“Zoning Scam”
“The administration boasts of its massive rezoning to reshape the city for the 21st century. To Tom Angotti, though, it's a swindle, promoting development at the expense of long-time residents.”

 Preempting ULURP
The Need for Planning
Community Boards

“The public discussions about the City Charter offer an opportunity to rethink the way the city does land use review and planning, and fill the gaps left open because community boards don’t have a level playing field. We shouldn’t let backroom dealing trump the Uniform Land Use Review process, let zoning trump planning, or let community boards down.” Tom Angotti is Professor of Urban Affairs and Planning at Hunter College, City University of NY, editor of Progressive Planning Magazine, and a member of the Task Force on Community-based Planning.

The new Pratt Center issue brief "City Charter Revision: Where Land Use Fits In" outlines the major land use challenges the new commission must confront:

• The City Planning Commission has ceased to plan;
• The City Charter's aspiration to community-based planning has not been fulfilled;
• Attempts to promote "fair share" of burdens have fallen short;
• Side agreements to land use decisions have proliferated without disclosure or enforcement.

Earth Day -- April 22 , 2010 - will mark the third anniversary of PlaNYC2030, Mayor Michael Bloomberg's self-proclaimed "long-term sustainability plan." While the city has taken many steps toward the plan's goal of "a greener greater New York," particularly in energy conservation, one gaping hole remains in the plan.

PlaNYC2030 left out any role for the city's hundreds of neighborhoods, 59 community boards, and the countless civic, community and environmental groups that care about the future of the city. It was a top-down plan, conceived at City Hall with minimal input, and it was never approved as an official plan. In the long term this will only undermine the ability to sustain the plan itself, and both implement and improve it.

The plan now stands at a critical juncture, Rohit Aggarwala, director of the Mayor's Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability, recently announced his resignation, and the city's budget situation and the overall economic situation have delayed and even derailed some of its initiatives. With Aggarwala's departure and the convening of a commission to review the City Charter, now is the time to fill the gap that excluded neighborhoods. An updated PlaNYC2030 could then be reviewed and voted on by community boards, borough presidents, the City Planning Commission, and City Council, as required in the City Charter.

An as-of-right development does not require any zoning change or official land use action by the City Planning Commission or Board of Standards and Appeals.

An as-of-right 500-unit apartment building in Manhattan can result in more traffic and noise in a neighborhood that’s already overburdened, and there will be no environmental review. Many millions of square feet can be built as-of-right in the city.

This is an example of an as-of-right building. It is located at 535 West End Avenue and it is 6 stories taller than the building adjacent to it on West 86th Street.

WHAT ARE AIR RIGHTS OR HOW DEVELOPERS CAN MANIPULATE EXISTING ZONING.

Unused, transferable development rights (TDR) are also called air rights. If a 10-story building could have been built as a 20-story building, you have 10 stories of unused floor area rights to sell. A developer of a site can buy the air rights from adjoining buildings and add the additional square footage to the new building. Or one could purchase air rights from a landmarked structure across the street.

A perfect example of the transfer of air-rights are the two-out-of-scale glass towers – Extell’s Ariel East (2628 Broadway ) and Ariel West (245 West 99th Street)

Developers who include affordable housing in their plans, can build larger build­ings than zoning would otherwise allow. City Planning says the aver­age bonus is about 20 percent more square footage. The affordable units do not have be included in the on-site building.

These are the changes that the City Planning Commission has made to the Inclusionary Housing Bonus program. (http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/zone/zh_inclu_housing.shtml)

But the Coalition for a Livable West Side believes that it should have included:

• All developments with more than 20 units must devote 20 percent of floor area to affordable housing;

• Affordable housing in the same locations as market-rate apartments;

• And if a developer includes an Inclusionary Housing Bonus as part of his project with on-site units and receives approvals from the local Community Board and the City Planning Commission based on that commitment, and then changes the approved plan, the developer would lose the Inclusionary Housing Bonus but would still have to build the affordable units.

Why is that important? In November 2003, in Community Board 7, the developer of the site of a former gas station site on the northwest corner of West 59^th Street and West End Avenue told CB7, that a rental building (31 stories, 350 feet) would be built with 300 market-rate units and 75 subsidized units (25%) which would be included in the rental building. CB7 approved. City Planning approved. Then the rental building became a condominium tower of 197 units. The Housing Bonus units (20%) were built or rehabilitated in CB4.

 In New York City, any proposed land use changes that come before the City Planning Commission and City Council must first undergo an environmental review, and if they are considered to have a potential negative impact, the developer must prepare a detailed Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). 

EIS's which can be hundreds of pages is written in arcane terminology. The Community Boards which have the responsibility of analyzing an EIS before voting on it an advisory capacity do not have the financial resources needed to do a thorough analysis. But they do try their best.

Once again, we direct you to an outstanding article by Tom Angotti

http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/landuse/20040720/12/1042

Variances: How  Out-of-Scale Buildings Get Built On Your Block 

What is the Bureau of Standards & Appeals (BSA)? The BSA is a quasi-judicial body created to address unique circumstances not anticipated by the city zoning law.

It has 5 members, all appointed by the mayor for a 6 year term.

Can BSA decisions create problems for a neighborhood? Yes! Here's how.

Variances: How To Undermine Zoning and Make a Profit

 "BSA can grant exceptions to the zoning law known as variances, if property owners can show that they meet the following five conditions.

1)  that there are unique physical conditions on the site;

2) the variance is needed so the property owners can get a "reasonable return" on their investment;

3) the variances won't alter the "essential character" of the neighborhood;

4) the economic hardship wasn't created by the owner; and

5) the change being requested is the minimum necessary to relieve the owner of their hardship.

"The main problem is that there's no limit to the variances that the board can dole out in any neighborhood. As a result, entire neighborhoods have been developed in ways not allowed in the zoning.

"The BSA, although not a planning body, engages in ad hoc planning, or planning by variance.

"Planning on land use belongs to the City Planning Commission and its support agency, the Department of City Planning.

"Unfortunately there are too many examples where zoning rules get changed to accommodate development that is already taking place.

"Out of 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.

"As a result of BSA's  actions,, 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.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Designation Process

 http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/html/faqs/faq_designation.shtml

What types of properties can be designated?
The Landmarks Law requires that, to be designated, a potential landmark must be at least 30 years old and must possess "a special character or special historical or aesthetic interest or value as part of the development, heritage, or cultural characteristics of the city, state, or nation."

 Landmark Bill - Languishes in City Council Committee on Land Use - 12/31/09

File #:    Int 0542-2007   

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to requiring the landmarks preservation commission to issue notice to the department of buildings when a property is under consideration for designation as a landmark, requiring the department of buildings to issue notice to the landmarks preservation commission when permit applications for buildings under consideration for designation as a landmark are received, and revoking permits previously issued by the department of buildings when a property is designated as a landmark.
On agenda:    3/14/2007    Final action (Tabled):    12/31/2009

Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation Finds Designated Landmarks Not Marked As Such in Buildings Department Records (12-4-06)

Flaw in system has potential to allow inappropriate alteration, construction, and demolition permits to be issued for buildings in spite of landmark protections

See letter at http://www.gvshp.org/documents/BISCityCouncilLetteronletterhead.pdf

 Once on site, go to menu on left-hand side under City Planning. Scroll down to Zoning, it is the last item in that menu.

Most residential zoning on the west side on Manhattan is a R10A. See below.