Long-term lease renewal coupled with study for improvements. On May 6, 2015 the City Planning Commission approved Amico Senior Center’s lease renewal for twenty years. The center is located at 5901 13th Avenue in Borough Park, Brooklyn. Amico has continuously operated as a senior center at that location since 1973.
(l. to r.) Mitchell Hirth, Fran Schwartz, and Dan Egers testify on behalf of the proposed Fort Hamilton Parkway rezoning. Image credit: NYC.gov
Applicant seeks to build a six-story community facility for women’s health. On February 24, 2015 the City Council Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises approved an application by Fort Hamilton, LLC to rezone the north side of Fort Hamilton Parkway between 53rd Street and 55th Street in Borough Park, Brooklyn. The application rezones the area from its current R5 to an R6 district with a C1-3 overlay, and is intended to facilitate construction of a six-story women’s wellness center with partial ground floor retail. The application was approved by the City Planning Commission on January 7, 2015, following approvals from Brooklyn Community Board 12 and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.
The site is currently occupied by the Maple Lanes Bowling Alley. Photo: Melissa Murphy.
Demolition of bowling alley will lead to construction of 112 dwelling units and a two-story synagogue. On October 20, 2008, an application for a zoning map amendment was filed to rezone property located at 1560 60th Street in Brooklyn. The location has been occupied by Maple Lanes Bowling Alley for more than 50 years. The application calls for the demolition of the one-story, 35,000-square-foot bowling alley.
The application, filed by Fairmont Lanes LLC, would rezone the location from M1-1 to R6A to facilitate construction of a mixed-use development. The proposed rezoning would cover the entire 72,704-square-foot, irregularly shaped lot. The residential component of the proposal consists of 24 attached and semi-detached four-story buildings, 21 of which would be townhouse-style buildings containing four dwelling units each. At the corners of 16th Avenue and 60th Street, and 16th Avenue and 61st Street, larger residential buildings with seven dwelling units each would be constructed. The project also includes a two-story synagogue that would serve area residents. Accessory parking would be provided for 56 cars in a below-grade parking garage. The overall floor area ratio for the project would be 2.52.
6010 Bay Parkway. Image: Mary Gillen.
Residents and elected officials opposed application to reduce parking requirements for Bay Parkway medical facility. In 2011, the Marcal Group began developing an as-ofright mixed-use medical facility at 6010 Bay Parkway in the Mapleton section of Brooklyn. Marcal later sought Buildings’ approval for a revised project reflecting a 93,920 sq.ft., nine-story medical facility/ commercial building with a total of 120 off-street parking spaces. Buildings rejected the application because a building that size would require at least 235 parking spaces. Marcal applied for a BSA special permit allowing an ambulatory diagnostic or treatment facility to reduce of its off-street parking requirements from one space per 400 sq.ft. to one space per 800 square feet.
Brooklyn Community Board 12, local Council Member David G. Greenfield, Assembly Member William Colton, and community groups opposed the application. At BSA, opponents testified that Marcal should provide the full complement of parking because there was already a high demand for parking in the area due to three nearby schools and a large house of worship. (read more…)
HPD claimed site’s former railway use complicated development of seventeen apartment buildings. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development selected the Southern Brooklyn Community Organization to build seventeen, four-story affordable housing buildings on two narrow City-owned parcels on 37th Street in Borough Park, Brooklyn. The block-long parcels are separated by 13th Avenue and were once occupied by the South Brooklyn Railroad and the elevated BMT Culver Shuttle line. The parcel west of 13th Avenue would be developed with nine buildings and a parking lot, and the parcel on the east side of the avenue would be developed with eight buildings and accessory parking spaces.
The City in November 2010 rezoned the project site from M2-1 to M1-2/R6A as part of the Department of City Planning and HPD’s broader Culver El rezoning. 7 CityLand 154 (Nov. 15, 2010). HPD sought BSA variances because the project would violate the zoning resolution’s rearyard requirements and would not provide enough space between windows and lot lines. (read more…)
Residents argued that proposed bank would be out of character with residential block. On May 25, 2010, the City Council denied Jom Tob Gluck’s proposal to rezone a portion of 18th Avenue between 48th and 49th Streets in Brooklyn’s Borough Park. Gluck proposed applying a C1-3 commercial overlay to a 20,000 sq.ft area currently zoned R5. The rezoning would have facilitated the development of a one-story bank building on a 3,615 sq.ft. lot currently occupied by a residential building.
The 18th Avenue corridor is an active neighborhood commercial thoroughfare that connects Brooklyn’s Midwood and Bensonhurt neighborhoods. Portions of the avenue surrounding Gluck’s site are currently zoned with C1-3 overlays. As-of-right commercial uses are found on most blocks along 18th Avenue between McDonald Avenue and 55th Street, but the rezoning area only contains detached multifamily homes and a synagogue.
Brooklyn Community Board 12 unanimously opposed the proposal. Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz recommended approval of the plan under the conditions that Gluck provide on-site parking with an entrance and exit on 18th Avenue, and that any ATM would face 18th Avenue or the parking lot.
At the City Planning Commission’s March 10 hearing, local residents spoke in opposition. They were concerned that a bank would increase traffic congestion, negatively impact the block’s residential character, and further reduce the amount of parking in the area.
The Commission approved the project, noting that the proposed building would be consistent with 18th Avenue’s predominant land uses and development patterns.
At the Council’s Zoning & Franchises Subcommittee hearing, Moshe Friedman, representing Gluck, claimed the proposal would essentially “fill in a hole” in the commercial overlays that already exist on 18th Avenue. Friedman stated that anyone who believed 18th Avenue was a residential district “has to have their head examined.” Council Member David Greenfield, whose district includes Borough Park, said his office had received dozens of phone calls from residents in opposition to the project. Greenfield said that the project would diminish the quality of life for nearby residents and accused Gluck of misrepresenting the residential character of the rezoning area. The hearing was closed without a vote.
When the Subcommittee reconvened, Chair Mark Weprin recommended a motion to disapprove the project, and the Subcommittee unanimously rejected the proposal. The Land Use Committee and full Council followed suit.
ULURP Process
Lead Agency: CPC,Neg.Dec.
Comm.Bd.: BK 12,Den’d
Boro.Pres.: App’d
CPC: App’d, 12-0-0
Council:Den’d, 47-0-5
Council: 18th Avenue Rezoning (C 070520 ZMK – rezoning) (May 25, 2010).
