Rezoning area boundary, Crown Heights West, Brooklyn. Image Credit: DCP.

City Council approved Crown Heights rezoning despite calls for mandatory inclusionary housing and anti-harassment legislation. On September 16, 2013, the Brooklyn Borough Office of the Department of City Planning testified before the City Council’s Land Use Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises in support of its proposal to rezone 55 blocks in the western portion of Crown Heights (Crown Heights West). Crown Heights West is bounded by Atlantic Avenue, Pacific, Dean and Bergen streets to the north; Nostrand Avenue to the east; Eastern Parkway to the south; and, Washington and Grand avenues to the west. The rezoning seeks to maintain the existing scale and character of the neighborhood, create incentives for the development of affordable housing, and match commercial zoning to the retail character of the neighborhood.  The City Planning Commission approved the rezoning on August 7, 2013.

Crown Heights West consists of mostly two- and three-story brownstones, four-story row houses, and four-story, six-story, and seven-story apartment buildings. Existing non-contextual developments in the neighborhood include buildings that are out-of-scale and buildings that are set back from other buildings on the block. The current zoning of Crown Heights West does not have maximum height limits and allows non-contextual building developments. The Planning Department’s proposed rezoning would prevent non-contextual developments from being built, set maximum height limits, and require building fronts to line up along the street wall. (more…)

New district would comprise more than 600 buildings south of original Crown Heights North Historic District. On June 28, 2011, Landmarks voted to designate the Crown Heights North II Historic District in the northwest section of Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The residential district includes more than 600 buildings generally bounded by Bergen Street to the north, Eastern Parkway to the south, Brooklyn Avenue to the east, and Nostrand Avenue to the west. It lies directly south of the Crown Heights North Historic District which Landmarks designated in 2007. 4 CityLand 60 (May 15, 2007). The two districts feature similar architecture. (more…)

Broad support voiced for extending Park Slope district, creating new district in Wallabout neighborhood, and protecting row of buildings in Crown Heights. On October 26, 2010, Landmarks considered designating three new Brooklyn historic districts. Landmarks held separate hearings on the proposed Park Slope Historic District Extension, the Wallabout Historic District, and the Park Place Historic District.

The proposed Park Slope extension would encompass 582 buildings located southwest of the original Park Slope Historic District. The district would be generally bounded by 7th and 15th Streets and Seventh and Eighth Avenues. It would also include some properties along Bartel-Pritchard Square and Prospect Park West. The proposed extension features a mix of rowhouses and apartment buildings, many dating to the 1880s, and other notable structures including two 19th century firehouses and the 1879 Ansonia Clock Factory. 7 CityLand 125 (Sept. 15, 2010). (more…)

Neighborhood had originally been surveyed for designation in the 1970s. At its September 19th meeting, Landmarks held a hearing on the proposed Proposed Crown Heights North Historic District. The district, on land that was once part of the Lefferts family’s large holdings, had originally been surveyed in the 1970s along with the Fort Greene and Park Slope historic districts. An upper-class suburb in the 1870s, several free-standing Victorian homes still remain in the neighborhood. Following the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge, developers built residential Neo-Grecian row houses to accommodate the expanding community. Near the turn of the century, Queen Anne and Neo- Romanesque styles began to predominate, which then gave way to the Renaissance Revival style. In the 1920s, Crown Heights became a haven for immigrant communities, and apartment buildings in the Tudor, Art-Deco, and Mediterranean styles were added. The district incorporates the individually landmarked Imperial Apartments. The proposal was calendared in June 2006. 3 CityLand 93 (July 15, 2006).

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, who grew up in Crown Heights, spoke at the hearing in favor of designation. He noted that it was the first hearing on a proposed Brooklyn Historic district since Vinegar Hill, designated in 1997, and that he hoped to attend more hearings on Brooklyn designations. City Council Members Letitia James and Albert Vann also urged designation, with James promising to preserve affordable housing within the district. (more…)

Landmarks takes first step towards designation of new, 470-building historic district. On June 20, 2006, Landmarks voted to hold a public hearing on the proposed Crown Heights North Historic District, which will encompass 470 buildings, primarily along Dean and Pacific Streets; St. Mark’s, New York, Nostrand and Bedford Avenues; and Grand Square in Brooklyn.

At the June 20th vote, Landmarks staff provided a synopsis on the area’s transformation from farmland to the rapid row house construction that followed the Brooklyn Bridge’s opening. Among the buildings mentioned were the 1850-55 frame house on Dean Street, the Queen Anne style row houses at 1164-1182 Dean Street, and the New York Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church. (more…)