CB1 Says 'Yea' to Rezoning of North Brooklyn
Fed up with one too many Finger buildings, Community Board 1 voted to support City Planning’s contextual rezoning of Williamsburg and Greenpoint at its monthly meeting on Monday night; the rezoning covers approximately 180 inland blocks between Grand Street in Williamsburg and Clay Street in Greenpoint. (Click map for larger version.) In addition to limiting…
Fed up with one too many Finger buildings, Community Board 1 voted to support City Planning’s contextual rezoning of Williamsburg and Greenpoint at its monthly meeting on Monday night; the rezoning covers approximately 180 inland blocks between Grand Street in Williamsburg and Clay Street in Greenpoint. (Click map for larger version.) In addition to limiting building heights, the switch from R6 to R6B zoning also aims to close the community facility loophole that developers have exploited in recent years to squeeze extra square footage into their projects. CB1’s support came despite concerns that the rezoning didn’t go far enough in limiting heights and encouraging commercial density on Metropolitan Avenue.
CB1 Approves Greenpoint-Williamsburg Contextual Rezoning [Brooklyn 11211]
wow – so that really sucks for alot of developers i suppose. thanks Dr P.
Dirty-
If their foundation is 100% complete they will be grandfathered in under the old zoning. If not, the new zoning provides the guidelines for what can be built.
Sorry – I’m not really familiar with how this zoning stuff works.
How will this affect properties already bought under the premise that they would be able to build a huge tower on the property? My block pretty much had half of the warehouses leveled about a year ago. A curbed story said a 30 story rental tower was going to go up. From the map, it looks like my block will be rezoned from R6 to R6B – how does this affect the yet to be started buildings?
GWH – This rezoning (and most like it) do not substantially change the density of the neighborhood. It just eliminates two significant zoning abuses (finger buildings and “community facility” bonuses) and adds the potential for more affordable housing. It maintains the existing scale (or something close to it) AND allows for the somewhat higher density always available under zoning (or something close to it).
we have and will have for ever a housing shortage. a year or 2 of down prices will not change anything. williamsburg convenience to manhattan is not going to change either.
this decision is stupid, IMO, but will probably make me wealthier when i cash out 15 years from now.
GWH – One reason some of us prefer Brooklyn over Manhattan is the lower density (the ability to see trees and sky). If Brooklyn buildings were uniformly 6-8 stories, then it would lose a lot of its appeal.
But you do make an interesting point – proximity to good mass transit options should not be reserved for the wealthy. If all buildings near subway stops were 6-8 stories, then a lot more people could live closer to mass transit (good for some)
However, the city would be a lot less hospitable, Brooklyn would look more like Manhattan.
I personally think the housing shortage is due to the large number of people in this city who are partially funded by outside sources. There are lots of people who make $50k per year, but are able to buy $800k apartments because of a little help from mom and dad. And there are lots of people who keep a nice place in the city, but spend part of the year elsewhere. This really makes it tough for regular folks.
I was reading a scholarly paper by Ed Glaeser from 2004 that discusses Manhattan real estate prices. In 2004, Glaeser was reporting that condos in Manhattan were selling for $600 a square foot. Now, in Brooklyn, new condos are going for 800 a square foot and up. Some of this is attributable to developers being greedy and thinking that they were going to get a certain price that I don’t think is realistic. But even at $600 a square foot, you’re looking at what prices were in Manhattan only five years ago! Prices are only now coming back down. But prices would not be coming down if there wasn’t the recent building boom in places like Williamsburg that produced so much housing stock.
My point is, there is a housing shortage in this city. We need more units. End of story. These downzonings will not help anyone. If there is a subway stop within a quarter mile, building heights should be at 6-8 stories as of right, unless the property has historical significance. Until we increase density, we will never have affordable housing.