Rezoning and inclusionary housing approved

South Park Slope rezoned to protect low-rise character and provide affordable housing. On November 16, 2005, the City Council rezoned 50 blocks of South Park Slope and applied the inclusionary housing program to specific R8A districts along Fourth Avenue, allowing an increase in a building’s floor area with the developers’ commitment to build affordable housing on or off site. The proposal called for the rezoning of an area generally bounded by 15th Street on the … <Read More>


Hearing held on proposed Crown Heights district

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 … <Read More>


Three-story residential building OK’ed

BSA reduced building size, but included parking for each unit. The owner of 114 Walworth Street in an M1-1 district of Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, sought a variance to construct a six-story, 47-unit residential building with 24 parking spaces on a vacant 17,500-square-foot lot with 175 feet of frontage on Walworth Street. The site, formerly occupied by residential buildings, has remained vacant since the buildings were demolished.

The applicant argued that Walworth Street’s narrow 50-foot width … <Read More>


Variance for mixed-use building approved

15-unit residential building with commercial space approved for manufacturing district. The owner of 214 25th Street, a 12,617-squarefoot lot in an M1-1D district of Sunset Park, Brooklyn with two vacant, low-rise manufacturing buildings, sought a variance to convert and enlarge one of the structures into a 15-unit, 20,656-square-foot residential building.

The owner argued that manufacturing uses were infeasible due to the buildings’ small size, cost to retrofit, lack of street access, narrow interior spaces and … <Read More>


Artists ok’ed to convert manufacturing building

4-story building to be converted to 2 dwellings. Four artists sought to convert a four-story industrial building into two dwelling units in an M1-2 zoning district in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. Located at 469 Carroll Street between Nevins and Third Avenue, the building is separated from the established residential district in Carroll Gardens by the Gowanus Canal and sits slightly west of Park Slope’s residential core. Until 2003, a manufacturer of machine components had occupied the … <Read More>


Residential and commercial complex approved

Two four-story residential buildings approved after reduction in size and addition of commercial space. Southside Realty Holdings LLC, owner of an L-shaped group of eight lots located at 291 Kent Avenue in a Williamsburg manufacturing district, sought a variance in 2003 to construct two 11-story residential towers, totaling 122,905 sq.ft., and underground parking. The Planning Commission and Brooklyn Community Board 1 both opposed the application due to the site’s adjacency to the Domino Sugar Plant, … <Read More>