Plan seeks to protect Victorian homes and pre-war apartment buildings. The City Council approved the Department of City Planning’s rezoning proposal for the Flatbush neighborhoods south of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. The plan impacts 180 blocks generally bounded by Prospect Park to the north, Bedford Avenue to the east, Coney Island Avenue to the west, and Brooklyn College to the south. The rezoning area includes the Prospect Park South, Ditmas Park, Albermarle- Kenmore Terraces, and Fiske Terrace- Midwood Historic Districts.

Flatbush’s zoning had remained largely unchanged since 1961, and did not reflect the area’s built character, which includes lower density detached homes and mid-rise apartment buildings. Victorian style detached homes with lawns and gardens are located in the western and southeastern portions of the rezoning area, collectively known as “Victorian Flatbush.” These homes, two- to three-stories in height, were built in the early 1900s. Apartment buildings, four- to eight-stories in height and built after the 1920s, are located along commercial arteries, such as Ocean and Flatbush Avenues. (more…)

Planning’s recommendation to downzone bungalow area opposed. On May 6, 2009, the City Planning Commission listened to extensive testimony on the Department of City Planning’s rezoning proposal for Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach. The plan would impact 54 blocks generally bounded by Shore Parkway, Brighton Beach Avenue, Ocean Parkway, and Corbin Place.

The proposed rezoning area is predominantly residential and characterized by large apartment buildings along wide streets and commercial corridors, and one- to three-family attached, semi-detached, and detached homes on the narrow side streets of the neighborhood. The area also includes a distinctive group of small, bungalow-style homes in a section bounded by Coney Island Avenue, Brighton 1st Street, Ocean View Avenue, and Neptune Avenue. This area is characterized by small lots, typically measuring 40 ft. by 40 ft., which are arranged along narrow pedestrian paths on the interior, and mapped streets on the exterior. (more…)

Commission approves community-initiated rezoning to curb out-of-character development and encourage retail use along Caton Avenue. On February 4, 2009, the City Planning Commission approved a five-block rezoning in Brooklyn, just west of the Parade Grounds at Prospect Park. The rezoning area, generally bounded by Caton Place to the north, Ocean Parkway to the west, Caton Avenue to the south, and Coney Island Avenue to the east, is currently zoned with R5, R6, and R7A districts. The neighborhood is mostly comprised of one- and two-story rowhouses, and includes two midrise apartment buildings.

Concerned with recent out-of-scale and out-of-context development, local residents and Council Member Bill de Blasio petitioned the Department of City Planning to preserve the low-rise character of their neighborhood and allow modest retail development. In response, Planning proposed a plan that would change the zoning to R5B and R6A, and would add a C2-4 commercial overlay within the proposed R6A district along Caton Avenue. (more…)

When asked to recall projects throughout his 35-year career, land use attorney Paul Selver’s discussion becomes a vivid narrative of how the economy translates into New York City’s physical changes. Selver sees 1977 as the point when developers started looking ahead for the first time; the 1981 to 1988 development boom coincided with the economy’s exuberance and ended with the stock market crash. To Selver, his current projects, like a six-block rezoning in Coney Island, the potential five-acre reinvention of Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal, and the Trans Hudson Express Tunnel, New Jersey’s proposal for a second rail tunnel under the Hudson River to West 34th Street, reveal another market change. With the upper-middle class being “priced-out” of Manhattan, development moves to where housing can be built, and the need to transport commuters into Manhattan becomes greater.

Selver talked to CityLand about landing in land use, development bellwethers and potential new battles in Brooklyn.

An Extension of Childhood. Selver mentions many reasons for ending up in land use law, including a summer internship with the Lindsay Administration, a final Harvard Law School paper on affordable housing and his perceived inability to draw as well as needed to become an architect, but he ultimately sees it as a natural extension of growing up in Manhattan. Its buildings, its politics and its ever-changing streets interested him. (more…)

BSA okays hotel only after reduction of 18,000 sq.ft. After four proposals and five public hearings, BSA approved development of a 48-foot tall, four-story transient hotel in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. The site of the hotel, at 806/814 Coney Island Avenue, is comprised of five contiguous lots totaling 32,153 sq.ft., split by commercial (C8-2) and residential (R5) districts and currently contains a one-story garage. The owner required a variance to permit the hotel’s proposed size in the commercial portion of the site and other variances to permit a meeting room, catering hall, and parking lot in the residential portion of the site.

The hotel was originally proposed as a 57,244-square-foot, six-story structure with 75 rooms and 62 parking spaces. Between September 2005 and March 2006, BSA requested three proposals to further reduce the number of hotel rooms and the catering hall’s capacity to ensure that the hotel’s size would be appropriate for its location within a commercial and residential zone. Upon BSA’s request, the owner submitted studies showing that retail development would not provide a reasonable return. (more…)