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Land use committee backs three affordable-housing projects, rejects one variance request
Summary
Manhattan CB2's Land Use committee reported it will recommend denying a BSA variance at 51 Little West 12th Street, backing 126 Lafayette with conditions and supporting two off-site affordable projects tied to market-rate development.
The Land Use Committee of Manhattan Community Board 2 reported a set of recommendations on development applications, including a denial recommendation for a variance and support for three other projects tied to affordable housing.
Committee chair Katie (first name only in the transcript) told the executive committee that the Land Use panel planned to deny a Board of Standards and Appeals variance application at 51 Little West 12th Street, saying the applicant "has not met the set findings" required for the variance. The committee also planned to support an application at 126 Lafayette Street with caveats, and to support two related projects at 30 Thompson Street and 285 Hudson Street.
Katie described the two projects at Thompson and Hudson as 100% affordable developments where the developer is proposing first to offer affordable cooperative homeownership under the applicable affordability program and to use rental as a fallback if homeownership does not materialize. The developer told the committee these off-site affordable buildings would be connected to an unrelated market-rate building elsewhere; the committee raised questions about that pairing and asked the board to track off-site affordable commitments closely.
The committee also flagged labor-pay and construction threshold issues: members noted the prevalence of projects sized just below thresholds that trigger prevailing-wage or other requirements, and said they would call attention to that pattern. Committee members said the Land Use votes were unanimous and that several follow-up items will require developers to return to the committee if project details change.
The committee's recommendations will be circulated to the full board and are expected to appear on the calendar for upcoming Land Use hearings and votes.
