Contextual rezoning impacted 181 blocks in Williamsbridge and Baychester neighborhoods. On October 5, 2011, the City Council approved the Department of City Planning’s 181-block rezoning of the Williamsbridge and Baychester sections in the Bronx. The rezoning impacted an area generally bounded by 233rd Street to the north, East Gun Hill Road and Givan Avenue to the south, the New England Thruway to the east, and the Bronx River Parkway to the west.

Williamsbridge is characterized by a mix of detached homes, rowhouses, small apartment buildings, and larger multi-family buildings near the Bronx River Parkway. Baychester is characterized by lower density residential buildings developed after World War II. The area was predominately zoned R4, R5, and R6, which permitted development out-of-context with the neighborhood’s built character.  (more…)

Rezoning would impact 181 blocks in Williamsbridge and Baychester neighborhoods. On August 24, 2011, the City Planning Commission held a public hearing on the Department of City Planning’s rezoning proposal for the Williamsbridge and Baychester neighborhoods in the north Bronx. The rezoning would impact 181 blocks generally bounded by 233rd Street to the north, East Gun Hill Road and Givan Avenue to the south, the New England Thruway to the east, and the Bronx River Parkway to the west. The rezoning area includes a 130-block section of Williamsbridge  and a 29-block section of Baychester. Planning seeks to protect the area’s lower-density residential blocks from out-of-scale development and provide growth opportunities along the area’s major mixed-use corridors.

The residential neighborhood of Williamsbridge is in the western portion of the rezoning area and is primarily characterized by detached single-family homes, rowhouses, and small apartment buildings, with pockets of larger multi-family structures near the Bronx River Parkway. Baychester is separated from Williamsbridge by Laconia Avenue, and is also characterized by lower density residential development. The area’s three main zoning districts — R4, R5, and R6 — permit new development that is out-of-context with the existing built character of the two neighborhoods. According to Planning, the “generic residential districts” do not promote predictable growth and have altered the area’s scale and character.

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Rezonings extend protection of contextual zoning and low-density regulations. The Planning Commission approved amendments to the zoning maps in three Bronx neighborhoods to ensure that residential buildings are not out-of-character with low-density development in the neighborhoods.

In Baychester, five of the five and a half blocks located immediately south of Co-op City are currently zoned R3-2 and permit detached, semi-detached and attached homes with a maximum building height of 35 feet. The remaining half block, currently zoned R6, permits residential and community facilities, and has apartment buildings between three and twelve stories high. Under the proposed rezoning, both areas would be zoned R3A, permitting only detached single- and two-family homes with a maximum height of 35 feet. (more…)

New plan for Pelham Gardens, Laconia and Baychester. The City Council approved the proposed rezoning of 163 blocks in the Bronx, covering portions of Pelham Gardens, Laconia and Baychester located north of Pelham Parkway and east of Williamsbridge and Boston Roads. The new zoning is designed to preserve the existing neighborhoods’ character with lower density and contextual zoning districts and to prevent out-of-character development.

The neighborhoods’ zoning (R3-2, R4 and R5) has allowed for rowhouse development and multifamily apartments which the Planning Department found incompatible with the scale of existing homes in the neighborhoods. The Planning Department proposed down-zoning some areas and slightly increasing the permitted size of development in other areas primarily along Gun Hill Road and in proximity to the No. 5 Subway Line station, which could support increased density. The commercial zoning along Gun Hill Road was also modified to increase the type of retail uses permitted as of right and encourage new mixed-use development. (more…)

View of Co-Op City from the New England Thruway. Image Credit: Google Maps

Owner’s sought to install on a single pole a 9,000 square foot of billboard space capable of running 54 separate advertisements.  In February 2018, Baychester Retail III LLC filed applications with Buildings to install a 9,164 square foot LED billboard made of 27 two-sided panels mounted on one pole on a commercial property located near Co-op City, in the Baychester neighborhood of the Bronx near the New England Thruway. The large billboard would be capable of displaying 54 video screen advertisements, since each of the 27 panels could display advertisements on both sides. (more…)