CB7 Roundup: While an initial step toward final approval, the board’s decision is only advisory. The city’s Board of Standards and Appeals must still review the plan before it grants a permit, which is necessary because the tower is not on Fordham’s campus. The Federal Communications Commission must also give its OK. The tower, which will rise 160 feet above the top of the building, has already been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration. Fordham officials hope to commence with the construction of the tower by summer or early fall. Construction will require three three-day lifts of concrete, steel and other material from a crane on the street to the roof. The work within and on top of the building will take six months.

2004 was not the borough’s finest hour in the public policy arena. Most Bronx politicians in the machine’s fold continued to support the construction of the filtration plant in Van Cortlandt Park. The project will adversely affect Norwood and surrounding communities in numerous ways. The Eastview site in Westchester was much more suited to an industrial facility of this kind, but the politicians were seduced by more than $200 million in park improvement funds offered by the DEP in exchange for their support.

Local Region 1 has submitted a proposal to the city Department of Education (DOE) to close MS 143 and, in its place, create a new middle school and allow a small high school currently sited there to expand.

A police officer from the 52nd Precinct maced a 17-year-old Walton High School student on school grounds on Dec. 17 in an incident that advocates believe is the latest consequence of the Kingsbridge school’s rampant overcrowding.

A judge has dismissed one of the four lawsuits brought by opponents of the filtration plant planned for Mosholu Golf Course in Van Cortlandt Park.

University Heights is in the midst of a housing building boom the likes of which it hasn’t seen in decades.At least seven projects are under way or in the works in a neighborhood that developers have historically ignored. Many of the projects, which range from three-family homes to high-end rentals, already have waiting lists.

Bronx officials and kids wasted no time making use of the new amenities at Devoe Park. City Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe was fast on his feet during an inaugural game of hoops at Devoe Park’s renovated basketball courts, though local teens gave him a run for his money.

Scores of Bronx tenants lost their rights over the last year and they probably didn’t even know it. That’s because a Bronx Supreme Court judge, Sallie Manzanet, prevented community organizers from entering five neglected buildings, negotiating with banks to enforce the good repair clause of mortgage contracts, or even discussing the problem buildings with the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD).

Once home to quiet prayer and meditation, the second floor of the convent at St. Brendan’s Church now resonates with the tickling of piano keys and strumming of guitars. The Norwood institution realized a long-held dream last month when its music school opened in the school’s former convent.