Saying goodbye to Bloomberg means saying goodbye to Amanda Burden

From WNYC:

She's one of the longest serving members of his administration, and her time as a member of the commission goes back even farther, to 1990.

Reflecting on her time in office, Burden talked about her greatest accomplishments (the High Line), the planning challenges the city must contend with in the future (the effects of global climate change) and her sometimes prickly relationship with developers.

She also had some advice for Mayor-Elect Bill de Blasio, who has a goal of creating 200,000 units of affordable housing.

"The challenge for the new mayor is to persuade communities to accept additional height and density, so that more affordable housing can be accommodated and that can be a big challenge for him. It certainly was for us," Burden said.

Burden is joining the outgoing mayor at Bloomberg Associates, which will help governments around the world implement projects based on his signature policies in New York.

Amanda looking to stick around?

From the Daily News:

Mayor Bloomberg’s chief of city planning gave an unexpected shoutout Monday to mayoral hopeful Bill de Blasio’s proposal to provide more affordable housing.

“The incoming, possible, mayor ... he says you shouldn't be able to build any housing unless you include affordable housing," Amanda Burden told a conference. “It's an interesting idea.”

Zoning changes by the Bloomberg administration have included offering developers incentives to create affordable housing. Under one change, a developer that agrees to make 20% of a project’s units “affordable” can build a bigger building in return, an arrangement known as “inclusionary housing.”

But many developers have rejected this incentive.

De Blasio backs a plan, called mandatory inclusionary housing, which would require landlords to include affordable units in their projects no matter what.

In praising De Blasio’s plan, Burden defended hers. Her staff feared extra regulations would stymie construction, she said.

The burden is on Amanda to push through last-minute projects

From Crains:

A derelict sugar refinery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the world's largest indoor ice-skating complex in the Bronx and a 63-story Ferris wheel on Staten Island are among a crush of projects that developers are trying to get through the Department of City Planning before the pro-development Bloomberg administration comes to a close on Dec. 31, and its powerful chairwoman, Amanda Burden, steps down.

Adding to the pressure on the department, the mayor himself is looking to win approval on a number of his own legacy projects, including a massive rezoning of midtown east.

The reason for the frenzy is simple: The planning commission, along with the City Council, has the final say on the shape of all land-use projects. Without City Planning's approval now, dozens of projects will need to start from square one with a commission headed by the new mayor's appointees—seven of the 13 members—a prospect that will add great uncertainty, and potentially months or even years of work.

The projects now heaped at the department's downtown door at 22 Reade St. roughly fall into three categories: city-led developments, private projects and those being pursued by private developers on public property. For many, it almost feels like now or never.

In an effort to meet its titanic obligations, the department recently added four temporary planners at its Manhattan headquarters.

"Mayor Bloomberg has asked all city agencies to get as much done as they possibly can in the next 134 days, and the Department of City Planning is working hard to do just that," said a spokesman for the department.

Some developers are going so far as to throw together provisional plans for upcoming projects and then try to get preliminary approvals for these project outlines.

Gruesome twosome may team up

Photo from SHoP

From Crains:

The city's transportation chief, Janette Sadik-Khan, and planning czar, Amanda Burden, are close friends who share a passion for creating vibrant, sustainable cities. They have been travel companions—to India, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Copenhagen—and even sat next to each other at a recent benefit gala honoring Ms. Sadik-Khan.

And when the Bloomberg administration draws to a close this year, the powerful pair could go into business together, spreading their brand of urban planning across the globe. Several former Bloomberg administration sources confirmed that the two have been in discussions about forming their own urban-planning policy institute, either as an offshoot of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's foundation or as a stand-alone entity. Another source said they were angling to open a global consulting firm.

"Those two have traveled together on their own time," a former administration official said. "They've done the urban-planning grand tour."

The pair are the latest administration all-stars planning their exodus as part of a transition that is as likely to transform the private sector as it is the face of government. Aides to Ed Koch, the last three-term mayor, turned their government experience into prominent careers. Some, like developer Bruce Ratner and transportation planner Sam Schwartz, continue to influence public policy. Top Bloomberg alumni may go even further.

"Commitments are 'iron-clad' until we break them."

176 Starr Street is located where the cars are in middle of photo

From the Queens Chronicle:

A 90,000-square-foot residential building that was presented at last week’s Citizens for a Better Ridgewood meeting to be built at 176 Woodward Ave. is currently located in an Industrial Business Zone.

IBZs, established by the Bloomberg administration, were designed to promote industrial growth by setting aside specific real estate in the city for businesses.

Though the planned Ridgewood building was well received at last week’s meeting, some are questioning the legitimacy of what City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burdern described as an “iron-clad commitment.”

City Planning confirmed that the lot is technically within the IBZ but because the area is mainly residential, the city is considering removing it from the zone.
The Economic Development Corporation supported City Planning’s claim.

“EDC remains committed to strengthening our Industrial Business Zones,” an EDC spokesperson said. “In this particular case, after reviewing the existing land use we proposed a minor change of the boundary to the Industrial Zone Commission due to the predominantly residential character of this part of the neighborhood.”

If the existing land use in the area was residential to begin with, then why was this property made part of the industrial business zone? See photo above. I would say the land use is mixed.

Seems like this is yet another example of the Bloomberg policy to make rules that you have no intention of following.

New development proposed - but there's a catch

From the Queens Chronicle:

After much speculation, plans were announced at Monday’s meeting of Citizens for a Better Ridgewood to construct a residential building at 176 Woodward Ave.

Developers “propose to rezone the site,” according to Steve Sinacori, an attorney with Akerman Senterfitt, LLP.

Plans call for a 90,000-square-foot building which will reach four stories at its highest point and include retail space and an underground parking garage.

“This will be a vast improvement over what is there,” Sinacori promised.

What is currently there is a parcel of land owned for the past 24 years by businessman Frank Curtin, who rents space on the property to trucks for parking, and which, thanks to its nighttime desolation, Sinacori said, has been used for “illegal dumpings” and prostitution.

“The block is all residential on all four sides of the property. Historically, it has been a storage yard,” Sinacori said. “The neighbors are tired of the trucks and fumes.”

The site is, however, in an Industrial Business Zone, a designation the Bloomberg administration established “to foster industrial sector growth by creating real estate certainty.”

As one area civic leader pointed out after the meeting, City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden had said when the IBZs were established that they represent an “ironclad commitment to maintain manufacturing zoning in key industrial areas and not permit residential use.”

Ariel Aufgang, an architect with Aufgang and Subotovsky, indicated at the meeting that the building will contain 88 units of housing. Rents will be around $1,000 for a studio and $1,200, $1,500 and $1,700 for one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments, respectively, he said. Utilities and parking would be additional.

On the one hand, eradicating hookers and dumpers is good. On the other hand, the City said it would not rezone manufacturing properties in the Industrial Business Zones for residential. And 88 units is a lot of people in an area with little infrastructure.  Did the City make rules that it intended to be broken?

How tall is too tall?

From the NY Times:

Mr. Bloomberg’s proposal reflects his effort to put his stamp on the city well after his tenure ends in December 2013. Moving swiftly, he wants the City Council to adopt the new zoning, for what is being called Midtown East, by October 2013, with the first permits for new buildings granted four years later.

His administration says that without the changes, the neighborhood around Grand Central will not retain its reputation as “the best business address in the world” because 300 of its roughly 400 buildings are more than 50 years old. These structures also lack the large column-free spaces, tall ceilings and environmental features now sought by corporate tenants.

The rezoning — from 39th Street to 57th Street on the East Side — would make it easier to demolish aging buildings in order to make way for state of-the-art towers.

Without it, “the top Class A tenants who have been attracted to the area in the past would begin to look elsewhere for space,” the administration says in its proposal.

The plan has stirred criticism from some urban planners, community boards and City Council members, who have contended that the mayor has acted hastily. They said they were concerned about the impact of taller towers in an already dense district where buildings, public spaces, streets, sidewalks and subways have long remained unchanged.

Administration officials acknowledged that the current market for new office buildings across Manhattan was relatively weak. For example, a 40-story office tower at 11 Times Square, at 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue, which was completed in 2010, is still not full.

But the officials said major changes in zoning were intended to make it possible to build when demand returned, as history suggests it inevitably will. In promoting the proposal, the administration has repeatedly stressed that Midtown Manhattan needed to keep pace with business districts in other world capitals. And New York does compete with London for some financial firms.

But many of New York’s prominent corporations, law firms and other businesses are not about to decamp for a spectacular skyscraper in Hong Kong anytime soon. Part of the obsession with taller buildings is about prestige and worldwide bragging rights, for size and architectural supremacy.

Councilman Daniel R. Garodnick, a Manhattan Democrat, said the Bloomberg administration had failed to consider a host of substantive issues before plunging ahead.

“We need to address the impact of thousands of new office workers,” Mr. Garodnick said. “There are implications for transportation, sanitation and public safety.”

Amanda M. Burden, a close Bloomberg adviser who is director of the City Planning Department, has rebuffed requests from community boards and elected officials to slow down the process.

City designs system to save developers money

From Crains:

In a move designed to streamline the hugely cumbersome process by which developers apply to get their projects approved, the Department of City Planning rolled out a new system that will make things easier, faster and more predictable.

"This is a total transformation of how we review all land-use applications," said City Planning Director Amanda Burden. "We think it will foster growth in the city and get projects in the ground faster."

Dubbed BluePRint, which stands for Business Process Reform, the new system will be used in what is known as projects' pre-certification review period, during which they undergo complex environmental and land-use analyses. That process can drag on for several years — if not longer. Following that, projects enter the formal city public review known as the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, which typically takes another six months or so.

Deputy Mayor Robert Steel, who played a key role in the creation of BluePRint, announced its launch Thursday morning at a forum sponsored by the Association for a Better New York. The system will go live July 2, and by the time it is fully implemented in about two years, it is expected to allow City Planning to review two-thirds of all applications 25% to 50% faster than it does today. What's more, the streamlining is expected to save developers up to $100 million annually in various costs.

"Streamlining the review of development applications is exactly what New York City needs to build upon the economic progress we've made and help us prepare for the future," Mr. Steel said, in a statement. "More development means more jobs for New Yorkers, and BluePRint simplifies the way applications are reviewed so those jobs can be created as soon as possible."

Zoning code has stifled development?

From The Real Deal:

The Department of City Planning will hold a conference this fall in hopes of finding a way to simplify the 1,500-page zoning resolution, whose current complexity apparently stifles developers and architects. According to the Wall Street Journal, urban planners find the current document so confusing that they're discouraged from development, and a recent court ruling forced the city to rewrite hundreds of sections because of the imprecise meanings of the words "development" and "building."

South Jamaica downzoned

From GlobeSt:

A massive rezoning of 530 blocks in the South Jamaica section of Queens has cleared the next-to-last hurdle in the city’s public approvals process. The City Planning Commission voted Wednesday to approve the rezoning, the area’s first in 50 years and the Bloomberg administration’s largest to date.

The proposed rezoning would restrict multifamily development to the area’s major thoroughfares. The plan now goes to the New York City Council for approval.

Most of the buildings within the rezoning area consist of one- and two-family detached houses with small concentrations of one- and two-family semi-detached and attached houses, according to a City Planning overview. “Over the last several years, South Jamaica and its neighboring communities have experienced development pressure largely due to its outdated zoning which has remained unchanged since 1961,” the overview states. The existing zoning districts allow “a variety of housing types and densities that are inconsistent with the prevailing scale and built character of South Jamaica’s neighborhoods.”

The zoning would also establish moderate-density districts to encourage “appropriately-scaled” new housing and businesses along portions of wider corridors in the area, including Sutphin, Merrick and Rockaway boulevards. It would establish building height limits between 30 and 40 feet and also reduce the depths of the commercial overlays on these streets to prevent commercial uses from encroaching on residential blocks, according to City Planning.

Say goodbye to Sunnyside

From The Real Deal:

A proposal to rezone a 130-block swath of Queens' Sunnyside and Woodside neighborhoods -- what would be the first rezoning of the area since 1974 -- has entered its public review period, City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden announced today. The proposed zoning changes would target Queens Boulevard's main corridor for "moderate new development" by setting height limits on other, mostly-residential blocks and would provide incentives for affordable housing through the city's Inclusionary Housing Program. In Sunnyside, the rezoning would allow for small sidewalk cafes on Queens Boulevard in order to liven up the neighborhood.

Oh boy.

Yes, the aroma of Queens Blvd bus exhaust mixed with the rumbling of the 7 train create the perfect ambiance for outdoor dining. That Amanda Burden is one innovative thinker. Meanwhile the NY Observer took a slant that downzoning is bad. What a surprise.

Photo from the Daily News

Get to know your civil servants

From the Daily News:

Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson reported owning $5,000 to $40,000 worth of stock in Forest City Enterprises, the parent company of the firm developing a stadium and apartments over former railyards in Brooklyn with up to $205 million in city subsidies.

- NYPD boss Raymond Kelly took five flights to Florida on the mayor's private jet - "value unknown."

- Finance Commissioner David Frankel, who joined the administration last year, received a retirement package from Morgan Stanley worth more than $500,000 - and also collected less than $5,000 worth of unemployment checks.

- Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, who wants to get New Yorkers out of their cars, owns stock worth $10,000 to $80,000 in Anadarko Petroleum and Occidental Petroleum.

- Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden, an heiress and upper East Side neighbor of the mayor, reported assets worth at least $13.4 million - and possibly much more. The values are reported as a range, not as exact figures.

- Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs lent ex-Communications Director Jim Anderson $60,000 to $100,000. Loeser said lawyers vetted the loan and found no conflict.

Hotel Pennsylvania not long for this world

From the NY Post:

Zone it and they will come.

At least that's what the developer of a proposed behemoth of a tower on the site of the Hotel Pennsylvania is hoping now that city planners yesterday approved zoning changes needed to build a skyscraper taller than the Chrysler Building.

The approvals more than double the size of a building that could go up on Seventh Avenue, between 33rd and 32nd Streets, where developer Vornado wants to build as much as 2.83 million square feet of office space.

Final approval rests with the City Council.

No construction is expected until Vornado signs a major tenant for the project.

Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden praised the proposed tower, citing its location across Seventh Avenue from the key transit hub of Penn Station.

The tower, with 67 floors and up to 1,216 feet, would be the city's third tallest after the Empire State and Bank of America buildings. But completion in 2013 of 1 World Trade Center, formerly known as the Freedom Tower, would bump the Penn Plaza tower down to fourth place.

People's Burden to speak tomorrow...Suzannah speaks tonight

From Suzannah's blog:

One huge reason Mike almost lost to Bill Thompson was he and Amanda Burden displaced so many New Yorkers and made over our city like a bad plastic surgeon.

Amanda the peoples' Burden belongs in jail.

I was sent the invite and I won't be showing up.

Tell us how you really feel!

Burden says "hands off" ULURP process

From the NY Observer:

Looks like the Bloomberg administration, currently updating the city charter, may leave its land-use approval process untouched.

Amanda Burden, chairwoman of the City Planning Commission and the administration's empress of all things zoning, said last night that she does not want to see the seven-month review process changed.

Speaking on a panel on the land use policies of Mayor John Lindsay, Ms. Burden was asked about her thoughts on the Charter Revision Commission.

"Some people think that ULURP takes way too long; half the people think it's way too short, and that means it's probably just about right," she said. "I think we definitely should make sure we don't mess with things that aren't broken."

While many good ideas will come out of the commission, she added, "changing the ULURP process doesn't seem to be one that really makes sense."

The strong statement suggests that the commission, which is controlled by mayoral appointees, will indeed leave the rezoning process alone. Developers have long pushed for a shorter process, and community boards have worried that their voices would be marginalized by any change.

Meanwhile, Hunter College professor Tom Angiotti holds a different view:

Speaking at a meeting of the City Charter Revision Commission Thursday evening, Mr. Angotti was the only one of a five-person panel of land use experts to take serious issue with the way the current rezoning process--known as the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure--now operates.

The problem, he said, is not what happens during ULURP but rather what happens before a rezoning application is certified--before ULURP, which over the course of seven months determines how a piece of land can be used, officially begins.

"What happens in the pre-ULURP process is that there are agreements made between public officials and communities that occur outside the sunshine of the public process, many of them behind closed doors," he said. "They are informal arrangements, informal meetings, and quite logically they happen before the ULURP process because no applicant wants to go through a seven-month process with all the time and effort that it involves and find that in the end their application is going to be turned down because they didn't anticipate the opposition of certain groups."

He said that because important decisions are made before ULURP even begins, community boards are left with the queasy feeling that their participation in the process is only for show.

"This leads to frustration, cynicism, division and anger within communities because they perceive that what's presented is a fait accompli," said Mr. Angotti, who has done consulting work for groups opposed to city-led redevelopment projects. "They feel that the time and resources that they invest in ULURP's process are wasted, and they're constantly reminded that the community board's vote is only advisory."

Did Astoria get downzoned or upzoned?

From the NY Observer:

The City Council on Tuesday afternoon adopted the Bloomberg administration's planned 238-block rezoning of Astoria, one that mostly restricts new out-of-scale development in the low-rise neighborhood.

The rezoning, which covers Councilman Peter Vallone Jr.'s district, was relatively uncontroversial (rezonings that restrict developments rarely are). Of course, as the Furman Center at NYU has pointed out, rezonings such as this restrict the amount of new housing that can be built citywide, exacerbating the housing shortage.

From The Real Deal:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden are celebrating the City Council's approval of a rezoning plan for Astoria, Queens. The plan, which covers approximately 240 blocks in the neighborhood, will allow for an increase in residential and commercial density in some areas, which supporters say will increase the number of opportunities to build affordable housing. The area is boarded by 20th Avenue and Broadway, and Vernon Boulevard and the East River. The previous zoning was outdated and did not allow for adequate development, Bloomberg said. "The rezoning of Astoria... [provides] opportunities for mixed-income housing and new job growth," Bloomberg said.

Sugar coating the Domino upzoning

From Courier-Life:

Williamsburg’s rookie phenom councilman is swinging for the fences to get the developers of the Domino Sugar factory to scale back their project while maintaining the same number of affordable units — but the developers say he’s hit a foul ball.

At a City Planning hearing in Manhattan on Wednesday, Councilman Steve Levin (D-Williamsburg) called for 40 percent of the units in the project to be set aside at below-market rents — as well as cutting the entire mixed-used complex from 2,200 units to 1,600.

That ain’t going to happen, said Susan Pollock of Community Preservation Corporation Resources, which argued that it needs at least 70 percent of the project at market rates to keep the project financially viable.

“If the market-rate units are reduced, it would not [allow us to build so many] affordable units,” said Pollock.

The City Planning Commission is the latest stop for the $1.2-billion Domino Sugar proposal, as developers attempt to round the bases in the city’s land-use review process.

The project, which has earned praise from Mayor Bloomberg, has reached second base for the moment, after receiving an enthusiastic approval from first base umpire Borough President Markowitz earlier this month.

In March, the community board voted overwhelmingly against the proposal, as its leaders cited concerns against the project’s size and effect to local infrastructure — concerns that Levin echoed in his testimony to the City Planning Commission.

Levin compared Domino to another waterfront development, Schaefer Landing, which has 40 percent below-market rate — but was admonished by City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden for making a comparison that was “apples and oranges” since Schaefer was developed on city-owned property and received public subsidies to achieve those levels.

“You’re a smart guy,” Burden, a strong supporter of the mayor, told Levin, “but you should know better.”

Levin and the project’s opponents hope to influence the agency to adjust Domino’s dimensions before it makes its recommendation to the City Council early next month.

Good thing she has that socialite thing to fall back on

From Vanity Fair:

“It’s about how high and wide the buildings should be, what uses they can have, the correct width of the sidewalk, the shops along it, the trees planted, whether it really feels like a neighborhood you want to walk in and bike in, maybe want to live in and invest in.”

And here's why Amanda is a shitty urban planner. The goal should be to plan neighborhoods people definitely want to live in and invest in, not like to pass through and "maybe want" to live in and invest in. The bike nonsense should be secondary.

She's also a pretty shitty birder...

I can’t wait for the warbler season to begin in spring. I know a lot of the warblers by ear.”

“Do a warble for me. Go on.”

She hesitated, but she’s a good sport. “Witchety-witchety-witchety!” she warbled somewhat shrilly as a couple at a neighboring table looked on, startled. “It’s a common yellowthroat.”

“But anyone can do a yellowthroat,” she added self-effacingly. “The towhee is harder. The melodic towhee goes, ‘Tow-weeee!’ Isn’t that fun? You must think I’m crazy.”

Even beginning birders know that the Eastern Towhee is a sparrow and not a warbler and its Spring song is "Drink your Teeeeeea!"

This was the reaction from a Central Park visitor when I told him about Ms. Burden's double faux pas:

Step up and save Sunnyside

From the Sunnyside Post:

Sunnyside residents must convince their local legislators and community board representatives that the proposed zoning changes to Queens Blvd (between 39th Place and 50th Street) will cause irreparable harm to the neighborhood.

The proposed changes would allow buildings to be 125 feet high (12 stories) and have a floor area ratio of 5 times the zoning lot size. This is up from the floor area ratio of approximately 3 times the zoning lot size.

Therefore, with the upzoning, a Queens Blvd. developer with a 10,000 sqf lot would be able to build 50,000 sqf of, say, condo space (5 times the lot size), up from 30,000 sqf today.

Sunnyside does not need these kind of monstrosities to be built between 39th Place and 50th Street. They have already scarred other sections of Queens Blvd, particularly in Elmhurst and one section in Woodside. Yet should the proposed upzoning go into effect, these developments would become much more likely to be built.

Many condos were built along Queens Blvd in neighborhoods like Elmhurst at the height of the real estate boom. They were very low budget buildings, built with a low-income market in mind. Many are unoccupied today and are a blight on their respective neighborhoods.

Do we want to see our independent movie theater, for example, torn down, because the profits are just too good in producing one of these low-budget condo buildings? Do residents want to lose the charm of small-town living in favor of these buildings?

If not, send an e-mail to Joseph Conley, chairman of Community Board 2, and Jimmy Van Bramer, District 26 councilman, and have your say:

Their e-mail addresses are:

Community Board 2
Attn: Joseph Conley
(718) 533-8773
E-mail: qn02@cb.nyc.gov

Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer
District Office Phone:
(718) 383-9566
Email: jimmyvanbramer@gmail.com

The photo is of a building on Broadway in Elmhurst which is at about the same height as is what is being proposed for Sunnyside.

You can always count on Amanda Burden to come in and ruin a perfectly good neighborhood. Kids going to school in trailers? Check. Overcrowded subways, now with reductions in service? Check. Of course, the logical thing to do is to encourage tens of thousands more people to move in.

Note the only commenter on the Sunnyside blog in favor of this wants it so it will bring in "more and better stores, bars and restaurants." I think this guy meant to move to LIC and accidentally took the 7 train too far. Sunnyside already has a decent assortment of all three, which will no doubt be displaced if this rezoning goes through. Just as it has everywhere else.

Queens upzoned more than the other boroughs

From the NY Times:

Amanda M. Burden, the city’s planning director since 2002, said the city’s approach to zoning was based on a “finely grained” process of listening to the needs of separate communities and neighborhoods. “We respond to communities where the threat is the greatest to the neighborhood fabric,” she said. “We upzone where it’s sustainable, and where reinvestment is needed.”

Mitchell L. Moss, a professor of urban policy and planning at New York University who has been an informal adviser to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, said that for decades, the city had been zoned for too many people, and that it was overdue for the kind of adjustment pursued by the Bloomberg administration. Ms. Burden “has done more to reshape the city than anything Robert Moses ever did,” he said.

Whether or not that is true, the Furman Center report starts to paint a picture of significant change, finding that city planners were, in many cases, successful in their goal of creating housing within half a mile of existing transportation hubs. In other places, though, zoning regulations that restricted new building have taken “capacity away from communities well served by transit,” the report says.

Most of the new residential capacity was created in Queens, followed by Manhattan and then Brooklyn. In the Bronx, rezoning measures that affected more than 18 percent of the borough added virtually no residential capacity, the report found.

No kidding! Queens has long been the place to dump more people on top of an infrastructure from the early 1900s.