Better Homes and Gardens, City Planning-Style
This week the City Planning Commission approved two zoning measures aimed at greening the city. One initiative boosts the PlaNYC goal of planting 1 million new trees in the city by 2017 and the other requires more planting in most front yards. The Commission made some significant changes to both measures that address concerns raised…
This week the City Planning Commission approved two zoning measures aimed at greening the city. One initiative boosts the PlaNYC goal of planting 1 million new trees in the city by 2017 and the other requires more planting in most front yards. The Commission made some significant changes to both measures that address concerns raised by many small homwowners during public review. The street-tree planting requirement will force developers to plant a street tree for every 25 feet of street frontage of the zoning lot, and the Parks Dept. will take care of tree maintenance after plantings. The measure was tweaked prior to approval so that, among other things, one- and two-family home enlargements of fewer than 400 square feet are exempt from the requirements. The front yards measure will require a minimum percentage of planting in front yards in most residential districts, based upon street frontage, ranging from 20 percent for narrow lots (less than 20-feet wide) to 50 percent for lots 60-feet wide or greater. This measure was changed following public review so that it now requires a minimum percentage of all front yards to be landscaped and prohibits steeply pitched driveways in front yards. There are plenty more details about the nitty-gritty of both initiatives on the city’s website, and they still need to be OK’d by the City Council. Might this be the beginning of the end for the unsightly curb cuts that’ve been growing like weeds all over Brooklyn?
Street Tree Planting Text Amendment [NYC.gov]
Yards Text Amendment [NYC.gov]
Should the City’s Million-Tree Plan Get Pruned? [Brownstoner]
Curbing Illegal Curb Cuts by Targeting Self-Certification [Brownstoner]
This is absurd. We need more places to park our cars, not less! I think the best solution to all of this is for homeowners to put down artificial grass and shrubs right on top of their asphalt or cement. Some artificial grass is strong enough to support vehicles, and looks so real that most people won’t even notice the difference!
1:56, the city gives you like three or four choices to pick from when you want to plant a tree in front of your home. I can’t remember the choices but Gingko wasn’t one of them.
1:45, I don’t know where you live but Parks is out here in Mill Basin every spring to trim branches. And yes, you can become certified by the city to prune the trees on your own block. I know because my BIL on Staten Island did it.
If this greening plan goes through, Brooklyn will look exactly like New Jersey, and then what reason would people have to stay?
There is an exception to new zoning regulations for existing nonconforming uses, so yards that are currently paved would not have to be planted — but I think if you were redoing your yard you would have to meet the new requirements. The proposed text says that “Planted areas shall be comprised of any combination of grass, groundcover,
shrubs, trees or other living plant material.” So it does not sound like an area covered with mulch would count.
they’re planting oaks in greenpoint at the moment.
i agree about that Ginkgo smell – pheweeee
I hope the city will have some control over the species to be planted. It seems like 90% of new sidewalk plantings are ginkgo trees. They’re tolerant of urban environments but end up looking spindly and scrawny, providing little shade. Also, the females produce a fruit that smells like dogshit when crushed underfoot.
Cities (like forests) need a variety of species. With a monoculture you’re exposed to the next dutch elm disease or chestnut blight that’ll wipe out everything in the span of a few years.
I agree WillBklyn. Parks does not do anything to care for the sidewalk trees.
Once the trees are planted, the city should provide funding, supplies and training for block associations and community groups who apply to be the trees’ caretakers.
Otherwise the Parks Dept will convince the city to give them all the money, then not spend it on taking care of the trees. They’ll funnel it into something else. As they obviously do now.
It would be nice to break up the fully paved front yards but I’m not clear on what qualifies as “planting”.
If I have a narrow lot with a 20% area mulch bed and a small azalea does that qualify?
“…and the Parks Dept. will take care of tree maintenance after plantings.”
Of course they will.