Experts Examine NYC’s Land Use Process at MAS Conference
August 9th, 2010
Last Wednesday, more than 300 community board members, land use professionals, and others concerned with development in New York City gathered at Pace University’s Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts for Land Use and Local Voices: Is the City’s Land Use Process in Need of Reform?, a conference co-sponsored by MAS and Manhattan Community Board 1.
MAS President Vin Cipolla opened the day by posing a series of questions that the three panels and keynote interview addressed, “How does New York City build? How do the city’s neighbors shape their communities? What, exactly, is distinct about the way New York City plans its neighborhoods and development?…What changes do we want to see? What are the consequences of those changes? What mechanisms are already in place to address shortcomings in the land use process, and are they working?” He continued, “As you can probably tell, today’s program is likely to provide more questions than answers, and that’s ok. MAS, and others, are going to continue to work on these issues until we are that much closer to solving them.”
The conference’s triad of panels brought together some of New York City’s, and the country’s, leading voices on land use issues, and provoked interesting discussions among the panelists and the audience. Continue Reading>>








The buildings in Harlem are brick and stone, And the streets are long and wide, But Harlem’s much more than these alone, Harlem is what’s inside.
MAS is pleased to announce that New York City Council Land Use Committee voted this morning to approve a proposed plan for the former Con Ed Site on the East River between 38th and 41st streets on the East River. The plan provides an easement that would enable the realignment of the FDR Drive and the construction of a deck over the highway which will facilitate the creation of a waterfront park on the East Side of Midtown Manhattan that MAS has been advocating for.
On October 3, the City Planning Commission held a hearing on two plans for the expansion of Columbia University into Manhattanville. One was the university’s plan, the other was Manhattan Community District 9’s 197-a plan — a community-based plan for the same area. The challenge is that the plans contain, in some part, contradictory visions.
Over the course of the City’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) for the Hudson Yards proposal, several of the city’s leading civic groups, including the Municipal Art Society, have recognized many of the same opportunities for improving redevelopment plan.
On June 21, the City Planning Commission certified the zoning text for the Hudson Yards Development Program, formally beginning the public review period for a proposed 40 million square feet of development west of 8th Avenue.