Shed the sheds. Get sheds down.
The City Council on Wednesday voted to hopefully shed the number of terrible shed-related calls to action. The Sheddies can stay, I guess.
The Council approved a package of bills that: ramp up penalties for owners who continuously renew permits for sidewalk sheds without progressing on façade repairs, require the Department of Buildings to lengthen the period of time between mandatory façade inspections and bumps the first required inspection from five years to eight years after a building is constructed.
One of the bills also requires the DOB to recommend less ugly sidewalk shed designs by Sept. 30. Sheds can also now be metallic gray, white or “a color matching the façade, trim, cornice, or roof of the building.” Another bill requires more lighting under sidewalk sheds. I broke down the bills, sponsored by Council members Keith Powers and Erik Bottcher, here.
The bottom line is that these bills are aimed at reducing the number of sheds that clog city sidewalks. According to the DOB, more than 8,500 sheds are up throughout the city, and have been for an average of 511 days.
The Real Estate Board of New York raised some issues with the original versions of some of the bills, including one that creates penalties for owners who fail to file permits for work within eight months of installing a shed and those that fail to complete that work within two years. The amended version of that bill seems to address REBNY’s concern, allowing owners to file a request for an extension if they can explain why the work cannot be completed within the timeframe. Filing such an application temporarily stops the clock for calculating penalties.
“We commend the bills’ sponsors, City Council and Administration for considering the concerns from our industry on this topic and advancing legislation that will spur more user-friendly and creative sidewalk sheds,” Daniel Avery, REBNY’s director of policy, said in a statement. He noted that there are still issues that need to be worked out in the rulemaking process.
A lot will be worked out in the rulemaking process. One of the measures calls on the DOB to adopt new rules to increase the time between façade inspections from five years to sometime between six and 12 years. Powers noted on Wednesday that the agency will apply different timeframes based on a number of factors (façade materials require different levels of maintenance).
If it feels like we’ve been talking about the scourge of sidewalk sheds for a long time, that’s because we have. This legislation has been a long time coming. In 2023, the mayor pitched his “Get Sheds Down” initiative and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine released his “Shed the Shed” report. And years before that, legislation to crackdown on these sheds was introduced in the Council.
What we’re thinking about: Speaking of talking about things for a long time, it looks like we’ll be talking about City of Yes for Housing Opportunity for the foreseeable future. What do you think about the lawsuit that was just filed challenging the rezoning? Send a note to kathryn@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: Political consultant Jeffrey Leb, who has been behind a number of PACs that have taken contributions from the real estate industry, has a new PAC supporting Sen. Simcha Felder’s run for City Council. The group hasn’t yet posted information on contributions.
Elsewhere in New York…
— A state lawmaker proposed a bill on Wednesday that would rescind permits for Tesla’s five sales locations in New York, Politico New York reports. “No matter what we do, we’ve got to take this from Elon Musk,” Assembly member Pat Fahy, a lawmaker who championed legislation to fully lift restrictions on direct sales by EV makers, told Politico. “He’s part of an effort to go backwards.”
— ICYMI: State Sen. Simcha Felder won the special election to fill Assembly member Kalman Yeger’s vacant City Council seat in Brooklyn, City & State reports. Felder is finishing Kalman’s two year term, which started in 2023, so he will run in the June primary and the general election in November.
Closing Time
Residential: The priciest residential sale Wednesday was $14.75 million for a 5,000-square-foot duplex co-op unit at 834 Fifth Avenue in Lenox Hill. The Deborah Grubman Team of The Corcoran Group had the listing.
Commercial: The most expensive commercial closing of the day was $2.6 million for a 7,872-square-foot, 13-unit walkup apartment building at 25-32 Steinway Street in Astoria.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $16.9 million for a 8,560-square-foot house at 42 West 71st Street on the Upper West Side. Jasmine Ji of Compass has the listing.
Breaking Ground: The largest new building application filed was for a 99,031-square-foot, six-story community facility project at 269 Heyward Street in East Williamsburg. Amr Ouda of Jay Architect & Engineering filed the permit on behalf of David Kohn.
— Matthew Elo
