Council Green-Lights Grand Street Rezoning
Yesterday the City Council approved the rezoning of Grand Street in Williamsburg. The 13-block parcel was left out of the area’s wider ’05 rezone, and most new buildings on the street will now only be able to rise to about six stories. Gowanus Lounge notes that “the rezone could force the redesign of more than…
Yesterday the City Council approved the rezoning of Grand Street in Williamsburg. The 13-block parcel was left out of the area’s wider ’05 rezone, and most new buildings on the street will now only be able to rise to about six stories. Gowanus Lounge notes that “the rezone could force the redesign of more than a dozen planned projects,” including two planned, Karl Fischer-designed buildings that were supposed to be 10 and 15 stories high. Good thing or bad?
Rezoning of Burg’s Grand Street Approved [Gowanus Lounge]
Grand Street Rezoning Approved [WGPA]]
Will Burg’s Grand Street Rezoning Chop Karl Fischer Towers? [Curbed]
Grand Street Rezoning [NYC.gov]
Update on Williamsburg/Greenpoint Rezonings [Brownstoner]
Maps from City Planning.
“The issue here is that not even one resident, property or business owner ever received one letter to the numerous meetings that were supposedly “widely publicized”.”
Please. First of all, the zoning change was initiated 2 1/2 years ago, and not by a “handful of activists”, but by the community board and the city planning board.
The looming zoning change was public knowledge, which is exactly why so many were trying to skirt the law by hurriedly digging foundations in the middle of winter.
The 14 storey tower developer knew all about it, their lawyer was present at the city planning board hearing where our group requested that the rezoning be enacted sooner. So why didn’t he tell any of you smaller developers sooner? Because he doesn’t give a crap about you. He only rounded up the smaller developers when he realized he was losing his battle to beat the clock.
I *am* a property owner within the affected area and I am giving to you straight-R6B was the right decision for the community.
“Your neighbors who are trying to build homes on 20 or 25 foot lots have lost everything. This is tragic.”
Oh the drama. This is so not true. Go to the city planning site and read the stuff for yourself:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/grand_street/index.shtml
A quote from the report:
R6B permits residential and community facility uses to an FAR of 2.0. Base heights are required to be between 30 and 40 feet , and the maximum building height is 50 feet.
The issue here is that not even one resident, property or business owner ever received one letter to the numerous meetings that were supposedly “widely publicized”. Not one letter that the rezoning would directly affect them. Instead, a handful of activists, including an architect that must have known it affected her friends, neighbors and everyone in the 11 of the 13 blocks never revealed the truth. Instead, they masked the rezoning and peddled it as the fix to stop the towers. In the process, they stripped the affected community from their due process. Now they want to label the average property owner (in most cases) a “small developers” to try and suggest this is not the community, but a group of developers with an agenda.
The growing group continues to be the actual residents, property and business owners of the community affected, including those that were deceived by the activists while under false pretense. You see, the group also opposed and continues to oppose towers in our community.
The solutions were plentiful, there was no reason to hurt the property values and businesses of our now affected community. Who knows what would have been the outcome, had only the people known the truth and been notified of to attend what turned out to be private meetings. Who knows? The problem was that our opinions, voices, votes, concerns, suggestions, hence due process was taken. This is the greater issue. Many questions and answers still remain, how could this happen? Were there people at CB1 or any politicians that facilitated this, or were they fooled also?
As for the many property and business owners that were hurt from these unscrupulous actions of the few that led the charge, we will help them in every way possible. The group will lend assistance to anyone that wants or needs help, even if they would have been for R6B had they known the truth. We are good neighbors that truly care about each other, not “greedy little developers”. We need to promote our hard working class shop keepers and encourage everyone to patronize their businesses within the affected area. They work very hard to earn our business and conveniently provide us some of the many products and services we need. We need to keep them in business and encourage other entrepreneurs to invest and fill the vacancies to provide more products and services. Please help them help us.
I personally would like to ask everyone posting to please refrain from exposing peoples names and using unnecessary expletives. While I do not know what these self serving, deceitful and unscrupulous people deserve, I do know it’s not in our hands to decide or inadvertently cause.
Dear readers and posters, all you have to do is ask any property or shop keeper within the affected community. They are wonderful people that will give it to you straight.
Hello “preservationists” “contexualized” zoning lovers, “gaggle” member who “worked” for this change ….
What do you think the developers are going to do with the huge parcels that they assembled? Build something beautiful?
If you a profit-hungry developer, the new zoning forces you to make bunker-like econo-dwellings with 8 foot ceilings. Or, if you are even more profit-hungry you will exploit the commercial development potential which the rezone INCREASED.
People fear a Starbucks in Williamsburg, this rezone let in the possibility of a Target. So all the people who think they are saving “the fabric” of the neighborhood, you were lied to and used. Your neighbors who are trying to build homes on 20 or 25 foot lots have lost everything. This is tragic.
Polemicist will only be happy when every square inch of the earth is covered by high rise housing, like in a science fiction novel. We will all watch movies of animals in the wild, and make wall paper of vast vistas of plains, hills and mountains, because there won’t be any nature or open space left.
You always tout man’s God given right to built to the sky wherever he pleases for some vague common good. Somehow I doubt if you’d like to live in the city of your devising. Sounds like hell.
Preservationista
All of these developers knew that the area was going to be rezoned, they tried to take advantage of a loophole, they gambled and lost. The RB6 rezoning did not come out of the blue, it’s been in the works for years. Anyone who claiming they didn’t know about it is either lying or was asleep at the wheel.
No one person was behind the rezoning initiative, it was a coalition of homeowners and renters who live in the area. I am one of the “gaggle” who worked on the rezoning project, a longtime resident and am quite relieved that at least the ugly buildings made of crap materials that these discount developers will throw up will now not be as tall thanks to the downzoning.
Maybe if some of the developers were using quality materials and neighborhood-appropriate architecture I wouldn’t care so much. I’ve watched so many high rises built with the same crap cinder blocks and Ikea appliances that I’ll trade ’em for an 80-year-old building with faded–but quality–touches any day. Those guys have lasted almost a century. These new chopstick “luxury” condos will be crumbling within years.
williamsburg is getting fucked up with all those luxury condos. overdevelopment and overcrowded on the L. just a fucking mess. i am fortunate to live in a nice quiet neighborhood on a train line that is not crowded.
1:45 again – development is risky (as many people around the country are discovering). A lot of things can happen to a project – market fluctuations, construction delays, etc. It is not the responsibility of government to make development safe for all.
It is the responsibility of the Planning Commission to encourage AND manage growth.
In the long run, managing growth and making the city livable and workable will help real estate values. If you are in for the short flip, that doesn’t matter, but if you are planning on living in a community, it should.