Housing Starts: Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning Step | Affordable Housing Jump-Start | Gowanus Rising

Rendering of Sunset Park development plan (Credit: Raymond Chan Architects)

1. Planning Commission OKs Astoria Cove Proposal “This project represents an important step toward the mandatory inclusionary housing program that the department is building,” CPC Chairman Carl Weisbrod said as he voted in favor of the application. “The Astoria Cove application will facilitate a well-conceived transformative development that is vastly superior to what is permitted as-of-right on the site.” [The Real Deal – 09/29/14]
2. Staten Island’s Abandoned Farm Colony Could House Seniors The plan for its future is a sprawling senior community known as Landmark Colony with 350 units of housing. Six of the historic buildings will be saved, with three of them being used as residences, one for “mixed use,” one for storage, and one simply being stabilized for posterity. [CurbedNY – 10/01/14]
3. Hundreds Turn Out in Quest for Hunters Point Affordable Housing, As Residents Learn About Rental Prices and Income Limits More than 400-people attended an affordable housing meeting in Sunnyside last night to see whether they would be eligible for a piece of the Hunters Point South dream. The goal for most was to find out how whether they qualified for one of the 925 affordable units on offer—which comes with building amenities such as a fitness center, outdoor terrace, internet café and meeting rooms. The complex, which contains two buildings, will be comprised of studios, 1 brms, 2 brms and 3 bedroom units. [LIC Post – 09/30/14]
4. H.P.D. Plans Major Changes to Jump-Start Affordable Housing Development New York City plans to significantly scale back regulatory requirements imposed on some affordable housing developers, all but eliminating a cumbersome design and architecture review that can take months to complete and add significant costs to buildings, a top city official said on Wednesday. [Capital New York – 10/01/14]
5. In America’s Poorest City, a Housing Breakthrough Together, bcWorkshop—led by Brent Brown, a Dallas architect—and the Community Development Corporation of Brownsville (CDCB) have built an attractive, 56-unit complex of affordable housing called La Hacienda Casitas. They completed a new hiking and biking trail through one of the city’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods; developed a prototype for disaster-relief housing; and did major planning work to improve the infrastructure in seven colonias, with an eye to making them more resistant to flooding and high winds. [Atlantic CityLab – 10/01/14]
6. Bronx NYCHA Tenants Take City to Court Seeking Repairs Residents teamed with a community group, Mothers on the Move, and the non-profit Urban Justice Center, and made their first appearance Monday at Bronx Housing Court. The Urban Justice Center filed a similar lawsuit at the Smith Houses, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, in 2013. [New York Daily News – 09/29/14]
7. Downtown Development Site Fetches $171M With many developers predicting that demand for residential property in the financial district is set to soar, the price of development sites in the area has already taken off. A case in point is a deal in which a building site was sold by a developer for $171 million—more than triple what it paid less than two years ago. In that transaction the Lightstone Group closed on the sale of a downtown development site at 112, 114, 116 and 118 Fulton St., on the corner of Dutch Street, to a California firm that plans to build a 63-story tower there, according to official city property records. [Crain’s New York Business – 09/30/14]
8. Mega-Development Coming to Sunset Park A shelved, controversially huge Sunset Park development is back — and bigger than ever. Developers are resurrecting the plan to build a massive mixed-use development called Eighth Avenue Center at the corner of Eighth Avenue and 62nd Street. The lot’s new owner is going bigger, but he said the mix of residential and shopping won’t put a burden on area streets and transit. [Brooklyn Paper – 10/02/14]
9. Residents of Lower Manhattan Affordable Housing Complex Vote to Take Apartments Private for Profits Residents of a massive affordable Lower Manhattan co-op complex have voted to bail on the state’s affordable housing program, removing more than 1,600 units from price protections but lining their own pockets. More than two-thirds of Southbridge Towers apartment owners voted yes to privatization Tuesday, bringing an end to a long and often turbulent debate which saw residents who wanted to chase profit pitted against those who feared the risk. [New York Daily News – 10/01/14]
10. New Tenant Protections: Got Teeth? Landlords found guilty of harassment will face increased penalties under revamped legislation signed by Mayor de Blasio on Tuesday, but some tenant advocates say the bill may not curb increasingly aggressive attempts by landlords to push out low-income renters. The Council voted 49-0 last week to amend the Tenant Protection Act, which was signed into law in 2008, by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The bill will double maximum fines to $10,000. Harassing landlords would also find themselves on a list compiled by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), which will be published on the agency’s website [CityLab – 10/01/14]