A Curb Cut on Landmarked St. Marks Avenue? Really?
See this beautiful brownstone front yard at 97 St. Marks Avenue? Better enjoy it while you can, because the owner is getting ready to demolish it to create a driveway and garage despite the recent landmarking of Prospect Heights, according to a tipster and DOB filings. How could this happen? We’re not quite sure, but…
See this beautiful brownstone front yard at 97 St. Marks Avenue? Better enjoy it while you can, because the owner is getting ready to demolish it to create a driveway and garage despite the recent landmarking of Prospect Heights, according to a tipster and DOB filings. How could this happen? We’re not quite sure, but here’s the initial permit where it mentions converting a portion of the ground floor into a garage and here’s an amendment for the curb cut. The whole thing is eerily reminiscent of what happened at 174 Clinton Avenue a couple of years ago. The icing on the cake, according to a Forum post yesterday, is that the owner’s kicking out the old lady who sold him the house but continued to live in the garden apartment in order to do it. We’ll get back to you with what Landmarks has to say. Let’s hope this is all a big misunderstanding! Update: LPC confirms that they have no record of any applications for Landmark approval at this address. GMAP
on reflection i agree a little bit with bxgrl. the stuff about the old lady tenant was extraneous and unreliable gossip. as i said before, posting her facebook photo was not good form, and speculating about the owners’ state of mind is kind of silly. but i still think the core of this post — namely, that someone is on the verge of doing something that will break the law and (more importantly) tarnish a landmarked neighborhood — is a good thing, particularly since a lot of people in the neighborhood (including me) wouldn’t have known about it otherwise. and i don’t think it’s a “witch hunt” to talk about that.
dibs- but this is not a COTD or an HOTD. It’s a spite fest and the address is out there now- no big deal to find the other personal info. Its a spitefest and its really crap because yet again, we don’t know all the facts of how this was done. We can question the legality and whether or not the homeowner acted maliciously, but its still pretty unethical to post a story like this with only one set of facts and without the other side of the story. Sorry- I don’t believe in witch hunts and I like to get all the facts before I go after someone.
I looked at that puzzled…I’m an idiot…
architect66, I agree with you truly and madly.
well, not to belabor the point, but I think you mean tenet, not tenant 😉 cheers!
Without commenting on the qualities that make one a good neighbor or good citizen or good blogger or whatever – every time the DOB approves something that is clearly illegal (and yes, it is clearly illegal and has been for years to put a curb cut in this location,) it makes business much more difficult for us architects with a sense of ethics and professionalism (the majority, I think.)
If the owner had come to me and said “I want to put a curb cut in here” – I would have had to tell her that she would need to go through the board of standards and appeals and a public hearing with the community board in order to put one in. Those are the rules, plain and simple. Of course, if someone else told her sure, no problem, we can just put in the curb cut as-of-right, she would likely hire that architect instead of me.
It happened all the time with Scarano, whose unique and inventive and ultimately illegal readings of the zoning rules were the foundation for a thriving business. If I were a developer, of course I would hire the architect who promises the most floor area!
In any case, all we can ask of the DOB is to fairly and consistently enforce building code and zoning laws, and when they do not, call it to their attention.
Maly, I was referring to the commenters not Mr. B. I just made the next point in reference to him.
Another tenant is how when you post, the slightest carelessness in composing will kill you!
On that we agree, Maly 🙂
And Maly, I agree that if it can be definitively demonstrated that the owner tried to ram this curb cut in on the day of landmarking kicking in that calls their motives into question. I just don’t know how to make that case and think a lot of suppositions are being tossed around.