Ditmas Park Zoning
Hey all: I have a woman friend with a couple of grown daughters and grandchildren, a sister, and a couple of others, and she wants to gather them all under one roof and live happily ever after. Therefore she is thinking of buying one of those big Ditmas Park houses. But I suspect she thinks…
Hey all:
I have a woman friend with a couple of grown daughters and grandchildren, a sister, and a couple of others, and she wants to gather them all under one roof and live happily ever after.
Therefore she is thinking of buying one of those big Ditmas Park houses. But I suspect she thinks she can put in several apartments with individual kitchens and baths. I suspect not.
She’s currently living in a nabe where the DOB never comes by and people do what they want. I don’t think Ditmas Park is like that.
Are those big DP houses one family, two family, multiple dwellings? Whats the zoning and what is typical for a c of o in those big houses?
Most of the detached houses in Flatbush are zoned (R3 or R4) for one- or two-family. You still need COO from DOB for legal conversions from 1-2 or 2-1.
There are lots of extended family households in the area. You can put in as many kitchens and baths as you want. What you can’t do legally is break up the interior into 3 or more units with separate entrances.
Thanks all, appreciate the advice.
but yaakov does have a point. Too many people are illegally breaking up houses into apartments for more people than can legally or comfortably live there. That sort of thing was what killed 3 firefighters in the Bronx a few years ago. The building was broken up illegally, walls were in the wrong places, they couldn’t find their way and eventually had to exit from a window with a 4 story drop.Nobody wants that. Doesn’t mean anyone should be the house police though, either.
The kind of housing arrangement you’re describing, once very common in Brooklyn, approximates what used to be called “extended family” (i.e. two, three or four generations of one family sharing a house). There are certainly homes in Ditmas large enough to accommodate these arrangements, if everyone’s willing to share a kitchen and other common rooms. (Very dear family friends, very longtime residents of Ditmas, maintain this tradition.) However, if you look at one of the threads further below (“Two Owner Home Question”), you’ll see why it’s important for your friend to clearly document title, terms, conditions, etc. I doubt that zoning will turn out to be the deciding factor for your friend. Regardless, here’s the latest for Flatbush: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/flatbush/flatbush3.shtml
Actually many residents, community organizations, elected officials, etc. in Victorian Flatbush seem perfectly OK with all the B&Bs in the area, even though these are commercial uses that are not permitted by the area’s residential zoning. So some of us have a rather more live-and-let-live attitude toward our neighbors than yaakovdoe does.
but cmu, you do 🙂
If yaakxxx is for real, would you want to live in a neighborhood populated by people (to put it kindly) like him?
The other detail is that they dont divide up easily. Other types of brownstones are a lot easier to subdivide. She could also think about kensington, which is similar to ditmas but has more 2-4 family houses.
You’ll be doing your friend a favor if you forwarn her that we in Victorian Flatbush are vigilant when it comes to the houses in our neighborhoods. We do not tolerate illegal alterations or use and our neighborhood associations work with elected officals, the community board and buildings department on enforcement.
There are some legal 2 families, but the majority of homes are single family.