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. (read more…)