Proposed Sunset Park Rezoning used with permission of the New York City Department of City Planning. All rights reserved.

128-block rezoning would establish height limits in Sunset Park. On August 5, 2009, the City Planning Commission approved the Department of City Planning’s rezoning proposal for Brooklyn’s Sunset Park. The majority of the 128-block rezoning area is bounded by 40th Street to the north, the Gowanus Expressway to the south, Eighth Avenue to the east, and Third Avenue to the west, with a small area to the north, bounded by 29th and 37th Streets, and Fourth and Fifth Avenues.

Sunset Park is a predominantly residential neighborhood characterized by two- to four-story rowhouses along side streets, and five- to six-story apartment buildings found on the avenues, including retail and commercial corridors along Fourth, Fifth, and Seventh Avenues. There are also two small pockets of detached and semi-detached houses in the southwest corner of the rezoning area.

Under its current R6 zoning, the area has experienced an increase in development resulting in out-of-scale apartment buildings that are inconsistent with its low-rise context. The proposal would replace the R6 zoning with contextual zoning districts — R4A, R4-1, R6B, R6A, and R7A — that more closely match the area’s diverse, built context. (read more…)