Council OKs Bed-Stuy Rezoning
The City Council approved a rezoning of the southern part of Bedford-Stuyvesant yesterday, a move meant to echo other recent rezonings by preserving the area’s low-rise, brownstone blocks. The measure, which covers the section of Bed-Stuy roughly bounded by Quincy Street and Saratoga, Atlantic and Classon avenues, also seeks to stimulate new business and housing…
The City Council approved a rezoning of the southern part of Bedford-Stuyvesant yesterday, a move meant to echo other recent rezonings by preserving the area’s low-rise, brownstone blocks. The measure, which covers the section of Bed-Stuy roughly bounded by Quincy Street and Saratoga, Atlantic and Classon avenues, also seeks to stimulate new business and housing creation by permitting increased density on major commercial drags. The new zoning allows residential developments to rise around eight stories on Nostrand and Bedford avenues and up to about 10 stories on Fulton Street and Atlantic Avenue if developers include subsidized housing. The plan also adds residential use to the southeast edge of the neighborhood, which was a light manufacturing zone. And what’s next for Bed-Stuy? The Planning Commission has promised to move forward with a rezoning of the neighborhood’s northern section.
Action on Development in Brooklyn and Queens [NY Times]
Bedford-Stuyvesant South Rezoning [City Planning]
More Details Emerge on Bed Stuy Rezoning Plan [Brownstoner]
City Planning Considering Bed Stuy Rezoning [Brownstoner]
Photo by nrvlowdown.
I don’t understand how to reconcile the comment that “[d]ownzoning will…make [the neighborhood] more expensive” but will also “drive down the value of [its] properties.”
I also don’t see how a neighborhood gets expensive while at the same time attracting no retail, because residents have less money when they get there? wha? Is there any evidence of this in NY? And don’t say red hook, b/c that’s a seperate phenomenon, having nothing to do with its residents disposable income.
Maybe I’m just a sucker for trees and flowers in front yards. . .
Then you should oppose the downzoning and leave some space for them. Density is the only thing that makes open space possible.
I’d like to know how retail along the avenues gets encouraged
Basically it doesn’t. Downzoning will limit the total population and make it more expensive for new people to move in so they will have less disposable income when they get here.
Rezoning Bed-Stuy, a low-income neighborhood that has lots of vacant land and crowded housing, really shows us how incompetent the city government really is.
It is shocking that the politicians (DiBlasio, James, etc.) actually convince their followers that it is good for them when it drives down the value of their properties and raises their rents at the same time. Fucking brilliant.
The politicians get to make their supporters rich while pretending to do SOMETHING for the city. Nothing will change in Bed Stuy, besides reduced access to affordable housing.
Polemicist,
Re your number 3: have you ever been in this neighborhood? I live right in the middle of it, and there are blocks and blocks and blocks of beautiful, well-preserved, owner-occupied brownstones. This will prevent speculators from knocking down a few and erecting ugly, tall Fedders buildings.
Please, take a walk or ride through the blocks just north of the Nostrand Ave. stop on the A or C train. Macon, Halsey, Hancock, Jefferson, Putnam, all lovely blocks, at least from Nostrand to Throop, but very vulnerable to uglification.
Also, ther reuqirement for off-street parking is misguided especially as to Bed Stuy. On street parking is not too bad unless there is osme inconvenience like a block party.
why all the struggle for parking? On any given Brooklyn block there are already more than enough cars to go around for everyone. How about instead of requiring parking (with space for one car – which serves one person – being large and disruptive), more requirements for trees, which benefit everyone on different levels.
or how about this – mandated carpooling? Is that too crazy? Or block associations getting together and holding car keys at one central location, so that anyone can take one of the hundreds of cars just parked idly on the block when they need it?
the beauty of living in the urban environment is that we don’t need to be as reliant on cars as our counterparts in the suburban environment. We shouldn’t make our built environment bend over backwards to accomodate them when so many alternatives are in place.
Polemicist,
I think NYC defines a residential building more than 2 units as “multi-family”. I hope I’m wrong though. Parking may not be _required_ in front of a building, but if a developer puts in a new three-family in the middle of the block, where else can they put the parking? Brooklyn doesn’t typically have the alleys or driveways of other cities.
There’s an example from the Department of Planning’s website (http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/bed_stuy/bed_stuy2.shtml), but they call it “out of context” development, since the buildings are set back. I don’t know how developers will line up the building and still provide parking in front.
You know, psychologists and psychiatrists have long maintained that a male’s obsessive fixation on a woman’s ass denotes latent homosexuality.
Posted by: guest at October 30, 2007 1:25 PM
http://bstoner.wpengine.com/brownstoner/archives/2007/10/michelle_willia.php
The good news is she is in this zone, not Michelle the real hottie.
1) The off-street parking is NOT required in the front of a building – duh. Has anyone ever seen a multifamily building with more than 3 units with parking in the front?
2) The current zoning code dates from 1964, when people thought car culture would dominate the world and that NYC was on the way down. It is totally out of date and insufficient to plan the city.
3) Rezoning Bed-Stuy, a low-income neighborhood that has lots of vacant land and crowded housing, really shows us how incompetent the city government really is. This zoning change is actually quite minor – but some of it is baffling. A 1.35 FAR on blocks RIGHT BY THE A TRAIN? Come on. WHY? It makes no sense.
In the end, this will serve the real estate developers well. It transfers development rights from the whole neighborhood to a few parcels on main avenues. The politicians get to make their supporters rich while pretending to do SOMETHING for the city. Nothing will change in Bed Stuy, besides reduced access to affordable housing.
Btw, the typical NY Housing Partnership crap they build in the ghetto has a greater FAR than 1.3.