Last month, the City Council approved the FRESH Food zoning text amendment, which is part of an initiative by the city to  create and retain grocery stores in underserved neighborhoods.    Before the passage of this text amendment, there were several barriers in the zoning resolution that made it difficult for full-size grocery stores to open in various neighborhoods throughout the city, including size limits and significant parking requirements.   The FRESH Food text amendment will remove some of these barriers by creating a zoning program to incentivize grocery store development.   As defined in the zoning text, a FRESH food store must be primarily devoted to selling grocery products, and must also meet certain other requirements. (more…)

Recently, New York State passed legislation that creates the mechanism for the PACE model of green financing in New York.  PACE stands for Property Assessed Clean Energy and is a new approach to addressing the issues of ‘first cost’ that too often prevent property owners from retrofitting their properties.

The way PACE works:
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The City’s industrial zoning districts are increasingly being lost.   So-called “M-zones” (M1, M2 and M3 zoning districts) – where everything from Glue to Auto Manufacturing are permitted – have been modified or eliminated in such diverse places as Chelsea, Williamsburg-Greenpoint, the southwest Bronx, Long Island City and DUMBO.    Over the past 10 years or so, new “mixed use districts” have emerged in waterfront sections of Brooklyn and the Bronx – and inland areas such as Hudson Square, Bed-Stuy, Gowanus and Long Island City.    (These join the already established mixed-use zones in DUMBO and Hunt’s Point.)   Now – and here’s the real news – M-zoned areas of Hudson Square are under consideration for rezoning. (more…)

Yesterday, the City Planning Commission certified the application for the New Domino project.  The project, when approved, will permit the redevelopment of the formerly-industrial Domino Sugar factory site on the Brooklyn waterfront as a vibrant, mixed-use development.

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