Apartment Look

Outdated and inadequate infrastructure along Woodland’s downtown alleys is jeopardizing development . That’s the conclusion of at least one developer and why city planners are compiling information on the potential square footage for businesses along those alleys and the ability to provide sewer, water and electrical power to them. The alleys: Dead Cat and Dog Gone, parallel Main Street east and west loosely between Fifth Street to Cleveland — with some interruptions for storefronts. They’ve been in existence for more than 100 years. In fact, the recent 125th Anniversary of Woodland’s Great Fire noted that the blaze started in Dead Cat Alley near the Opera House. Because of their age coupled with their width, they lack basic infrastructure services . Dead Cat Alley is infrastructurally better than Dog Gone Alley. It’s wider, for one thing at between 25 and 35 feet depending on the location. It has also been upgraded over the years with new power and cable utilities as businesses...

That’s not the only message New Yorkers receive as we stand outside, say, the seven-foot- tall hedge running along East 46th Street that conceals a private 10,000-square- foot circular driveway for the residents of 50 United Nations Plaza . Another message we hear says: You’re on the wrong side of the red velvet rope , or, in this case, the green hedge. Photo A view of the building from East 56th Street . Credit Tony Cenicola/The New York Times These are private spaces — the public did not lose a park or a sidewalk bench for a driveway, but some of these spaces could have instead housed a restaurant or a shop, giving a New Yorker a reason to walk down the street and feel connected to the buildings towering above. Instead, a gate “sticks a big finger in people’s faces to say: ‘I’m better than you. I live here. I live in this luxury building with a giant gate that you can’t come past,’” said Richard Florida, the author of “The New Urban Crisis” (Basic, 2017). “It might make people pi...

In a split vote, the Riverhead Town Board approved both the site plan and the special permit application for Georgica Green Ventures’ proposed 116-unit mixed-use apartment complex Tuesday night . The board also approved an environmental study submitted by the applicant and stated that the project will have “no significant adverse environmental impacts .” The vote was three in favor, one opposed and one abstaining. Councilman Tim Hubbard cast the no vote, and Councilwoman Jodi Giglio abstained . “There’s a lot of issues with this project that I’m concerned about,” Mr. Hubbard said, citing parking, a proposed 30- year Industrial Development Agency tax abatement , and the impact the apartments might have on school enrollment. Ms. Giglio said she asked the town ethics board for an opinion on whether she should abstain, since she is an owner of the Summerwind Square apartments downtown , and they recommended she abstain. The five-story project, Riverview Lofts , is on the southwest co...

A developer proposing an apartment building with a mix of market-rate and affordable units just east of Redwood City’s downtown is hoping to increase the city’s housing stock by 125 units. Though a public hearing date has not yet been confirmed for the six- and seven- story apartment building containing 15 studios and 57 one-bedroom and 53 two-bedroom apartments at 353 Main St., Alex Sanchez, executive vice president at ROEM Corporation, the developer, said plans for the building are ready for public comment after a year of preliminary work with city staff. “I think we’re ready to take this to public for a hearing,” he said. “Our initial submittal is basically a starting point.” Expected to occupy a lot where one- story office buildings currently stand next to a four- story luxury apartment complex , the building would border Redwood Creek on its southern end. Sanchez said 19 units would be affordable at very low, low and moderate incomes in compliance with the city’s policy that...

Property transfers CHARLOTTESVILLE JUNE 23 » Fornecker, John P. and Fornecker, Mary G. to Welch, Caitlin Elizabeth and Wiemer, Gavin Scott, lot one block 36 at intersection of Montrose Avenue and Meridian Street in Belmont, recorded at consideration $236,000, tax value $149,400. » Smith, Beverly H. to Gustafson, Adam R.F., 1006 Park Street , recorded at consideration $325,500, tax value $276,900. » Zee, Rebecca S. and Walls, Michael to Spector, Matthew I., 159 Brookwood Drive, recorded at tax value $267,200, consideration $259,000. » Kelley, Eric Daniel and Kelley, Lora Elaine to Marks, Emerson R., Jr. and Marks, Laura E., lot K on Harris Road in Evangeline subdivision , recorded at consideration $475,000, tax value $392,500. » Barzun, Charles L. to Welch, Conor T. and Coccomo, Danielle, lot 4 on 8th Street NE, recorded at consideration $385,000, tax value $293,200. » Scott, Robert Adam and McGanney, Juliana K. to Lazaro, Anthony P. and Lazaro, Emily E.H., lot B on Che...

When our children were 11 and 9, young enough to still be entirely inside the family circle but old enough to remember, we splurged on a “once in a lifetime vacation ” and rented a small farmhouse in Southwestern France outside the village of Saint-Cyprien. Each day, our son and daughter would say goodbye to the donkey that hung around our patio and we’d climb in the tiny rented Renault and drive somewhere in the fairy- tale beautiful Dordogne River region . On one of these excursions, we stumbled on the provincial city of Sarlat. An accident of history and several centuries of stagnant economy had left Sarlat’s center virtually unchanged architecturally since the days of siege engines and knights galloping over drawbridges. City fathers had wakened one morning in the late 1950s to realize that, leaning above narrow and winding cobblestone streets and alleys, they had one of the largest collections of intact medieval architecture in Europe. The French government subsidized restor...

Section of rendering by architect Stephen Jacobs . A proposed five-story mixed use building with 116 apartments and ground-floor restaurant and retail uses on East Main Street and McDermott Avenue won approval of the Riverhead Town Board Tuesday night . In a split 3-1 vote, the board approved a pair of resolutions that simultaneously dispensed with extended environmental review and approved a site plan and special permit for the “ Riverview Lofts ” project proposed by Georgica Green Ventures LLC of Jericho. The actions green-light the construction of the five-story building with 12,623 square feet of first- floor commercial space , 55 on- site parking spaces and four-stories consisting of 116 workforce rental apartments : 31 studio, 37 one-bedroom and 28 two-bedroom units. Councilman Tim Hubbard , without comment, cast the lone vote against both measures. Councilwoman Jodi Giglio , an owner of Summerwind Square — the first mixed-use apartment building built in the downtown dis...