What great news! I am so happy some of the City Commissions in the New York area take steps to preserve the unique architectural landscape of the boroughs and streets lined with old buildings and brownstones.
On my street in Manhattan, East 93rd between Third and Lexington Ave (the street where the Marx Brothers used to live), a developer "coup" led to the destruction of three townhouses, ruining a well preserved row of some of the oldest houses of the kind in that neighborhood. The demolition permits were granted even though the drawings had not been approved, which to me is an aberration. It turns out any higher construction requires further digging into the underlying rock for deeper foundations and there is a risk for the adjacent houses. Now we neighbors lost the unique character of the street, have to endure ear breaking drilling into the rock day long, and on top of it contribute to the fortune of the developer against our will because we have been maintaining and restoring the old houses with care and this will help sell the apartments!

It seems to me New York is granting building permits without thinking of what the city landscape will look like at all, high rise towers destroy and dwarf old neighborhoods... There is an eyesore being built in Brooklyn at 14th Street in Park Slope, who could ever authorize this? there is so much space available and there are so many areas and buildings that could be reclaimed and restored with taste, common sense and intelligence, why should developers profit always come first?