Rezoning Whiplash: Fourth Avenue
Brooklyn Papers reports that a group called Fourth Avenue Neighborhood Preservation wants to downzone Fourth Avenue just three years after it was upzoned. The city should really take another look at it, said Jerry Speier, a committee spokesman. Aesthetically, these buildings [are] quite ugly. It would be a bad mistake to build them. As unimpressed…
Brooklyn Papers reports that a group called Fourth Avenue Neighborhood Preservation wants to downzone Fourth Avenue just three years after it was upzoned. The city should really take another look at it, said Jerry Speier, a committee spokesman. Aesthetically, these buildings [are] quite ugly. It would be a bad mistake to build them. As unimpressed as we are with the tall buildings that are rising on the upzoned stretch of Fourth Avenue, we gotta say this sounds like a silly–and far-fetched–idea. It’s not like most people had any illusions about the aesthetics of the buildings that would be put up between 6th and 15th streets when the rezoning was passed in 2003. It was a trade-off that helped preserve the scale of the side streets of Park Slope. And as readers remind us all the time, you have to build up somewhere to accommodate Brooklyn’s rising population.
Downzone on 4th Three Years Late [Brooklyn Papers]
Photo by Betty Blade
Only three years later?
This plan was stronlgy supported by both City Councilmembers (DeBlasio and Yassky) and went through a pretty extensive public review process (ULURP). Also, in NYC, site review, which is where the public gets to decide what buildings look like, doesn’t really happen as a part of a re-zoning.
The bigger issue with the re-zoning is that the affordability component was very weak and resembled the weak Battery Park City Plan, rather than the strong Williamsburg Greenpoint affordability plan. Density is appropriate for 4th Avenue. Should it be built safely? Yes. Should there have been affordability with teeth? Yes.
To the opponents of up-zoning on 4th Avenue – Do you think anyone would buy property to develop on that road if they could only make the building four or five stories tall? You can’t just be blanket anti-development in a city like New York, even if you do live in Brooklyn. City Planning estimates 1.2 million new residents in the city by 2025, and they need places to live, work and shop. Fourth Avenue, and the surrounding low-rise streets, will be a nice place for all of those things if the development is done right. I think it will happen organically, as a result of the rezoning, unless the city gets impatient and decides to somehow transfer all the land to one or two developers. Then it will end up a crap hole like Downtown Brooklyn.
There’s plenty of 12 story buildings in “desirable” neighborhoods like Park Slope (along Prospect Park for example) that don’t encroach upon the smaller buildings along the side streets. The trick is to find developers who are committed to ensuring that there’s a good mix of retail on the ground floor, particularly locally-owned quality retail that attracts people to neighborhoods while supporting the local economy. Plenty of developers throughout the city have taken the time to do so, and found that it pays off in the end when the neighborhood is more attractive to buyers and office tenants (I would argue that not doing this in Downtown Brooklyn is the cause for their 800,000 s.f. of vacant office space).
Yes, property values will go up on and around Fourth Avenue. That’s inevitable anyway, at least with some better development on that street it will be worth the money. I lived on Fourth Avenue and I can tell you that I got sick of only being able to eat Chinese Food, chips, tacos and White Castle. It’s not a nice, neighborly street. BIDs generally pay for things like trees, or organize to get the money from some government source. So once there’s a cohesive business district on the street, there’s no doubt that they’ll be finding a way to get money for trees and benches.
Yeah Linus…They should definately fix up the park on 5th Avenue (Old Stone House) and the ball courts and the walkway to 4th Ave…
You’d think that somebody might try to lean on Boymelgreen and the rest of the big 4th Avenue developers to pony up the relative pittance for street plantings on the avenue. Especially since they’re so fond of using imaginary ones in their architectural renderings.
As if the Park Slope offers any good stores to begin with! I am frustrated on a daily basis by how limited shopping is in the nabe.
Medians on Park Avenue(mahh) are much wider than 4thAve (Brooklyn) and also have private funds for plantings and such.
high density buildings on top of a subway line is good urban planning. i think the rezoning of 4th Avenue is the best thing planning comish Amanda Burden has done so far during her tenure.
There’s no reason 4th Ave can’t have trees like Park Ave – which sits above the Metro North lines.
As for the buildup, buildings have to be built somewhere, and it is certainly a fair tradeoff. In this case, it is not like eminent domain was being used to give land to developers; in fact, the rezoning lets people who own property there really cash out. The truth is building tall on 4th ave is indeed organic, growing from the wide boulevard, good subway access and neighboring zoning rules that guarantee views. Replacing body shops with apartments in an area with prime public transport is simply good planning.
If you check out old photos – 4th avenue was once a nice green tree-lined boulevard.
But then dug up to build subway. Probably can’t really plant trees now.
But some planter boxes and other such stuff would help.