Rendering of 57 Caton Place, Image Credit: CPC/57 Caton Partners, LLC.

City Council member raises concerns about effects of rezoning on adjacent stables. On September 5, 2018, the City Council Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises held a hearing on an application by developer, 57 Caton Partners, LLC, to rezone 57 Caton Place in the Windsor Terrace neighborhood of Brooklyn. The developer is requesting a zoning map amendment and zoning text amendments to facilitate the development of a new nine-story, mixed-use building. (read more…)

Location of air conditioning units was legal because units were located outside the required rear yard. Buildings issued a notice of violation to the owner of 1027 East 2nd Street in Brooklyn for maintaining an obstruction in a required rear yard. An officer issued the NOV after observing four air conditioning units in the rear yard within four inches of the side-lot line. Properties in residential districts are only permitted to install AC units in a required backyard if they are located at least eight feet from any lot line.

At a hearing, the owner stated that the property was located in the Ocean Parkway Special District, which requires a minimum backyard depth of twenty feet from the rear-lot line instead of the thirty-foot backyard required by the area’s underlying R3-1 zoning regulations. The owner argued that while his property had a thirty-foot rear yard, the AC units were located in a ten-foot portion of the yard closest to his home and not in the twenty-foot portion of the required yard under the special district’s regulations. An ALJ upheld the NOV, finding the special district’s rules did not redefine the requirements of other zoning regulations and were not meant to affect the rear yard regulations. (read more…)