Department of City Planning
Streetsblog Basics
DOT to Red Hook: No Streetcar For You
Proposed Red Hook streetcars aren't worth the cost, according to the city DOT. In a presentation to community groups last Thursday [PDF], DOT revealed the results of its streetcar feasibility study and recommended against the construction of a line that would run from the Smith/9th subway station into Red Hook and up the waterfront to Borough Hall. The creation of a streetcar or light rail line along the northern Brooklyn or western Queens waterfront was a Bloomberg campaign promise in 2009.
April 20, 2011
Senior Philly Planner, Unlike NYC Peers, Says Parking Minimums Matter
We reported last week that Boston, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. are each making policy shifts to curb the proliferation of off-street parking even as New York City continues to enable the construction of more and more traffic-inducing, land-devouring parking.
February 22, 2011
Parking Minimums Make NYC Housing More Expensive, NYU Report Finds
You don't need Jimmy McMillan to tell you that housing in New York is expensive. But figuring out why the rent is so damn high, and what to do about it, is a knotty policy question.
February 11, 2011
NYC Agencies Take Home EPA’s Top Honors For Smart Growth
NYC DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden were down in D.C. yesterday to accept the Environmental Protection Agency's annual "Overall Excellence in Smart Growth" award. The EPA highlighted four PlaNYC-related initiatives for recognition: NYC DOT's Street Design Manual, the city's Active Design Guidelines, City Planning's Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH) program, and the zoning amendment that passed in 2009 requiring new apartments and offices to include bike parking.
December 2, 2010
Did City Planning Approve 430 Extra Parking Spaces at Riverside Center?
Even by its own math, the City Planning Commission seems to have approved 430 parking spots too many at Riverside Center, the new development slated to straddle 60th Street on the far West Side.
November 16, 2010
City Planning Okays 1,260 Parking Spaces for Riverside Center
We got our hands on a copy of the City Planning Commission's report on the Riverside Center mega-development [PDF], and as we reported last week, the commission is allowing Extell Development to construct 1,260 parking spaces under two Upper West Side blocks. It's possible that the number of parking spaces could drop lower when the public review reaches the City Council, where local representative Gale Brewer has said she favors 1,100 parking spaces.
November 3, 2010
Zero Parking Means More Affordable Housing for Fort Greene
Last month, builders broke ground on Fort Greene's Navy Green project, which, when completed, will add 458 homes between the Navy Yard and the BQE. A full three-quarters of the project will be affordable to families earning between 30 and 130 percent of the area median income, and 97 of those residences will be supportive housing, offering social services in addition to shelter.
October 26, 2010
Applications for Special Parking Permits Keep Rolling in to City Planning
With two days until the City Planning Commission votes on the parking-heavy Riverside Center mega-project, the commissioners had a chance yesterday to ask any final questions about the project before the vote. As it happened, they didn't bring up parking at that section of the meeting, but parking was a hot topic elsewhere on the commission's agenda, including a pair of requests for special permits to build more parking below 60th Street.
October 26, 2010
City Planning Ready to Approve 1,260 Parking Spaces at Riverside Center
The City Planning Commission is likely to approve a 1,260-space garage for the Riverside Center mega-development at its meeting this Wednesday, according to multiple sources. That's space for hundreds more cars -- causing more congestion and more pollution -- than requested by the Upper West Side's representatives. It's yet another case where the commission and planning chair Amanda Burden have disregarded the sustainability goals of PlaNYC when shaping parking policy.
October 25, 2010
City Council Embraces Car-Sharing, But Parking Requirements Remain
Attempts to expand car-sharing in New York City got a big boost yesterday when the City Council passed a measure intended to help companies store shared cars. The near-unanimous vote opens the door for businesses that have been shown to reduce car-ownership and driving in other cities. Neither the City Council nor the City Planning Commission, however, took the opportunity to maximize the impact of car-sharing by linking it to reduced parking minimums.
September 30, 2010