The Mayor’s development team was out and about revealing tidbits of his housing and zoning plans all week. Housing Commissioner Vicki Been told the City Council that inclusionary zoning plans would be crafted with economic integration in mind — specifically to put poor people in well-to-do neighborhoods and vice verse. Planning Commissioner Carl Weisbrod said fifteen neighborhoods would be targeted for higher density affordable housing development, starting with East New York, but that the inclusionary zoning mandates for each area would be customized based on community consultation and economics. Finally, Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen said it would realistically take one to two years to revise and complete the East Midtown commercial rezoning proposed by former Mayor Bloomberg. Meanwhile, some individual building projects are moving ahead sooner.
On the anti-development side, the Landmarks Preservation Commission rejected a hardship application from the Stahl Organization to replace the First Avenue Estates, an early tenement development, with a new larger tower. Stahl will go to court.
Also this week, Mayor de Blasio signed legislation requiring insulation be wrapped around the exposed section of existing pipes whenever the pipe is exposed, effective October 1.
That and other more significant building code changes effective in October will be the subject of a free full day seminar offered by the Buildings Department, June 10th.
The Division of Homes and Community Renewal has also updated its operational bulletins and fact sheets for Rent Stabilization based on State code changes. The changes are being challenged in court by the Rent Stabilization Association and CHIP, but for the time being at least the new interpretations are here.