Prospect Lefferts Gardens Residents Fight Rezoning on Empire Boulevard
After years of getting the brush off on requests to limit building heights in Prospect Lefferts Gardens to six stories, PLG residents, activists and community board members are now meeting with City Planning to consider how the neighborhood should be rezoned. In addition to supporting a rezoning of Flatbush Avenue, pictured above during this past…
After years of getting the brush off on requests to limit building heights in Prospect Lefferts Gardens to six stories, PLG residents, activists and community board members are now meeting with City Planning to consider how the neighborhood should be rezoned.
In addition to supporting a rezoning of Flatbush Avenue, pictured above during this past winter, that would limit building heights there to six stories, neighborhood group The Movement to Protect the People (MTOPP) opposes a brand-new move to rezone commercial district Empire Boulevard to allow residential, MTOPP President and PLG homeowner Alicia Boyd told us.
We had not heard that any proposal to rezone Empire Boulevard was in the works, but Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams spoke in favor of it at an impromptu appearance at a Crown Heights tenant association meeting June 8 and the PLG community board also requested it, Boyd said.
MTOPP opposes market-rate luxury housing and development over six stories, even “under the guise of affordability,” as Boyd put it, because PLG already has the highest population density of any neighborhood in Brooklyn. As well, expensive new market-rate buildings, even with a large percentage of “affordable” units, will cause a wave of rent increases across the neighborhood, displacing current residents, MTOPP believes.
“We don’t need more people in this community,” said Boyd. “We wait three or four buses to get a seat. We wait three or four lights to go one block.”
Upzoning is one tool that deBlasio wants to use to increase housing construction. The city wants to upzone huge portions of Brooklyn and Queens in particular. Problem is in many neighborhoods people just don’t want it, especially in established communities of 1 and 2 family homes.
Ms Boyd was in rare form tonight at the CB9 city planning meeting: “We don’t need affordable housing in this neighborhood”. Nice. Thanks for dominating the entire meeting. That’s the way to progress. And more fast food, gas stations, and self-storage.
Someone explain to me how the status quo of storage units, speeding cars, and general un-walkability of Empire Blvd is better than rezoning that contemplates a mix of commercial, market residential and affordable housing. I hate walking along that corridor right now. Any change would be an improvement. And with regard to Flatbush Ave, yes, a few less nail salons, take out restaurants with bullet proof windows, and 99 cent stores would be an improvement. Also, those dollar vans speeding, cutting through traffic and constantly blowing their horns is annoying and dangerous. There, I said it.
Ms. Boyd is understandably concerned about the effects on her block of Sterling. But that should be what she’s talking about, not the grander issues. And she misheard the densest part of Brooklyn statement. It’s in 11226, not Lefferts Gardens, which is narrowly defined as between Empire and Clarkson, Ocean and New York Ave. If you’ve ever spent anytime near Ocean Avenue below Parkside, you’ll see just dense NYC can become.
What fantasy land mentality puts PLG in the highest population density, no less the top 3 highest densely populated areas in Brooklyn?
I found one map from 2011 indicating that part of flatbush was very densely populated but flatbush isn’t PLG.
It’s also worth noting that this map didn’t have any of the new development data because it didn’t exist yet. I would put downtown BK, williamsburg, and bed stuy as far more densely populated than the PLG/flatbush area now. But we will have to wait a few more years for current data.
It is not true at all that PLG is the most densely populated in Brooklyn. I found a website that shows population based on ZIP CODE which is what you need to do to really see how dense PLG is specifically (not the entire Flatbush area which is huge) and that website showed there is twice the population in Park Slope as in PLG. Which I predicted. It’s visible to the naked eye that’s the case.
Thanks, Babs. I am on the board of the new merchants association: The Parkside Empire – Flatbush Avenue Merchants Association. (because we are between Parkside Avenue and Empire Blvd.). We have a Facebook page that will keep everyone up do date on our progress and we encourage community input. We think that our strip of Flatbush Avenue has a lot of charm and character and urge our neighbors to check us out and shop in The Parkside Empire.
Sure it is, secondary displacement actually is encoded in development regulations. What makes you say otherwise?
When using data from 2000. We all know that’s less likely to be true today.