Despite a last minute push to derail a rezoning of a small area around Grand Street in Williamsburg that is under a great deal of development pressure, the City Council voted for approval yesterday afternoon. The downzoning, which would limit the height of most buildings to 4-6 stories covers 13 blocks along Grand Street between […]

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The battle over the proposed downzoning of Grand Street to eliminate the possibility of towers in a predominantly low-rise neighborhood is coming down to the wire. Much of the impetus to get it done has been an effort to thwart two particularly tall Karl Fischer buildings that developers want to build at Driggs and Grand. […]

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The Grand Street rezoning has been passed by the City Council’s Land Use Committee, clearing the way for a City Council vote, perhaps as early as this week. Building height along Grand Street would be limited to four to five stories. The quick action may kill at least two planned 10-15 story buildings at Grand […]

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Pratt Center for Community Development Director and City Council candidate Brad Lander was among those who spoke at the City Planning Scoping hearing on Thursday on the big and controversial Toll Brothers project in Gowanus. Late on Friday, Mr. Lander emailed to us to clarify things because he had been described as giving testimony that […]

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The City Planning Department held its Scoping Hearing yesterday for the proposed Toll Brothers development on the Gowanus Canal. With neighborhood resistance to the project getting organized, the hearing attracted more attention than the average technical City Planning session. The room was full during the afternoon session and about 18 people spoke on the project. […]

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The “Scoping Hearing” for the big, proposed Toll Brothers Gowanus development is today (3/13). There are two sessions, one from 2PM-5:30PM and the other from 6PM-8:45PM. It will take place at 22 Reade Street. Attendees can make statements of up to three minutes about the project and written statements can also be submitted through March […]

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At first glance, 197-a looks like one more addition to the alphabet soup of bureaucratic programs and acronyms and reminds one of 421-a. Both are important parts of how business is done in neighborhoods around the city, and particularly around Brooklyn. Yesterday Brownstoner noted that 197-a would get some teeth under a new bill introduced […]

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The first step for the Toll Brothers firm in trying to win approval for its big proposed development in Gowanus will occur tomorrow (Thursday, 3/13). That’s when a “Scoping Hearing” to determine the contents of an environmental impact study (or its scope) will take place at the Department of City Planning. The scoping document is […]

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What will the proposed zoning change in Dumbo do? GL spoke with Brooklyn City Planning Office Director Purnima Kapur yesterday who laid out the changes and the rational behind them. (She also spoke separately with our friends at Brownstoner, indicating the Department is pushing to explain its proposal.) She describe the changes as being with […]

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As the Toll Brothers firm seeks its own zoning approval for a big project on the Gowanus, a proposal for rezoning the neighborhood, which would create a framework for significant changes in the industrial neighborhood in the future, could be ready by late Spring or early Summer. (A number of meetings have taken place over […]

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The community meeting last night about the big Gowanus project proposed by the Toll Brothers firm that would leapfrog the actual neighborhood rezoning project, drew a big crowd and even attracted two representatives from the development company itself, included VP David Von Spreckleson. City Council Member Tony Avella held forth about the advantages that pro-development […]

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We have to say that the issue of rezoning a small part of Dumbo to allow for higher density residential development almost seemed to come out of nowhere. On Tuesday, the Architects Newspaper reported that the Department of City Planning is considering rezoning an area bounded by Bridge Street on the north, John Street on […]

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Those zoning text amendments drafted by the American Institute of Architects that would have allowed bigger buildings and were greeted by a lot of opposition once they were widely known, have been dropped. Queens Crap posted the full text of the AIA letter to Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden yesterday. The changes were complex, but would […]

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On Tuesday, we ran an item about weekend work that developers hoping to build a 14-story Karl Fischer building at Grand and Driggs have been doing. Presumably, they are working to get out in front of a downzoning that would allow a four-story building on the site. If a foundation is complete before the downzone, […]

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Yesterday, City Council Member Bill de Blasio formally introduced a resolution calling for an immediate downzoning study for Carroll Gardens and a halt on construction of anything taller than fifty feet both of which were subjects of a rally on Tuesday. The Carroll Gardens group, CORD said that “for all intents and purposes, he asked […]

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A volunteer with the Union-Sacket Block Association uploaded videos of Tuesday’s rally on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall calling for fast action on the downzoning of Carroll Gardens. The two vids (Part I is on top and Part II is below it), which show a significant part of the rally, are below:

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Yesterday morning, Carroll Gardens resident, community activists and local politicians gathered on the steps of Borough Hall to try to create some momentum for a downzoning of their neighborhood, which is under increasing development pressure. The 45-minute long rally was organized by City Council Member Bill de Blasio, who is introducing a City Council resolution […]

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Yesterday’s rally to call for a downzoning of Carroll Gardens was an uplifting thing. There has been little doubt that the neighborhood would be rezoned at some point. Yet, the key issue remains the point at which it will happen. Getting the zoning changes enacted will take time, and a game of what we call […]

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The CORD group, which helped to generate significant attention for a Carroll Gardens downzoning and has pushed for an interim moratorium on buildings taller than 50 feet, is now pushing an effort to write Mayor Bloomberg. (Their petition drive for the moratorium has attracted more than 3,000 signatures.) The letter was posted yesterday on the […]

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The planned rally to call for action on a downzoning of Carroll Gardens took place on the steps of Borough Hall this morning. Our special Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hill Correspondent was there and reported back with photos and a details of the rally. City Council Member Bill de Blasio promised to push the downzoning, which City […]

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It looks like the race to get a fourteen-story Karl Fischer building in the ground at Grand Street and Driggs Avenue before a downzoning is moving full speed ahead. The building was approved last year under current zoning by the Department of Buildings. A rezoning, which must still work its way through the city’s land […]

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The rally organized by City Council Member Bill de Blasio to call for fast action on a downzoning of Carroll Gardens and an interim moratorium on any buildings more than 50 feet tall takes place today at 11AM on the steps of Borough Hall. It will include Assembly member Joan Millman, The Carroll Gardens Neighborhood […]

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There is a rally/media event tomorrow (1/29) at 11AM at the Brooklyn office of the Department of City Planning (16 Court Street) to call for quick action on a downzoning of Carroll Gardens and for an interim moratorium on developments more than 50 feet tall. The rally was called by City Council Member Bill de […]

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Yesterday, City Council Member Bill de Blasio sent out an announcement that the City Planning Department had agreed to a zoning change that would redefine several Carroll Gardens streets as being “narrow,” significantly changing the height of buildings that could be constructed. Through very old zoning language, an number of streets in the neighborhood are […]

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Among the many changes that neighborhood activists have been pushing in Carroll Gardens is a change in old city zoning regulations that define some very narrow streets in the neighborhood as “wide streets,” allowing for the possible development of tall buildings. The Department of City Planning has apparently agreed to a zoning text amendment that […]

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