that the Center’s proposed redevelopment is critical to ensuring its continued viability into the future. The existing building at E 67
th Street was constructed as a trade school in 1930, which means that it does not have the dimensions or mechanical systems necessary for a modern life-science laboratory.