The impact of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) is being felt throughout the country as municipalities must reconsider their planning for, and zoning of, religious institutions under the threat of RLUIPA litigation. The Act’s contentious origins aside, RLUIPA is now a well established law with tremendous implications and MAS has organized a continuing legal education (CLE) program to discuss the federal statute’s constitutionality and its influence on local governments next Wednesday, October 23.

The program will introduce the statute, reviewing its constitutional grounds and operative language, and then take a closer look at the impact of the statute generally and locally. Continue Reading>>

A coalition of Brooklyn elected officials and civic groups, including MAS, gathered today on the steps of City Hall in Manhattan today to launch the “Campaign to Reform Atlantic Yards,” an initiative to pass new legislation that would reform the governance of the Atlantic Yards project.

The Campaign was launched in response to the continued lack of accountability, transparency and public involvement in the governance of the Atlantic Yards project.

“I’ve been involved in Riverside South, on the Upper West Side on Manhattan. That project was begun 17 years ago and it’s only half-finished. We’ve been through four governors and three mayors, and the only glue of the project of the project has been the involvement of citizens – through a structure. We need this at Atlantic Yards.” said Kent Barwick, President of the Municipal Art Society. Continue reading>>.

An article in today’s Brownstoner reports that a new law seeking to extend the influence of 197-a plans to give them actual legislative weight is likely to be introduced before the City Council this summer. According to Brownstoner, the legislation, to be introduced by Queens Council Member Tony Avella, is a direct by-product of the long-standing MAS Campaign for Community-Based Planning.

MAS Planning Center Director Eve Baron said, “This is our vision for the future of the neighborhood based on need and aspiration.” Council Member Avella agreed saying, “This’ll be a way to have planning happen from the bottom up, rather than the top down.”

To read the article in full, click here.

In announcing his PlaNYC 2030 sustainability goals for the city on Earth Day last year, Mayor Bloomberg committed to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 30% by 2030, placing New York at the vanguard of the fight to combat climate change. In his statement, the mayor said:

“…you can’t formulate a land use plan… without thinking about global warming.”

But, almost one year later, development projects are still going ahead in New York with little analysis of how they impact climate change.

To help address this problem, MAS is drafting guidelines that would require developers to analyze and disclose their impacts on climate change — including a project’s greenhouse gas emissions and vulnerability to the effects of climate change — in environmental impact statements (EIS) under the state and city Environmental Quality Review Acts (SEQRA and CEQR).

The streets of New York City are littered with filthy, poorly maintained and decrepit newsracks that are both eyesores and potentially hazardous to New Yorkers. Paris, London, Berlin and Amsterdam don’t tolerate this scourge on their streets, and Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami Beach, Houston and San Francisco have cracked down on the newsrack blight too. But New York City continues to tolerate it, and we think this is outrageous! Continue Reading>>

Responding to a sustained MAS advocacy campaign, the City Council has increased the budget of the Landmarks Preservation Commission for the second year in a row. Funding will grow by $300,000 for the new fiscal year. Last year, the council boosted funding by an additional $250,000. The increase will allow the commission to add staff, and increase both the rate of designations and the efficiency with which permits are processed. Mayor Bloomberg, the City Council and especially Council Member Jessica Lappin deserve our thanks.

Have you noticed that advertising on sidewalk construction sheds, hawking everything from beer to banks to cell phones, has started to disappear? Advertising signs on sidewalk sheds have always been illegal, and now the city’s Department of Buildings (DOB) is cracking down on these brazen violations of the law. Continue Reading>>

Far too often, the city’s newsracks serve more as garbage bins and hosts for graffiti than as providers of publications. Despite the passage of a law meant to regulate the design and placement of newsracks, dilapidated models clutter our sidewalks. You can help curb this blight, and help the Municipal Art Society and its partners in the New York City Newsrack Safety Committee demonstrate to City Hall that its current regulation of newsracks isn’t working. Continue Reading>>

Advertising on sidewalk sheds is out of control in every borough of New York City. It’s obnoxious, it’s annoying, and it’s illegal. Fact: all advertising on sidewalk sheds is illegal, unless the sign is for an establishment located in that building. The city’s Department of Buildings needs your help in identifying illegal signs on sidewalk sheds. Continue Reading>>

The Municipal Art Society’s Law Committee has completed a comprehensive study on the New York Board of Standards of Appeals, its variance process, and how the process could be improved. Zoning variances have been the concern of many communities in New York City, especially in manufacturing areas. The study considers the number of variances in manufacturing areas, most of which are for residential conversions. The committee also looked at court cases dealing with the BSA and the interaction between the BSA and City Planning. You can download the report, the executive summary, an appendix of illustrations, draft resolution, and a draft legislative proposal for immediate BSA reform. The Society also recommends that further reform be studied by a Joint Mayoral-City Council BSA Commission and has drafted a commission proposal.