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June 22, 2009
Neighbor Building a Monstrosity
I live in a nice 2 story in sunset park and everyone has uniform brownstone houses. Recently a new buyer has bought out the house next to me and is expanding the house horizontally and destroying their patio and garden to build more space for their house. Since everyone on the block has the same type house this will destroy the integrity of the block. Is there a law against this? The building will partially block our view on the balcony patio as well but it's gonna be a huge eyesore too. The guy got a building permit too which is unbelievable.
Comments
Oh Yeah. This is what's happening to me.
http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/09/a_brownstone_st.php
I think the same developer bought my neighbor's house and is gonna do this again. WHat can I do?
Posted by: sunsetparker at June 20, 2009 3:54 PM
There is always the chance the new neighbor doesn't have the proper permits and is doing something they aren't supposed to ... but my guess is they are within the acceptable zoning codes.
What is your neighborhood zoned for? Go on PropertyShark.com. You can register for free, type in your address and select "map" for the report. It will give you a street map of your block and lot and on the left will be a mini-report giving you the zoning for your area and the buildable FAR for each lot. If it's 2FAR, that means he can build 2 times the square footage of his lot.
That doesn't necessarily mean he can build lot line to lot line; but he can build a total of that sq footage. A common 100 foot deep lot generally will require approximately 30 feet depth of garden space. It can vary from area to area depending on zoning.
There's no accounting for taste ... unfortunately, what you may consider an eyesore may be beautiful to someone else.
Posted by: tlocane at June 20, 2009 4:58 PM
He's doing the work on the back of his house right? How is he "destroying the integrity of the block" when so few see the back of the buildings?
Posted by: Rick at June 20, 2009 5:19 PM
No. He's building in front not the back. It's just like the picture in the link.
Posted by: sunsetparker at June 20, 2009 5:31 PM
Oh man, that makes my stomach turn. Call the DOB and your community board. What street are you on?
Posted by: Rick at June 20, 2009 6:05 PM
47th street between 7th and 8th avenue
Posted by: sunsetparker at June 20, 2009 6:33 PM
SHIT! I'm on 47th too between 5 & 6! Do you know people on your block? You can reach me at r.ladd.bklyn@gmail.com
Posted by: Rick at June 20, 2009 7:03 PM
47th b/w 5&6 is one of my favorite blocks in the whole hood. That's nice there!
Posted by: saturdayrenogirl at June 21, 2009 1:45 AM
This is one of the reasons that the city is trying to rezone Sunset Park.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/sunset_park/index.shtml
Posted by: SenatorStreet at June 21, 2009 3:44 AM
Rezoning is a good idea. This past year I have seen more Brownstones being torn down for new construction. Chinatown is growing and changing the character of the neighborhood greatly between 7 & 8 ave. 8th ave is the heart of Chinatown.
Posted by: Rick at June 21, 2009 8:45 AM
This is hugely unfortunate, and will destroy your property values. If it's not illegal now, maybe you could make it so if you band together with your neighbors. Good luck. What a nightmare.
Posted by: mopar at June 21, 2009 11:47 AM
somebody in my area bought 2 family brownstone and wanted to change it into 4 families so people did not like it and told him, that they will watch his every move and verify every permit. I believe he spent 60K on fire systems, etc. just because people watched after his.
So point is - if somebody will change the front - tell him that you will verify every single permit. It might straightening it out.
Posted by: bobjohn at June 21, 2009 8:31 PM
Cry me a river.
Posted by: crimsonson at June 22, 2009 10:19 AM
I too live in S.P. and am watching the neighborhood change very rapidly. I really like the idea of verifying every permit as I believe there is a lot of permits issued by the city for work they never check up on. The permit on one of the houses on my block was for "minor repairs". It was completely gutted and they were pounding on something in the house so hard my house shook (for days), and we're 5 houses away!
I've read some of the arguments on here and it seems some of the people in support of the new deconstruction seem to always say in effect "well the owners are hardworking people that bought their own home and so they should be able to do anything they want to it now that that they have a piece of the american dream". But honestly, since moving here in 2001, I've seen 6 homes on my side of the block turn over and be completely gutted and bumped out in the back and have in some cases quadrupled the occupancy of the building. These are legal 2 family homes! To the best of my knowledge -as it's difficult to figure out who the owners are and the tenant turnover if frequent but I don't think these are owner occupied homes, I suspect they are investment properties where the ownership is maximizing the rentable square footage. So far, no one has tried to build out to the sidewalk or make a curb cut, but I suspect that's not too far off. It's disapointing considering I chose this block for it's uniformity, trees and lack of ugly curb cut driveways in front of the hundred yr. old row houses.
The new zoning mentioned above does not protect the integrity -at least as it's currently written- it allows for essentially doubling the height of the current buildings on the "side streets". If the current trend continues, I figure in ten years I might as well knock my house down and turn it into a best western -as an architect friend advised.
Posted by: Schmigital at June 22, 2009 10:42 AM
Um...not to sound crass, but welcome to Brooklyn. Wild-wild West.
You are in an R6 district, so the skies the limit until the proposed rezoning goes through.
Posted by: Action Jackson at June 22, 2009 11:10 AM
This is an immigrant thing...and we have seen several nice houses transformed into multi-family hotel like buildings in Sunset Park. I have relatives in Jersey City who speak about such developments with delight and amazement, to them such riches and opportunities more or less represents America.
Hopefully thing’s might change in Sunset Park with the zoning, after all protected brownstones should not be restricted for just the richer folks in Park Slope.
Posted by: fobsdelhi at June 22, 2009 12:20 PM
Brownstoner could you please change this poster's username to imposter?
Posted by: Sunset Parker at June 22, 2009 1:38 PM
Imposter!!! I hope they build a monstrosity right next to your house (and accross) so you could "cry yourself a river"...
Posted by: fobsdelhi at June 22, 2009 2:52 PM
Chill. the imposter I was referring to was the original poster who stole my name. I thought that was obvious.
Having grown up in and lived in Sunset Park since 1981,(and having posted on this blog and other brooklyn blogs for several years with the name Sunset Parker and having run a blog for about a year, titled Sunset Parker) I sympathize with the problem. This happened across the street from the house i grew up in, in a house bought a few years ago by an immigrant Chinese family (with another ten or so extended family, friends and posse members), though in the back, which while perhaps not as bad can still be problematic. The resulting two story cinder block extension now creates serious unwanted shade in their neighbor's backyards. (they also apparently paved over the sliver of what was left of their backyard). In front, they refuse to put a tree in front of their house, to replace one that had occupied that spot and was one of three or four on the block that died a few years back despite the requests of several other homeowners on the block and they also replaced the black iron front gate with a hideously out of context and ugly orange brick wall which was promptly grafitiied which they actively refused to clean because they felt as soon it was cleaned it would be grafitiied again).
And, sadly, all that was within their "rights".
Posted by: Sunset Parker at June 22, 2009 3:38 PM
To expand on my stance...
I am a strong supporter of property rights. As much I would hate gaudy house beside my fictional 3 million dollar brownstone, it would offend me more that if some one will dictate how I should build my own house with my own money.
While tradition and history is nice, people must live now. And I don't want NYC turning in to a "living" museum like so many European cities.
Posted by: crimsonson at June 22, 2009 4:41 PM
Write the community board, city council, borough president and anyone else involved in the current rezoning process and tell them to pass the plan immediately!!
the rezoning will stop things like this from happening and put the same height limits the side streets in Park Slope and Bay Ridge have on new buildings in Sunset Park!!!! It's time this neighborhood got the same treatment as those surrounding it!
The current zoning is R6 (anything goes) and the proposed is R6B for the side streets (50ft max)... It's a no brainer... Without the rezoning, these sorts of buildings you're worried about will become the norm. There are groups opposing the plan (one called the chinese staffers or something like that), so those homeowners supporting it should make their voices heard, too.
Posted by: Gregorius Maximus at June 22, 2009 7:15 PM
Crimsonson,
While that may be true, a lot of this type of development (at least in SP) is not homeowners building/renovating for themselves. It's turning family homes into four through eight unit rentals/condos.
The people doing the building couldn't care less about the integrity (aesthetic or structural) of the buildings around them. They won't be around to see the results.
Posted by: bestviewinbrooklyn at June 23, 2009 9:23 AM
As posted on "sunsetpark-brooklyn-matters.blogspot.com"- This sad scenario has played out on 6th Avenue & 54th Street (exact address to come). This block has now been hit twice by greedy and tasteless owners (see blue awning to stage-left/your right of new building). Unfortunately, this facade teardown & additional floor would be legal under the proposed R6A re-zoning, the commercial overlay or commercial use of the 1st floor would not be allowed. These unscrupulous owners will continue to deface block after block even if all they gain is 1 or 2 more housing units into which they'll dangerously pile up many times the allowed number of people. As to devaluing (in dollars) adjacent properties, it hasn't been the case. There are so many other morally and aesthetically-bankrupt buyers whose need to hide ill-gotten cash is so dire that property values won't suffer. Housing prices in Sunset Park (Flushing , Manhattan's Chinatown or other cash-rich enclaves, for that matter) haven't decreased as in other parts of NYC or the nation. What will suffer is the racial, ethnic, generational and economic diversity of Sunset Park that we so want to preserve. If this abuse continues, only buyers looking to hide cash from questionable sources will occupy Sunset Park. This an occupation, folks- and it's being enabled by our own governmental agencies: Buildings Dept., DEP, Dept. of City Planning, City Council, and so on. I wonder what the reaction would be if the above monstrosity was attempted on the Mayor's block or next to the homes of the City's Commissioners or Council Members. Legal or not, would it be allowed to go on? I wonder.
Posted by: Sunset Park Matters at June 23, 2009 11:38 AM
I love Sunset Park. My parents were born here, I was born here and intend to stay here as I start my own family. What is happening on my block and others creates a rage in me and, at times, I have to avoid driving on blocks anywhere close to the China town on 8th avenue because I turn into Archie Bunker. I live between 4th and 5th aves and it seems the Chinese want to move their operation down to 4th. They currently have the right to build whatever they want, the cheapest shoddy construction they want and without regard to their neighbors. I would love to buy my house from my parents, but it seems that the neighborhood I know and love may not survive. The new homeowners do not intend to contribute anything to the community. They intend to leech anything they can out of it. Standard of living is out the window. It's sad to see and I hope the rezoning will shed some light on the illegal building/occupancy, etc. I would love to join a cause, volunteer to check on permits, file complaints, etc. because this grassroots approach seems to be the only way to protect our properties. The city isn't gonna do it. I may just end up like Archie, proven wrong and defeated at the end of every episode.
Posted by: Just around the Corner at June 24, 2009 12:05 PM
Dear "Just around the Corner"- Check out - Sunset Park Alliance of Neighbors www.spanbrooklyn.com / spanbrooklyn@yahoo.com / (718) 853-0949, a grassroots group organizing around this issue AND also contribute photos (before/after, under construction) with URLs for Permits/Violations/Stop Work/Orders to sunsetparkmatters@gmail.com for posting on the blog- http:// SUNSETPARK-BROOKLYN-MATTERS.BLOGSPOT.COM. There's a lot each of us can do, starting with telling our neighbors what's going on.
Posted by: Sunset Park Matters at June 24, 2009 11:49 PM
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