image via brownstoner.com

Streetsblog reported last week that the Department of City Planning is re-analyzing its minimum parking requirements in certain neighborhoods with good transit access, such as Downtown Brooklyn, Harlem and western Queens.  Currently, the Zoning Resolution requires that parking be provided for almost all new developments throughout all areas of NYC, with the exception of Manhattan below 110^th Street and in a limited area in Queens. (more…)

Image from Google Streetview

In 2007, an owner of an upper east side townhouse submitted a proposal to the Department of City Planning requesting permission to convert the townhouse basement into a 1-car garage.  Doing so would require creating a 9’2” curb cut in front of the property in question.

The Department of City Planning rejected the application, citing Section 25-633 of the zoning resolution:

In the districts indicated, curb cuts are prohibited for residential developments on zoning lots having a width of less than 40 feet…

City Planning felt that this section disqualified the applicant, since the property: (more…)

The City Planning Commission yesterday put forward new proposed parking regulations that aim to prevent the utilization of front yards as parking spaces.  The proposed regulations will prohibit new “parking pads” in single and two-family districts and will also prohibit some new curb cuts.  [Curb cuts are literally breaks in a curb that lead to a driveway or parking area.]  Curb cuts allow for the creation of these “parking pads” while simultaneously eliminating an on-street public parking spot.  Prohibiting them allows City Planning to kill two birds with one stone.

Additionally, the citywide text amendment proposes to: (more…)