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Update on the Boerum Hill Rezoning
Last fall, the Boerum Hill Association formally expressed interest in getting a piece of the downzoning action that so many neighborhoods in Brownstone Brooklyn have been in on in recent years. According to The Brooklyn Paper, the Department of City Planning just briefed the Boerum Hill Association on how such a rezoning might look: New buildings on side streets in the 29-block area (which would be bounded by Atlantic Avenue, Warren Street, Court Street and Third Avenue) would be capped at 50 feet while those on commercial stretches like Court Street and Smith Street would be limited to 70 feet. Community Board 2 and local public officials have already expressed support for the plan, though City Planning still needs to finalize the boundaries and other specifics before it can come up for review by the City Council and Mayor’s office.
06/21/2010 10:14 AM
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Spencer Street Condo Saga Drags On
This week City Limits checks in on the unfortunate drama surrounding the Spencer Street Condos in Bed-Stuy. As will come as no surprise to anyone who’s been tracking the story since the early days of the Brooklyn real estate boom, there are no happy endings in sight. To refresh: In 2005, residents who’d bought their condos at 201 Spencer Street the year before from developer Mendel Brach (he of Finger Building fame shame) found out after closing that the building had been illegally overbuilt by four stories by exploiting a “community facility” provision in the code that allowed developers to build extra square footage for educational and religious purposes; in this case, Brach claimed he was going to house teachers from a nearby yeshiva. Department of Buildings failed to catch Brach’s maneuver at the time, approving the building for occupancy just long enough for the unsuspecting condo buyers to close on their units. They’ve all been trapped, unable to sell, for five years.
Residents are trying to negotiate with Brach to gain air rights from neighboring properties, a move that would bring the Spencer Street buildings into compliance, but Brach will only negotiate if residents let him off the hook for $10,900,000 in damages he owes them from a 2009 lawsuit. In the meantime, he’s chipping away at his debts a little bit at a time: $280 a month of Brach’s wages at his bakery job are garnished to pay condo owners. That comes out to a whopping $3.88 per unit. Despite having had a hand in creating the situation, the DOB isn’t being too sympathetic with residents now: they could allow special variance or rezoning to bring the buildings into compliance with zoning regulations, but haven’t for fear of sending the wrong message; nor has the state filed any criminal actions against Brach. “When you deal with these city agencies, I’m learning, logic goes out the friggin’ window,” said one of the unlucky condo owners. “They make the rules. They make no sense to anybody else and they can change the rules when they want.”
Saga of The Worthless Condo [City Limits Magazine]
Banned Devloper Pays Settlement from Bakery Wages [Curbed]
Subpoena for Fraudulent Spencer St Developer [Brownstoner]
A Big F-in Mess on Spencer Street [Brownstoner] GMAP
Lock Him Up and Throw Away the Key [Brownstoner]
The Bottom Line on Developer Abuses [Brownstoner]
Photo by Marc Fader.
05/19/2010 10:00 AM
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Superfund Decision No Boost to Gowanus Rezoning
It may be a moot point since no one will be able to finance any construction in the area for quite some time, but the EPA’s decision to add the Gowanus Canal to the Superfund list isn’t doing anything to speed along the proposed rezoning of the area either. Here’s what a Department of City Planning spokesperson told the Architect’s Newspaper on Tuesday:
We’ve just gotten the news and we’re continuing to work on understanding the impacts of the designation on the potential for moving forward with a rezoning to facilitate appropriate development and remediation. Clearly, the Superfund designation adds a layer of additional complexity (and uncertainty) to an already very complex process.
This on the heels of a similar statement made to us last summer:
Certification of the Gowanus Rezoning Proposal into the public review process is temporarily on hold to allow the City to focus on the alternative cleanup plan for the Canal, the potential for Superfund listing, and to better understand the relationship of this process to the rezoning. We still intend to advance the rezoning plan, and the EPA has also strongly encouraged the City to move forward with rezoning. Once there is a better understanding of the overall process of canal cleanup, the rezoning plan can move into the ULURP process.
You can read more about the mixed-use rezoning plan for the 25 blocks along the canal here.
03/05/2010 9:00 AM
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Brouhaha in Carroll Gardens Over School Expansion Plan
The Hannah Senesh School’s desire to build a two-story addition to its facility on what is now a city-owned courtyard has provoked a firestorm of criticism from some Carroll Gardens residents, a population that hasn’t been known to shy away from not-in-my-front-yard battles. At issue in the neighborhood’s latest development skirmish is a Local Law amendment outgoing Councilman Bill de Blasio plans to introduce that would permit the school to sidestep the mandated setback at its 1st Place and Smith Street property for a build-out. Although a rep for the Councilman says this would be a one-time exception to the rules and regs, outraged community members think it could set a precedent for building over the area’s front yards. And the language from the opposition has gotten fiery! Some quotes, c/o the Eagle: We have worked so hard to save our courtyards, only to be sold out by our councilman; “Can you believe that here is the city’s new public advocate [de Blasio] selling off the neighborhood that he still represents — courtyards that have been protected by law since 1845!”; and “Imagine if more owners of corner properties should claim the right to build on their corner garden?” De Blasio is expected to ask the Council to approve the amendment on Wednesday.
Historic Gardens Threatened by Precedent-Setting Proposal [Brooklyn Eagle]
‘Carroll’ Crusade [NY Post]
Councilman Angering Many in Carroll Gardens [PMFA]
Duped in Carroll Gardens [CG CORD]
12/07/2009 9:00 AM
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CB1 Committee Not Digging Plans for Huge Burg Project
Last week Community Board 1′s land-use committee voted 8-1 against approving a zoning change on the South Williamsburg waterfront for a humongous development that’s on the drawing board, according to The Brooklyn Paper. The project slated for Kent and Division, which is known as Rose Plaza on the River, is supposed to consist of three residential towers with 801 units between them. Board members spoke out against the development mainly on the grounds that only 20 percent of its units will be designated affordable housing, and because its proposed unit mix is mostly studios and 1-bedrooms. Is this what you think our community needs? asked Rabbi David Niederman, a committee member and president of the United Jewish Organization. It’s another development that gentrifies a community that is suffering already from a lack of housing. For their part, the development team argued that Rose Plaza would add construction jobs, affordable housing and open space to the neighborhood, and despite Williamsburg’s inventory glut they’re banking on it being a cinch to sell because they anticipate a market rebound.
This ‘Rose’ Has Thorns! [Brooklyn Paper] GMAP
Big in the Burg: Rose Plaza on the River [Brownstoner]
Rendering from The Brooklyn Paper
11/30/2009 9:30 AM
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BSA Smacks Down 580 Carroll Hardship Claim…For Now
Yesterday the Board of Standards and Appeals told the developers of 580 Carroll Street that they’d have to come up with a new rationale for why they should be allowed to build a denser structure than zoning allows. The board basically said it wasn’t buying the developers’ explanation for $2.85 million in cost overruns: That unexpected masonry chambers associated with the old substation on the land required them to drill rather than drive piles. “Why didn’t you do some better assessment of your own site?” asked one board member, referring to the fact that the 580 Carroll team based a lot of their cost analysis on the site conditions of other projects in the area, rather than their own. Meanwhile, a few people who live near the site and Councilman-elect Brad Lander spoke out against the BSA granting a variance. The opponents’ arguments included statements about how the block’s infrastructure isn’t well-equipped for increased residential density and that the developers shouldn’t be rewarded for incompetence. The BSA said it would give the developers until the end of December to come up with completely new arguments for a hardship variance and it would hold another hearing on the matter in mid-January.
580 Carroll Developers Cite Chambers of Horror [Brownstoner]
Development Watch: 580 Carroll Gets Its Glass On [Brownstoner]
BSA Postpones Decision on Carroll St Norten Again [Brownstoner]
580 Carroll Decision Postponed [Brownstoner]
Slope Rallies Against 580 Carroll, Rags on the BSA [Brownstoner]
Battle Over Carroll St. Norten Build Heats Up This Week [Brownstoner]
CB6 Doesn’t Buy Carroll Street Hardship Claim [Brownstoner]
580 Carroll Developer Trying to Supersize Norten Project [Brownstoner]
Development Watch: 580 Carroll Street [Brownstoner] GMAP
Enrique Norten-Designed Project in Park Slope Revealed [Brownstoner]
Four Developments Coming to One Stretch of Carroll [Brownstoner]
11/18/2009 9:00 AM
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580 Carroll Developers Cite Chambers of Horror
The developers of the Enrique Norten-designed 580 Carroll Street in Park Slope have filed papers with the city in advance of next week’s Board of Standards and Appeals hearing on the variance they’re seeking to build a denser structure than zoning allows. The latest documents from the development team are in response to criticisms from the BSA about the team’s request, and in them they lay out how high cost overruns have allegedly gotten at the site because of what they call “unique” conditions, like “deep underground concrete and masonry chambers” from the old substation on the land. The developers claim that the makeup of these chambers couldn’t have been anticipated before they began excavation, and along with other unexpected hurdles—such as “the
 soil
 under
 the
 neighboring
 buildings
 began
 to
 wash
 out
 and
 soil
 grouting
 had
 to
 be
 introduced
 in
 order
 to
 keep
 the
 soil
 under
 the
 neighboring
 buildings
 stable”—overruns reached $2.86 million. You buying it?
Development Watch: 580 Carroll Gets Its Glass On [Brownstoner]
BSA Postpones Decision on Carroll St Norten Again [Brownstoner]
580 Carroll Decision Postponed [Brownstoner]
Slope Rallies Against 580 Carroll, Rags on the BSA [Brownstoner]
Battle Over Carroll St. Norten Build Heats Up This Week [Brownstoner]
CB6 Doesn’t Buy Carroll Street Hardship Claim [Brownstoner]
580 Carroll Developer Trying to Supersize Norten Project [Brownstoner]
Development Watch: 580 Carroll Street [Brownstoner] GMAP
Enrique Norten-Designed Project in Park Slope Revealed [Brownstoner]
Four Developments Coming to One Stretch of Carroll [Brownstoner]
11/12/2009 11:00 AM
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Carroll Gardens Downzoning Sails Through Council
As expected, the City Council yesterday unanimously approved the rezoning of 89 blocks of Carroll Gardens in a move designed to limit the height and scope of future development in the largely low-scale neighborhood. This contextual rezoning will preserve the area’s existing residential character, distinguished by the neighborhood’s historic brownstones, while supporting vibrant, local retail corridors on commercial thoroughfares, said Land Use Committee chair Melinda Katz. The simplest manifestation of the rezoning will be a 50-foot height limit on new buildings and additions, the result of new R6B requirements. The resolution was sponsored by Bill de Blasio and supported by other local public figures, including Council Member David Yassky and Borough President Marty Markowitz. The Historic District Council also gave it a thumbs up: This rezoning is an important step in protecting the historic character and human scale of this wonderful neighborhood,” said HDC’s Simeon Bankoff. You can see the map of the rezoning here.
Council Votes 48-0 to Rezone Carroll Gardens [Brooklyn Eagle]
Carroll Gardens Rezoning Close, Boerum Hill Wants In [Brownstoner]
Zoning Debate Continues in Carroll Gardens [Brownstoner]
ULURP Begins for Carroll Gardens Rezoning [Brownstoner]
Photo by wackelpudding
10/29/2009 11:01 AM
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Carroll Gardens Rezoning Close, Boerum Hill Wants In
Boerum Hill wants what Carroll Gardens is about to get. The Brooklyn Paper reports that Carroll Gardens is reaching the end of a long rezoning road, as the City Council is expected to approve the downzoning of the brownstone neighborhood when it meets on Monday. Meanwhile, The Paper’s sister pub Courier Life says that residents in neighboring Boerum Hill want a piece of the rezoning action: We feel that it is imperative to rezone the 19 orphaned blocks of Boerum Hill from R6 to R6B in order to preserve and enforce contextual development throughout our entire neighborhood, Boerum Hill Association President Howard Kolins wrote to CB 2 District Manger Rob Perris. The rezoning would place height limits on the area regardless of how much FAR a developer accumulates.
Boerum Hill Looks to Rezone the Nabe [Courier]
Carroll Gardens Downzone on a Roll [Brooklyn Paper]
10/22/2009 9:31 AM
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Meeting About Special Lefferts Rezoning Request Tonight
We only just found about about this, probably because the organizers don’t want the Brownstoner crowd showing up, but there’s a meeting being held tonight about CNR Healthcare’s proposal to get a special upzoning of a block of Lefferts Place to enable them to build an outsized supportive services facility on the otherwise residential block. There’s a great deal of opposition from people who own homes on the neighboring two blocks. As we reported back in July, the company has shown an unwillingness to work with residents to find a more palatable solution, preferring instead to try to ram the rezoning down their throats. More than 200 people have signed the petition against the upzoning. The meeting takes place tonight at 7 p.m. at the senior center at 966 Fulton Street between Grand and Cambridge.
10/15/2009 11:12 AM
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Council Passes Sunset Park Rezoning Plan
This week City Council passed the long-discussed rezoning proposal for Sunset Park, a plan that attempts to promote new development, affordable housing, and new businesses, while maintaining the character of the neighborhood. The Department of City Planning posted the details of the plan on its website, which includes changes for about 128 blocks within Community Board 7′s distrcit. Borough President Marty Markowitz issued a statement that the rezoning will benefit Sunset Park, adding that “it’s important that anti-harassment measures be reviewed to determine if the Tenant Protection Act is adequate as a means of protecting residents from displacement, and that every effort be made to ensure that the magnificent park views of Upper New York Bay and Manhattan are preserved. While the city is talking some nice talk, some residents have fought the rezoning plan due to concerns that it will promote luxury developments and big-business interests, resulting in residential and commercial displacement.
Sunset Park Rezoning [Department of City Planning]
Immigrant Groups Fight Sunset Park Rezoning [Brownstoner]
Development Funds Flow into Sunset Park [Brownstoner]
Sunset Park Waterfront Vision Plan [Brownstoner]
The Sunset Park Condo That Helped Fuel the Rezone Fire [Brownstoner]
Photo by Michael Comeau
10/01/2009 9:01 AM
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Immigrant Groups Fight Sunset Park Rezoning
Rezoning seems to be the issue du jour here in Brooklyn. First, Carroll Gardeners raise their hackles over the planned R6A designation for some streets, and now the blog Best View in Brooklyn points out that a coalition of residents, churches, and a community organization in Sunset Park have filed a lawsuit challenging the city’s rezoning plan of 128 blocks in their neighborhood. According to the press release published on Legal Services NYC’s website, “They claim that the rezoning plan will encourage more luxury development and large chain stores, resulting in widespread residential and commercial displacement and gentrification among Sunset Park’s low-income Asian and Latino communities.” Any readers care to weigh in?
Press Conference Announces Lawsuit about Rezoning [BVIB]
Immigrant Groups File Lawsuit [Legal Services]
Photo by Sonja Shield/Legal Services NYC
08/21/2009 10:15 AM
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Zoning Debate Continues in Carroll Gardens
The Carroll Gardens rezoning discussion continued on Wednesday with a NYC Planning Commission Hearing for Carroll Gardens and the Columbia Street Waterfront. If you haven’t tuned into this station before, the current rezoning plan calls for a R6B designation for many residential blocks in Carroll Gardens, which imposes a building height of 50 feet. This Carroll Gardeners like. But R6A, which is what the plan dictates for several blocks of Columbia Street, Henry Street, and Clinton Street? Not so much. Residents actually consider this an up-zoning, since the increase in FAR from 2.2 to 3.0 could allow owners to build additions on their roofs. The city posits that the change will bring some buildings on those blocks into compliance. Katia at Pardon Me for Asking points out that “What is needed, in essence, is a special zoning in between an R6A and R6B to not only bring the out-of-scale buildings into compliance, but also to limit any additional height.” She adds, “It seems unlikely that these tools will be created any time soon.”
Carroll Gardeners Oppose R6A Zoning [PMFA]
ULURP Begins for Carroll Gardens Rezoning [Brownstoner]
Carroll Gardeners Prepare for Hearing [Brooklyn Eagle]
Carroll Gardens/Columbia Street Rezoning [DOCP official plan]
08/21/2009 9:00 AM
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A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to Rezoning
The Dept. of City Planning told Brownstoner yesterday that the long-planned rezoning of Gowanus is on hold. The public review period for the rezoning was set to begin next month but, inconveniently for the city, that’s also when the word will come down about the EPA’s Superfund designation for Gowanus. Here’s the official line from a Planning spokesperson: “Certification of the Gowanus Rezoning Proposal into the public review process is temporarily on hold to allow the City to focus on the alternative cleanup plan for the Canal, the potential for Superfund listing, and to better understand the relationship of this process to the rezoning. We still intend to advance the rezoning plan, and the EPA has also strongly encouraged the City to move forward with rezoning. Once there is a better understanding of the overall process of canal cleanup, the rezoning plan can move into the ULURP process.” The Brooklyn Paper reported in May that a staffmember of Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler said the prospect of the Superfund designation had put the Gowanus rezoning “on pause.”
Conflict over Gowanus Canal Superfund Status [Brownstoner]
08/20/2009 9:30 AM
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DUMBO Rezoning Passed (Without Much Fanfare)
Unlike the rezoning of Coney Island, the rezoning of DUMBO occurred quietly (heck, we only mentioned it in passing), reports the Brooklyn Eagle. Last week the area in question, 12 blocks along Jay and Bridge Streets formerly zoned for industry, manufacturing, and commercial use, was reassigned for mixed-use, contextual zoning, which allows for both manufacturing and residential buildings. (See City Planning’s overview here.) While the rezoning occurred without the kind of uproar reserved for Coney Island, there has been some controversy. The DUMBO Improvement District supports the changes, for example, but the DUMBO Neighborhood Alliance opposes them, partly due to the height of the rezoning district. (As we posted here, CB2 also recommended against the rezoning back in April, but Brownstoner readers were overwhelmingly in favor of it.) Council Member David Yassky, a longtime supporter of the change, had this to say: The DUMBO rezoning has been a long time coming and will help create both residential and commercial development so this great neighborhood can fully realize its potential.
DUMBO Rezoning Passed Amid Mixed Reviews [Brooklyn Eagle]
CB2 Recommends Against Residential Rezoning in Dumbo [Brownstoner]
Public Review for Dumbo Rezoning Begins [Brownstoner]
Planning Reveals More Deets About Dumbo Rezoning Plan [Brownstoner]
Post-Landmarking, Dumbo Rezoning Talk Begins [Brownstoner]
08/04/2009 10:00 AM
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City Council Approves Two Three More Rezonings
We don’t have much to go on other than a couple of tweets that came across the transom last night (see, non-believers, Twitter can be useful!), but apparently, the City Council approved two three rezonings (in addition to the Coney Island vote) yesterday, the Greenpoint-Williamsburg Contextual Rezoning and the Flatbush Rezoning. Way to go! Update: And Dumbo too!
07/30/2009 10:14 AM
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Council Committee Signs Off on Coney Plan
The Zoning Subcommittee and Land Use Committee of the City Council voted to approve the city’s plan for the redevelopment of Coney Island. The committee agreed to important modifications regarding affordable housing, union labor and the preservation of the land around the Wonder Wheel but the tweaks fell short of what the group Save Coney Island wanted to see. The City Council’s Land Use Committee unfortunately failed to back the revisions needed to prevent the destruction of Coney Island as a world-class amusement destination, said Save Coney Island spokesman Juan Rivero. I know there are those who would like to see lower buildings on the south side of Surf Avenue. We just couldn’t make this work, said Council Member Domenic Recchia, who was involved in the negotiations and declared himself satisfied with the outcome. The critics were somewhat heartened by the possibility that changes may still be made by the City Planning Commission before it goes to a full vote at the City Council on July 29. Meanwhile, developer Joe Sitt, who owns much of the land in the footprint of the city’s plan, continued to play tough. “I’m the guy who controls this – it’s my sandbox,” he said.
Coney Island Plan Gets a Green Light [Crain's]
Coney Plan Receives Green Light From Council Committees [Brooklyn Eagle]
Council: Bloomy Coney Rezoney is no Baloney [Brooklyn Paper]
Council Members Push for More Time on Coney Plan [Brownstoner]
Developer Threatens City’s Coney Plan [NY Post]
07/22/2009 9:00 AM
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Historians Line Up Against City’s Coney Plan
Taking a page out of the anti-Dock Street play book (which didn’t work out so well in the end), the organizers of the movement to stop (or modify) the city’s plan for the rezoning and redevelopment of Coney Island have recruited a pedigreed list of historians to sign and go public with a letter of opposition. Here’s the meat of the letter:
The City’s rezoning plan for Coney Island, however, dishonors its past and sacrifices its future. It would shrink the area reserved for amusement parkland to only 12 acres. It would insert soaring high-rises into the very heart of Coney Island’s historic amusement district. It would invite developers to tear down many of Coney Island’s remaining historic buildings, some dating back more than a century. This shrunken amusement district, hemmed in by high-rises, would leave little room for the innovation and creativity that have been Coney Island’s hallmarks for more than a century.
Signatories include Ric Burns, Charles Denson and Francis Morrone. The deadline for modifying the plan originally was this past Monday but may be extended to this coming Monday; the City Council is scheduled to vote on the plan in its current form within the next two weeks.
12 Prominent Historians: Fix Coney Island Rezoning Plan [Save CI]
Council Members Push for More Time on Coney Plan [Brownstoner]
City Planning Votes in Favor of City’s Coney Plan [Brownstoner]
Marty Weighs In On City’s Coney Plan [Brownstoner] (more…)
07/16/2009 10:00 AM
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City Planning Approves Flatbush Rezoning
Three and a half months after certifying the Flatbush Rezoning Plan for the public review process, the City Planning Commission gave its official seal of approval to the ne set of contextual building rules for the 180-block area that encompasses, among others, Caton Park, Beverley Square West and East, Ditmas Park West, and South Midwood. All that’s left before this baby becomes law is sign-off from the City Council, which is likely to happen in late July. For details on the rezoning, check out the City Planning website.
CPC approves Flatbush Rezoning Proposal [Flatbush Gardener]
City Planning OK’s Flatbush Rezoning Plan for ULURP [Brownstoner]
Flatbush Rezoning in the Works [Brownstoner]
06/19/2009 9:00 AM
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Flatbush Rezoning Can’t Come Soon Enough
The 60-day ULURP period for the Flatbush Rezoning plan concludes this week with a hearing at City Planning on Wednesday night. Unfortunately the downzoning, which affects approximately 180 blocks and has particular impact on the historic areas of Victorian Flatbush did not come soon enough to save this place at 248 Stratford Road in Ditmas Park, notes the Ditmas Park Blog. We shudder to think what its replacement will look like. McMansion anyone?
06/02/2009 10:44 AM
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ruth2989
May 29, 2012 | 11:02 AM