Credit: Google maps

City will convey waterfront property to Kristal Auto Mall and an existing Toys ‘R’ Us retail store on Flatbush Avenue. On May 15, 2012, the City Council approved the Department of Small Business Services’ plan to facilitate the relocation of Kristal Auto Mall to a site on Flatbush Avenue abutting Mill Basin in Brooklyn. The City-owned project site is occupied by a 45,000-square-foot Toys ‘R’ Us store and a 400-space accessory parking lot used by surrounding businesses. To the south of the site is another City-owned parcel consisting of 400,000 sq.ft. of undeveloped land abutting Four Sparrow Marsh. The proposal called for, among other things, disposing of nearly 240,000 sq.ft. of City-owned property, demapping an unimproved strip of Flatbush Avenue, and rezoning the project site from C3 to C8-1.

Under the plan, Kristal Auto Mall will purchase a 110,000-square-foot portion of the parking lot in order to move from its current location at 5200 Kings Highway. Kristal plans to redevelop the property with a 114,000-square-foot facility housing a showroom, offices, and a service facility. A second 4,000-square-foot building will be used for used-car sales.

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Replacement facility needed because P.S. 51’s current building will be converted into housing as part of previously approved mixed-use project. On June 29, 2010, the City Council approved the New York City School Construction Authority’s proposal to build a 630-seat replacement public school facility for P.S. 51 on the north side of West 44th Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in Manhattan. The School Construction Authority will build the new facility on a lot occupied by a vacant warehouse and the 16,000 sq.ft. playground of P.S. 51’s current 276-seat building, which is located on the south side of West 44th Street. The new facility will include a 3,000 sq.ft. rooftop play area in addition to a 12,000 sq.ft. street-level playground behind the school. P.S. 51 needed a new building because its current facility on West 45th Street will be converted into housing as part of Gotham Organization Inc.’s affordable housing project, which was approved in March 2010. 7 Cityland 21 (March 15, 2010). The project will span the majority of the block and create 1,250 residential units, 600 of which will be permanently affordable.

During the public review of Gotham’s project, Manhattan Community Board 4 and the parents of P.S. 51 students stated that the original site plan for the new school included a small street-level playground. They expressed concerns about the lack of recreational space in the proposed facility and about the potential negative impacts on the students from the construction of Gotham’s redevelopment. Parents argued that the completed project would create shadows on the street-level playground and asked the (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).

Astoria’s 238-block contextual rezoning received strong support from Council Member Vallone. On May 25, 2010, the City Council approved the Department of City Planning’s contextual rezoning plan for Astoria, Queens. The plan impacts 238 blocks bounded by 20th Avenue to the north, Broadway to the south, Steinway Street to the east, and the East River and Vernon Boulevard to the west. The rezoning replaces the area’s predominant R5 and R6 zoning with contextual zoning districts, including lower density R5B, R5D, R6A, and R6B districts that establish height limits and reinforce the residential neighborhood’s development patterns. Planning applied commercial zoning districts to 67 blocks developed with mixed uses, including the 31st Street corridor, which includes the elevated N and W subway lines. The City’s Inclusionary Housing Program will now apply to seventeen blocks rezoned to R7A.

At the City Planning Commission’s hearing, residents were supportive of the proposal, noting that the rezoning was necessary to prevent out-of-scale development and protect the area’s infrastructure. Two property owners, however, asked the Commission to modify the rezoning to accommodate their lots. (read more…)

Opponents argued designation would prevent congregation from restoring the deteriorating building. On May 12, 2010, the City Council approved Landmarks’ designation of the West Park Presbyterian Church at 165 West 86th Street in Manhattan. The red sandstone-clad building is considered one of the City’s best examples of Romanesque Revival-style religious structures. Landmarks unanimously designated the building in January 2010 despite opposition from West Park leaders and its congregation, who claimed that designation would prevent the congregation from repairing the deteriorating and now-vacant structure. West Park had partnered with a private developer to build a residential tower on a portion of the site, but the deal fell through after Landmarks calendared the building. 7 CityLand 10 (Feb. 15, 2010).

At the Council’s Landmarks, Public Siting & Maritime Uses Subcommittee public hearing on April 20, preservationists spoke in support of designation, while members of the West Park congregation and representatives from other local houses of worship opposed the action. Landmark West’s Kate Wood said the organization looked forward to participating in the adaptive reuse of the church into a productive and sustainable asset for the City. (read more…)

Civic association proposed the rezoning to protect area’s low-density character and hilly topography. On April 14, 2010, the City Council approved the Clove Lake Civic Association’s proposal to rezone twenty blocks in the Grymes Hill and Sunnyside sections of Staten Island. The area, located near Wagner College, is generally bounded by Silver Lake Park to the north, Sunnyside Terrace to the south, Highland to the east, and Clove Road to the west. The predominately residential neighborhood features narrow, steeply graded streets and is characterized by single- family, detached homes, with small pockets of attached and detached two-family homes and multi-family buildings.

The civic association proposed the rezoning in response to recent out-of-character development that replaced single-family, detached homes with two-family homes on steep roads that cannot accommodate increased traffic. The majority of the area was down-zoned from R3X to R2, which only permits single-family, detached homes and reflects the area’s prevailing built character. A small portion of the area to the east was rezoned from R3X to R3-2 in order to match the existing attached townhouse buildings in that area. The plan also expanded the Special Hillsides Preservation District to include an area bounded by Victory Boulevard, Howard and Highland Avenues, and Clove Road. In 1989, the City created the preservation district to preserve northern Staten Island’s sloping topography. (read more…)