So, what’s this Carroll Gardens “narrow streets” zoning text amdendment thing all about? Several groups in Carroll Gardens have prepared the equivalent of an FAQ about the text amendment, which is now moving through the public review process. It’s been posted by the CORD group among others, but we’re also presenting it here.
HOW IS MY PROPERTY VALUE AFFECTED BY THIS CHANGE ?
The value of your home should increase. It is the law of supply and demand. By limiting the size of new buildings or additions (the “supply”), all of the existing buildings in Carroll Gardens will be worth more with respect to the rest of Brooklyn and the city. Your Front Gardens are not affected.
WHAT HAPPENS IF MY HOUSE IS ALREADY LARGER THAN THE NEW ZONING LIMITS ?
Nothing. Your house is protected as it is. This happens all of the time, all over New York City, whenever City Planning makes any kind of ZONING change. Your value remains the same and in fact, will grow along with the rest of the neighborhood. This change will not require you to take any action.
WHAT HAPPENS IF MY HOUSE IS SMALLER THAN THE NEW ZONING LIMITS ?
You have some room to grow. You and all of your neighbors will have the same limits. You may still build an addition, within those limits. And, even if you cannot afford to build an addition, or plan on selling your home with the potential of an addition, you do not have to worry about someone blocking your light with a seven (7) story, 65 foot deep new structure or addition (which can happen now under the current regulations and is happening all over the neighborhood).
SO WHAT IS THE CHANGE ?
Right now, the blocks specified in this amendment are treated, zoning-wise, just like Court Street—where, for example, the developers of the ILA site are allowed according to the rules, a 70 foot, very bulky building. Our little side streets are obviously not the same as Court Street! This change would make these blocks just like the rest of the side streets in our neighborhood.
The measurement number used to govern how big and bulky the building can be is called, Floor Area Ratio, or FAR. Under the Quality Housing Program in the current zoning laws, the FAR for these few side streets is 3.0.; height limit-70 feet. Under the change, these side streets will have a FAR of 2.2., height limit-55 feet-just like all the other side streets in Carroll Gardens. Very simply put, if your FAR is less than 2.2 now, you may build up to that point. If your FAR is at or more than 2.2 now, you cannot. To find out your FAR, you can go this web site (or just google OASIS MAP NYC) and type in your street address or your block and lot number. Scroll down until you find the area on the page that lists your home’s information. Your current FAR is there. Look and see if you are under, at or over, 2.2.
WHO DOESN’T LIKE THIS CHANGE ?
Generally, it is developers and property owners who want to convert their property into condos. They want to build as big as possible to maximize their profit. Some homeowners, who have the means and plan to build REALLY big additions may be against this as well.
WHY SHOULD I SUPPORT THIS ?
Do you like what you see happening to the buildings around you ? Without some protection, greed will forever change the character of our neighborhood. Statistics show that neighborhoods that remain intact and maintain their size, scale and character are the ones that retain the highest possible value. We have a beautiful brownstone neighborhood here. Its integrity, heritage and visual beauty is being assaulted by these out of scale and out of character structures that are going up. In the end, these larger buildings will only serve to lower the value of our original beauties. If you are still unsure; talk to ask a trusted architect for professional advice.
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
OFFICE OF THE BROOKLYN BOROUGH PRESIDENT
Notice is hereby given that the Brooklyn Borough President will hold a public hearing on the following matter in the Community Room, Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon Street,
Brooklyn, New York 11201,
commencing at 5:30 P.M. on May 7, 2008.
CARROLL GARDENS ZONING TEXT AMENDEMENT
COMMUNITY DISTRICT 6
080345 ZRK
The Department of City Planning has submitted an application for amendments to the Zoning Resolution. The proposed text amendments would apply the narrow street zoning provisions for height, setback and floor area ratio to streets which are mapped as wide on the City map but share a similar character to other narrow streets in the area. These streets are 1st Place, 2nd Place, 3rd Place, 4th Place, and Second Street, Carroll Street and President Street between Smith Street and Hoyt Street in Brooklyn Community District 6.
What is the Place block text amendment?
A text amendment is the tool used by City Planning to correct an inappropriate zoning designation. The zoning remains the same; in this application, the text amendment simply restores the Place blocks to their original street width designation at the City Planning office. They will then match the other streets in the neighborhood.
How did this happen?
When the Place blocks were designed by Richard Butts in 1846, there were no zoning laws. He laid out the first “planned” brownstone community in Brooklyn to his own standards. He plotted blocks with lots of 100 feet, and front courtyards of 33 feet. Between the courtyards, he defined a 50-foot wide “street”, consisting of 13 foot sidewalks and a 24 foot wide “carriage way” down the center of each block. This was written into the law that created this planned community.
The City of NY organized a zoning plan in 1961 and measured the streets differently. A Street was defined as the distance from property line to property line. This makes the Place block front gardens part of the street. The streets are now classified as “wide” (75 ft. or more), as in arterial streets like Court St or Atlantic Avenue as compared with “narrow” (less than 75 ft) side streets, often residential.
The Place blocks are now treated like Court St; a wide street. The problem: A wide street can be developed deeper, bigger and taller which permits out of character and out of scale designs like the Clarett development for the ILA site on Court Street. This is not appropriate, as the gardens were never intended to be included in the street measurement. Butts wrote his intended courtyard use into law; homeowners can check their deeds to find these regulations attached.
Supported by: The South Brooklyn Neighborhood Alliance, Baltic-Warren Neighbors, CGNA, CORD, Cobble Hill Association, Columbia Waterfront Neighborhood Association, Committee for the Historical Integrity of Cobble Hill, South Brooklyn Local Development Corp, Union-Sackett Block Association, Warren Street Block Association.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Carroll Gardens Resident // May 3, 2008 at 1:12 pm
RE: “HOW IS MY PROPERTY VALUE AFFECTED BY THIS CHANGE ?”
The issue here is NOT the developers, nor is it most long-term Carroll Gardens homeowners. The issue here is: GREEDY NEIGHBORHOOD REAL ESTATE AGENTS. Realtor’s INFLATE the market price of homes by convincing owners to list their properties for much more than they are worth.
These real estate agents are NOT motivated by the interests of their homeowner clients. These agents are solely looking to “earn” as high of a commission as they possibly can (often times at the expense of the homeowner who have to sit on empty units). As a result of this greed, neighborhood rentals and sales prices for substandard properties skyrocket to the point that even professional families cannot afford to live in the neighborhood.
Enter the Real Estate Developers. The developers realize that they can build brand new units, with modern amenities at competitive prices. Moreover, developers sell their units through their own management offices and are able to sidestep the use of real estate agents (who would just inflate the prices anyway). This is infuriating to the real estate agents, who are doing everything they possibly can to prevent the market from regulating itself.
These very agents who have been exploiting the neighborhood want to masquerade as preservationists working for the good of the community. They are the ones really pushing for these zoning laws, often times playing homeowners and politicians like puppets.
Say No to these BS proposals for zoning regulation. Developers cause other property owners to charge reasonable rents. By saying NO to development and YES to zoning laws, you are saying NO to affordable housing.
2 Carroll Gardens Resident // May 3, 2008 at 7:33 pm
The issue here is not rents or real estate people.
It is over-sized buildings and developments causing the neighborhood to rapidly deteriorate not only aesthetically but in terms of quality of living.
The zoning text amendment simply levels the field in CG making ALL streets mathematically calculated as “narrow” as opposed to the Place blocks and a few others wide calculated as “wide” while the rest are calculated as “narrow”.
The calculation of, say, Second Place as “wide” was a legal loophole developers and some others have been milking to the detriment of the rest of the houses on those blocks and especially those right next door to them!
The zoning text amendment is the closing of a loophole and a badly needed, and long overdue protection measure. The “affordable housing” issue has nothing to do with this. The supply and demand for apartments in CG and elsewhere is based on the free market.
3 Carroll Gardens Resident // May 4, 2008 at 12:48 am
So-called “Over-sized buildings and developments” are NOT causing the neighborhood to deteriorate aesthetically or in terms of quality of life. The 2nd place and smith development is being built on what had been an unsightly and unfenced parking lot. Unlike Atlantic Yards, people are not being displaced by eminent domain laws. This building is going up on an empty lot!!!
I completely disagree with the above poster that affordable housing is not an issue. Of course it’s an issue. Look at the FIRST question and answer posted in the FAQ: HOW IS MY PROPERTY VALUE AFFECTED BY THIS CHANGE ? Answer: The value of your home should increase. It is the law of supply and demand. By limiting the size of new buildings or additions (the “supply”), ALL of the existing buildings in Carroll Gardens will be worth more with respect to the rest of Brooklyn and the city.
C’mon!!!
4 Maria // May 5, 2008 at 7:17 pm
This is a riot! It is a little hard to follow the twists and turns of the money rants of #1 and 3 above, but I can’t resist.
The TA isn’t really hard to understand- it’s only about the integrity of the Place blocks.
Now, let me see if I understand: the homeowner should have the right to make a killing on their property by selling it to the highest bidder. Affordable housing for someone else? What are you kidding? It’s the property owners right, the American way-money first, last and always. If you don’t like it, you’re against the free market, seniors, affordable housing- add at will.
It’s happening again- when I first moved here I was confronted because as a”newcomer” I ruined the neighborhood. I paid the high rent that my landlord demanded, didn’t I? Dumb like a fox , my poor landlord.
No “newcomer” I ever met asked the landlord to quadruple the rent, or throw out long time tenants for people that “go to business”, even tho they hadn’t made a mortgage payment since 1965. Five stories for $3000- on a Place block; I heard the stories myself, poor struggling homeowner.
Now it’s happening again- the Donald effect. You need a place to live, you like it here, we’ll make you pay and pay while we cry all the way to the bank.
As long as the homeowner is FIRST to sell for the highest price and the very best market. She then picks up her skirt and runs- cause now she’s sold her block down the river- welcome speculators! What happens to the folks on Fourth Place between Smith and Court who doesn’t develop? So sad, too bad!
Sure reminds me of killing the goose that laid the golden egg.
5 coquito // May 5, 2008 at 8:52 pm
The 2nd place and smith building may be going up on an empty lot, but it’s also going to tower over everything else in the area. And if it’s anything like the new condos that have been going up in the area, it’s going to stick out like a sore thumb. A big, ugly, sky-blocking sore thumb.
And another thing, the first poster who claimed that “developers realize that they can build brand new units, with modern amenities at competitive prices” is either delusional or lying. They may be new units, and they may have “modern amenities” (often brushed metal fixtures badly installed) but they surely are never offered at “competitive prices.” Just look at the real estate around Williamsburg, or the new condos sprouting up all over Greenpoint if you want a point of comparison.
If the current owners and residents of Carroll Gardens—the people who moved here because they liked the neighborhood to begin with—would like to keep it from turning into the high-rise haven that Greenpoint’s McCarren Park has become, then more power to them.
If you don’t want to be able to see the sky, you want the population density to make your streets look like Madison Avenue, and you want the rents to skyrocket overnight, then developers and condos are your friend. Or better yet, just move to Manhattan already.
On the other hand, if you like being able to see the sunsets and blue sky, you like knowing the names of the people on your block, and you like being able to afford more than just an efficiency on two full-time salaries, then this zoning amendment is for you.