Sunset Park Rezone Plans Meet the Community
Last night an overflow crowd attended a Community Board 7 meeting to hear a presentation from the Department of City Planning about its draft proposal for rezoning Sunset Park. The area in question runs from 29th Street to 64th Street and 4th Avenue to the edge of 8th Avenue, and Planning’s draft proposal involves downzoning…
Last night an overflow crowd attended a Community Board 7 meeting to hear a presentation from the Department of City Planning about its draft proposal for rezoning Sunset Park. The area in question runs from 29th Street to 64th Street and 4th Avenue to the edge of 8th Avenue, and Planning’s draft proposal involves downzoning 75 percent of that to preserve the neighborhood’s low-rise character so it’s mostly R6B, which allows a max height of 40 feet or 50 feet after a setback. Some sections of the avenues covered in the draft rezoning plan will be upzoned to allow for areas of between six and eight stories with an inclusionary bonus for the construction of permanent affordable housing. According to Aaron Brashear of the Concerned Citizens of Greenwood Heights, the presentation was generally well-received, though not without comment and criticism. Many people still had questions about how the plan would affect the creation/preservation of affordable housing. The next phase of the rezoning will involve generating an Environmental Impact Statement and then starting ULURP, and the actual rezoning may go through by the end of this year.
Sunset Park One Step Closer to Rezoning [Brownstoner]
I was there and am for the rezoning but I must say that there was one person who made the best point of all. He said “why bother rezoning if the same people (DOB) who are now supposed to be enforcing the laws are going to be allowing the new ones to be broken”.
Great point!
Glad you people can tell someone’s ethnicity by back of their heads.
Not that I’m an expert on Sunset Pk but from what I’ve seen doesn’t look like dump to me.
Some very nice blocks of row houses. Nice park, etc.
Although the part the some refer to as Greenwood Hts (why sunset parker wants to be sure that area is included in his ‘hood is beyond me) does lack quite a bit.
Not that it matters 1:48 but the lady who is presenting is clearly Asian
tool
1:48pm, perhaps the photographer was sitting up front?
We should definitely scold brownstoner for not having a more representative shot posted.
Bad Mr. B!
Please supply us readers with a 3-D panoramic shot of the room. Or video. Where’s the YouTube link? Geeze, such shoddy reporting!
Everybody in that photo is white, 1:29, not Chinese or Latino.
“There is no chance this will go through, particularly along fourth avenue.”
Actually, by the time DCP makes its initial presentation, there is already significant agency “buy-in.”
“Any time these turkeys talk about “affordable housing” they are talking about government subsidized lotteries, where developers use low interest loans and/or bonds. That capital is now severely restricted.”
I bet the affordable housing being discussed here is density bonuses, which are not tied to low interest loans.
“Downzoning only restricts supply.”
But there is a corresponding up-zoning.
“Sunset Park has been a dump for probably 80 years. The neighborhood is woefully underdeveloped compared to Bay Ridge and even Park Slope. It has excellent public transportation. In short, it is yet another neighborhood that escaped the building boom of the roaring 20s because it was a dump, and has been in limbo since the depression.”
Eloquent as always, Polemicist. I think folks might take you a tad bit more seriously with out all the editorializing and neighborhood bashing. But, you and I have sparred on that point before.
This rezoning, from the beginning at my understanding, came from the residents of Sunset Park, mostly grassroots, mainly Latino and Chinese Americans. The Community Board and electeds have just facilitated the dialog and City planning chose to pick this up (very specific point).
Regardless on your viewpoints on a neighborhood’s aesthetics or high density vs. low density (or a mix as it appears by this post on brownstoner), this came from the community. Ultimately the community will have its final say via the ULURP process. This seems to just have been the first step in integrated outreach by City Planning.
No need to respond, I have fought enough in the past with you and others on other similar topics…
“Many people still had questions about how the plan would affect the creation/preservation of affordable housing.”
There is NO affordable housing without high-density developments. The city needs to allow balance so those who are hardworking middle class but can’t afford a whole house can purchase a home in the area.
The smart way to do it is allow tall buildings on the big commercial streets, and near mass transportation like the subway stops and bus hubs. Zoning that is passed could later be thrown out the window if NYC doesn’t have enough housing and too much in Brooklyn is downzoned. There’s actually precedence in NY state courts for that in some upstate towns that had too-strict zoning that didn’t allow high-densitiy housing. Protect what is worth protecting and that way you get to protect it forever.
There is no chance this will go through, particularly along fourth avenue.
This is yet another pathetic attempt by a tiny minority of neighborhood busybodies afraid of any and all change.
Sunset Park has been a dump for probably 80 years. The neighborhood is woefully underdeveloped compared to Bay Ridge and even Park Slope. It has excellent public transportation. In short, it is yet another neighborhood that escaped the building boom of the roaring 20s because it was a dump, and has been in limbo since the depression.
From an environmental and utilitarian standpoint, preventing the redevelopment of Sunset Park with midrise multifamily apartment buildings is immoral. It will do nothing but further environmental damage and restrict the supply of housing.
With the credit markets in turmoil, government subsidized affordable housing is not going be around for several years. Now more than ever, allowing developers to bring product to market is absolutely necessary. Any time these turkeys talk about “affordable housing” they are talking about government subsidized lotteries, where developers use low interest loans and/or bonds. That capital is now severely restricted.
Things, no matter what they are, are only affordable when the supply is similar to or exceeds demand. Downzoning only restricts supply. As government subsidies won’t be happening any time soon, it is therefore impossible affordable housing will ever come to Sunset Park.
The city government knows this – and these Community Board people will have their fantasies ignored.