When is an attic not an attic?

What's this underdeveloped property with an older home and - gasp - a side yard doing taking up space in Queens? We need a hero to come and take care of this problem.

Not to worry, Middle Village has its own local overdevelopment superstars known as the Fabians. Small one family to be replaced with two 3-familys. I'll admit, these don't look quite as hideous as what I am used to from this development firm. However, the permits are for a 4-story building and this rendering doesn't seem to show that.

The 4th floor says "UPPER PORTION OF CLASS "A" DWELLING UNIT 276.5 SQ. FT. OPEN TO BELOW UNFLOORED AREA TO REMAIN PERMANENTLY"

What?

Might want to post the renewed permits, there, Bobby.

This looks legit. Naturally this was all self-certified and there were issues, including a stop work order.

Middle Village construction fence hosts painting & permits

Recently, yours truly came across a painting on a construction fence covered with DOB permits within the friendly confines of Middle Village. Well, this was certainly a new one! So, let's look into it.

The fence stands around what was the former site of a recessed bungalow-style house and a garage which were both torn down.

It's sure looking great now! What a boon to the neighborhood. That fence permit expired about a month ago, but there are no plans filed to do any further work at this site. Surely the local rodent population is grateful for the new habitat provided.

More than 29K new dwelling units being built in Queens

From QNS:

A new interactive, real time map released by the Department of Buildings this week shows that Queens has approximately 21 million square feet of apartment space under construction, among other findings.

As announced in a press release on Aug. 22, the map shows the entirety of New York City’s nearly 200 million square feet of building space currently under construction, complete with details about each individual project and links to online copies of building permits. The map is the latest installment in the DOB’s initiative to share data with the public, following the release of the interactive map of sidewalk sheds earlier this year.

The map shows all active permits that have been filed with DOB, including new buildings and alteration projects. It automatically updates in real time as new permits are issued and existing permits expire. Users have the ability to filter through the data shown by building type, number of dwelling units, square footage, estimated cost, general contractors, community board boundaries and boroughs.

When filtered to show just the building projects in Queens, there are several interesting facts about the borough’s buildings.

There are a total of 2,450 active permits in Queens that comprise a total of 37,642,187 square feet of building space under construction in Queens. Of that, approximately 12 million square feet of space is being built in Community Board 2, covering Long Island City and Sunnyside.

In total, Queens has 29,451 dwelling units in the pipeline, and five buildings under construction in the borough rank in the top ten most dwelling units in the city.

29,451 new dwelling units, with probably about 1-200 that are affordable. And the 61,000+ citywide homeless population will keep growing.

Rego Park teardown

From Forest Hills Post:

A standard-sized house on a standard-sized Rego Park street is going to be demolished.

A demolition permit was filed for 64-53 Ellwell Crescent on July 27, about two weeks after the home was bought for $1.4 million.

The owner is listed as NLA Realty, with Nikadam Aylyarova signing the paper work on behalf of the company. No building permits have been filed to replace the structure.

The house is located directly across the street from a new development, which features large Greek columns and a concrete yard.

Queens now outpacing Manhattan in building permits

From Crains:

Brooklyn and Queens led the city in new building permits during the second quarter of the year, according to city data. Manhattan came in dead last.

The city's Department of Buildings approved more than 750 new building permits in Brooklyn over the second quarter of the year, according to the agency's Construction Dashboard. Queens saw the second most activity with 614 new building permits. The city approved more than 400 permits on Staten Island, which was roughly double the numbers of Manhattan and the Bronx, where a single building permit could yield more units than Staten Island's quarterly total.

The new building permits were concentrated in Williamsburg, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Flushing and the southern third of Staten Island—locations that were largely consistent with activity throughout 2017.

Brooklyn CB is fighting back against illegal curb cuts

From Brooklyn Daily:

The mayor must step in to force city agencies to crack down on selfish Bensonhurst homeowners who take away already-scarce street parking spots by illegally cutting their curbs and paving their front lawns into driveways, according to the neighborhood’s district manager.

“The [Buildings] violations are all bark, no bite,” said Marnee Elias-Pavia.

Pavia sent Hizzoner Community Board 11’s recommendations for how agencies should punish offending homeowners in an April 18 letter after board members unanimously adopted the resolution to do so at its April 12 general meeting. In the letter, Pavia outlined the decades-old problem and its environmental impact — made worse by the fact that the Federal Emergency Management Agency classified some affected areas as particularly susceptible to flooding, which the proliferation of concrete and lack of grass promotes, she wrote.

“Our topography creates a bowl effect and prevents tidal and storm water absorption,” she wrote. “We must address the lack of absorption created by the removal of front yards in the northern portion of the district to increase absorption and resiliency.”

CB11 demands that the buildings agency make inspecting and even re-inspecting properties with alleged illegal curb cuts and driveways a higher priority — especially for flood zones — and to notify the community board when properties receive violations for illegal curb cuts or driveways. The letter also wants the city to improve inter-agency communication by having the Department of Buildings coordinate with agencies in charge of roads, parks and environmental concerns.

“There needs to be a sharing of information [among the agencies] — there’s an environmental impact, so the Department of Buildings should be sharing with the Parks Department,

Pavia also wrote that the city should increase and enforce fines for violations, push homeowners to use permeable pavements on legitimate driveways to help drain stormwater, and require homeowners to fix curb-cut violations before selling their properties — among other suggestions.

Greater Allen AME Church operating for 20 years without a C of O?

Well here's an interesting tidbit for ya...

The Greater Allen AME Cathedral and Conference Center (the church is also a major developer) in Jamaica has, according to online DOB records, been operating without a certificate of occupancy. They had a temporary one back in 1998 but it quickly expired.

The above list shows why they have yet to obtain a permanent C of O. (Yikes!)

This shows what they still need to file to become legit.

Filed in 1995, approved in 2017? At this rate they'll have their certificate sometime in 2050.

For those of you who aren't familiar with this church, it's run by former Congress Member Floyd Fake...er, Flake.

Clerk rules that developers aren't lobbyists

From Crains:

The Office of the City Clerk, which regulates lobbying activities in the city, issued an advisory opinion to clarify "fuzzy" language from a 2013 update that had design professionals wondering if applying for permits from the Department of Buildings counted as lobbying. The clarification effectively exempts those activities. "It's very important for them to know if they are following the letter of the law," said Hannah O'Grady, vice president of the American Council of Engineering Companies of New York, a trade organization representing a wide variety of engineers who had sought guidance from the city this spring.

The lobbying law was designed as a transparency measure to disclose who is attempting to influence government. In the development world, developers and property owners—along with the architects, engineers, code consultants or other professionals they hire—are technically trying to persuade government employees in the DOB to grant permits. But Monday's advisory opinion states that any communication with the DOB "relating to the issue of permits, approvals or other construction-related documents" is not considered a lobbying activity.

The clarification was welcomed by O'Grady, but the development community is still waiting for guidance on other portions of the 2013 update. Specifically, the law is still unclear about whether architects who shepherd major projects and rezonings through the city's public review process would need to register as lobbyists. Engineers who perform environmental analyses to see whether these initiatives will have an adverse impact on the existing community are similarly confused.

DOB has new category of ALT-1 permits?

From the Times Ledger:

Work has been allowed to continue on the land where the Bayside house formerly owned by federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis once stood.

A stop work order for 218-15 40th Ave. was issued in July due to the Alt-1 permit being revoked for work that exceeded the scope of the original plans. The violations have been dismissed, according to a Department of Buildings spokesman, and a new Alt-1 permit was issued in mid-August and took effect in mid-September.

It was not clear why the violations were dropped.

Controversy about the house began brewing in April after neighbor Bonnie Skala Kiladitis noticed the renovations to the four-story house taking a turn for the extreme. Within days, the home had been reduced to the first floor.

An Alt-1 permit requires at least 50 percent of the original structure to be retained during the renovation of any home. The DOB, however, reissued an Alt-1 in this case on the basis that the foundations were still intact and because the building plans had been revised and approved for an Alt-1, a DOB spokesman said. He pointed out that it is at the discretion of a plan examiner to determine how much of the original structure needs to remain to call for an Alt-1.

State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) has kept an eye on the situation with the property and said the DOB informed him the new Alt-1 permit is what is known as a Big Alt-1 and allows renovation to exceed the usual 50 percent required to be retained.

A break from building

From Crains:

The demise of the controversial 421-a tax break hasn’t eliminated interest in residential building in the city, but it has reduced it to a level not seen since the financial crisis.

That’s the bottom line on this week’s release of the latest building-permits data by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Here are the numbers through July.

Ridgewood rowhouse on steroids

What we have here is a 2-family house being "altered" into a 6 family house. A story is being added and units are being subdivided. This will no doubt look incredibly stupid when all is said and done. Plenty of complaints as well.

Are we ready for "granny pods"?

From SI Live:

If you have aging parents who still want to live on their own -- but need you close by -- there's a new alternative to nursing home care.

Dubbed "granny pods," there are several companies that produce pre-fab "tiny houses" -- some specially designed with high-tech features that assist senior citizens with everyday tasks.

One company that manufactures the backyard homes is MEDCottage, a Blacksburg, Va., company. These high-tech homes are marketed as an alternative to nursing homes, and come equipped with all the amenities -- from defibrillators to pill dispensers -- you'd find in a hospital. The tiny backyard homes, which can be hooked up to the main house's water, sewer and power lines, range in price from $40,000 to upward of $100,000.

But can these cottages work on Staten Island?

The major obstacle seems to be New York City's zoning regulations, and small lot sizes.

"This concept is great. The problem is the zoning," said Claire Bisignano Chesnoff, broker/owner of the New Dorp-based Claire Properties, and president of the Staten Island Board of Realtors.

"Staten Island would never permit this type of building because each type of zoning needs specific footage for side yards, back yards, etc. The space these homes would occupy is larger than the size of the tiny homes, which could not pass zoning laws on Staten Island. I actually had a property for sale that would have been perfect for a tiny home, but even the most creative architect couldn't get around the law," she added.

Even if a zoning change was allowed, it would take many city approvals for granny pods to exist on Staten Island.

"If someone wanted to have this on Staten Island, the New York City Department of Buildings would get involved and they would want to know about everything from plumbing to electric and sewer," said Jon Salmon, broker/owner of Salmon Real Estate in Castleton Corners.

Some Realtors said many of the Island's seniors wouldn't be happy living in a granny pod.

"Our seniors are pretty active and I don't see that these people will want a studio. It looks like a glorified shed," said Laura Volsario, a Realtor with Gateway Arms Realty in St. George.

More crap headed to Whitestone

Dear Crappie,

There goes another one in the neighborhood! I just found out that a lovely looking house that has been sitting vacant in Whitestone is going to bite the dust very soon. Take a look on the Department of Buildings site and look up 145-37 24th Avenue. They owners have been sitting on the house for nearly a year and went through multiple buildings and zoning applications to tear down a 1-family house and put a 2-family dwelling in its place. The approvals finally went through this week and they're going to gear up to start tearing down this house! Of course all of this is done under the guise of A1 minor alterations with some interior renovations but lets not kid ourselves. We all know that they're going to tear down all but half a wall and rebuild a giant house in its place with no yards and concrete everywhere.

Here's the kicker...punch in that same address on Google Street View and you'll see that the entire block is nothing but similar looking houses all built in the 30's with massive London Plane trees lining the entire block. This is a scene that is harder and harder to find in North Queens and now that this house mid-block has been approved for demolition, I see nothing but a domino effect on its way to take down this area.

I hope you shine a spotlight on this on your blog like you have in the past showing how great looking areas of Queens are turning crappy. I'll try to get pics of construction as it happens, since I'm sure they'll start tearing down within a few weeks.

Keep up the good work.

-James

Permit plunge!

From Crains:

The great rush for housing permits in New York City to lock in the lucrative 421-a tax break for apartment buildings gave way to a precipitous decline in July.

The number of permits issued that month fell by 90% from June, according to statistics released last week by the U.S. Census Bureau. The fall-off was especially steep in Queens, at 98%, and Brooklyn, 97%. The terms of the tax break expired in mid June before state lawmakers renewed and revised the city's program effective in 2016, requiring 25% to 30% of units in 421-a projects be affordable citywide.

LIC: hotel or homeless shelter?

From Court Square Blog:

We were poking around the Department of Buildings website earlier this week and noticed that a new permit was pre-filed with the DOB on July 29, 2015, calling for an eight story-mixed used build, with 19,989 square feet of commercial space and 19,799 square feet of residential space for a FAR of 3.98.2 The occupancy classification on the permit calls for “HOTELS, DORMITORIES” and there will be 29 dwelling units. Based on a review of the permit, the owner appears to be Amsterdam Hospitality, which has ties to homeless shelter developer Alan Lapes.

Here comes the boom!

From the Queens Courier:

The Department of Buildings authorized about 4,900 units in 448 buildings in Queens last year, a 64 percent jump from 2013 when the department approved 3,161 units, according to a New York Building Congress analysis released Thursday. An average of 11 units per building will be constructed in the approved projects.

Large parking lot created on sidewalk

There are a bunch of complaints for this house at 161-04 Sanford Avenue, but let's focus on the driveway permits, since that's been a theme lately. Looks like they were stopped in 2007, but resumed work shortly after:

Take a look at the Google Street View. It's a doozy!

Lots of unanswered questions remain

From Epoch Times:

An hour before an apparent gas explosion sent flames soaring and debris flying at a Manhattan apartment building, injuring 19 people, utility company inspectors decided the work being done there was faulty.

The powerful blast on Thursday in the East Village caused the collapse of three buildings and fire damage to a fourth, the fire department said. It left four people in critical condition, more than a dozen others injured and one family searching for a loved one.

Firefighters worked through the night to put out pockets of fire, pouring large volumes of water over the rubble, a fire department spokesman said Friday morning as a steady rain fell.

He said when a building collapses it takes much longer — even days — to put out all the fire.

About 200 firefighters and medical staff remained on the scene.

The blast caused three five-story buildings to collapse within a few hours of each other, the spokesman said. A fourth, seven-story building, suffered extensive fire damage.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said preliminary evidence suggested a gas explosion amid plumbing and gas work inside the building that collapsed was to blame. A plumber was doing work connected to a gas service upgrade, and inspectors for utility company Con Edison had been there, company President Craig Ivey said. But the work failed the inspection, partly because a space for the new meters wasn’t big enough, Con Ed said.

I didn't see any permits for any type of gas line work, but I'm not sure what is required when a plumber is involved. The contractor was already in deep doo-doo before this happened.

DOB approves Glendale homeless shelter

From the Queens Courier:

Building plans to construct a controversial homeless shelter in Glendale are moving ahead.

The Department of Buildings approved permits on Tuesday for the conversion of a vacant factory building into transitional housing, which the community has repeatedly opposed for years.

The dilapidated factory will have 103 units, smaller than the 125-room shelter originally proposed, encompassing 74,542 square feet of residential space, according to the filings with the Buildings Department. The four-story building will also be built with parking spaces for 33 vehicles, per plans.

In the meantime, the City found that currently operating homeless shelters are full of rats, insects and other wonderful violations.

Big backlog at DOB

From the Observer:

The Department of Buildings‘ review of new building plans has slowed to a crawl because the city agency is getting buried under an avalanche of permit applications.

According to the most recent agency performance report from the Mayor’s Office of Operations, when it comes to new buildings it is taking the city’s DOB nearly twice as long to complete the first plan review, which is the period from the complete submission of the application to the date the plan examiner is able to issue a decision upon the submitted plans. That process has risen to an average of 15.7 days in the fiscal year to date compared with 8.5 in the previous FYTD, the data indicate.

In addition, it takes 16 percent longer, or a total of 13.3 days, to complete a first plan review of a building project requiring significant alterations (called Alteration Type 1 or Alt-1) versus 11.5 days year-over-year. And that number could be skewed, one real estate pro said, by projects that are considered Alt-1s, but don’t require a lot of work, like change of use.

Anyone else think this will be used as an excuse to change procedures to allow for even more lax oversight of developers?