Cut and Run at 174 Clinton Avenue

Here’s one person who probably won’t be winning any “Neighbor of the Year” awards: The owner of 174 Clinton Avenue. After buying the four-story brick-and-brownstone house back in 2005 for $1,055,860, he subdivided the 200-foot-deep lot this summer and sold the back half to the developer who’s now building next to the restaurant Luz. (The extent to which that structure adds or detracts from the neighborhood remains to be seen.) In the meantime, he obtained permission last week for a curb cut on Clinton Avenue and then wasted no time in putting the property on the market for $2,500,000. Since Clinton Hill was rezoned back in July, the rest of the houses on this block fall under R6B zoning, according to which curb cuts are prohibited for properties less than 40 feet wide; because 174 Clinton Avenue falls (barely) within 100 feet of Myrtle Avenue, however, there’s a “commercial overlay” of the R7A zoning. Adding insult to injury, the approved application calls for a “curb cut to allow for vehicular access to one-car garage in front of existing old-code building.” The listing verbiage backs this up: “The seller has gotten approval for the curb cut, driveway and enclosed garage.” Can the intention really be to construct a new garage in the front yard of this house? That would be completely whack. Unfortunately the historic district ends up the block at Willoughby so there’s no Landmark protection either. Garage or not, the whole thing also flies in the face of the streetscape beautification plans that the Myrtle Avenue Revitalization Project is promoting for the corner of Clinton and Myrtle. Charming. This is exactly why City Planning is currently working on a Yards Text Amendment. We really hope we’re wrong on this one.
174 Clinton Avenue [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP P*Shark DOB