Proposed site for the new building. Image credit: Google Maps

The City Planning Commission approved a new eight-story mixed-use building with 75 units in Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. On October 4, 2017, the New York City Planning Commission issued a favorable report on an application for a zoning map and zoning text amendment to facilitate the development of an eight-story mixed-use building consisting of 81,951 square feet of residential space for 75 residential units. The applicant, JMS Realty Corp., proposed that the site be up-zoned and designated as a Mandatory Inclusionary Housing area.

The request zoning map amendment would up-zone the project area from a manufacturing district (M1-1 and M1-2) to a mixed residential and commercial zoning district (R7D/C2-4 and R6A/C2-4). The proposed up-zoning would encompass three tax blocks along Myrtle Avenue, bounded by Walworth Street to the west and Norstrand Avenue to the east. The rezoned areas are currently occupied by mixed-use residential, commercial buildings and undeveloped land. The proposed building site, located at 723-733 Myrtle Avenue, is an at-grade parking lot that is occupied by a truck rental business.

The new eight-story building would consist of 75 residential units, of which approximately 19 would be permanently affordable units at an average of 60 percent of the area median income. There would be 68 accessory parking spaces in the cellar. The ground floor would be for a commercial retail use, and the second floor would be for a community facility use.

On June 27, 2017, Brooklyn Community Board 3 voted 23-5 to approve the application. On September 6, 2017, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams issued a report recommending approval of the application with conditions. The Borough President recommended that up-zoning be limited slightly, and that the City Council obtain written commitments from the applicant to a greater percentage of two- and three-bedroom units and that the applicant will make an effort rent the commercial space to a supermarket tenant.

In its final report, the Planning Commission found the application to be appropriate. The Commission found that the proposed development would “facilitate new affordable housing to help address the dire need for more housing in Brooklyn and in the City overall, consistent with City objectives for promoting housing production and affordability.” The report noted that the project area is currently developed with a mix of vacant and nonconforming residential uses, and that the proposed densities and uses would be more consistent with existing densities and uses along the Myrtle corridor.

CPC: 723-733 Myrtle Avenue Rezoning, Brooklyn (170025 ZMK; 170026 ZRK) (Oct. 4, 2017).

By: Jonathon Sizemore (Jonathon is the CityLaw Fellow and a New York Law School Graduate, Class of 2016).