By Rachel Holliday Smith – DNAinfo.com and COLlive
Brooklyn Community Board 9 voted Tuesday night to once again recommend the city study zoning changes in parts of Crown Heights, after more than a year of controversy.
A three-hour meeting marked by chanting, shouting and a constant police presence led to the rezoning resolution, or letter, to the Department of City Planning requesting the agency start studying possible land use changes in the board’s area, which covers parts of southern Crown Heights and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens.
Community Board members voted 26 in favor and 6 opposed. Supporters included Jacob Goldstein, Nuchie Gross, Chanina Sperlin, Boruch Spielman, Steve Balberg and Avi Leshes.
New member Yaacov Behrman was among the 3 who abstained.
The document has been at the heart of a yearlong debate over rezoning the neighborhood, which began when CB9 originally sent the letter to DCP in the spring of 2014. Opponents say that the process has already excluded them and their concerns about the neighborhood.
Though the document’s language has changed since last year’s version, the major requests in the letter remain the same.
In both, the board asks the city to create new zoning rules that would preserve the existing character of the neighborhood, put height limits on new buildings and takes into account infrastructure needs in the area.
Included in the zoning request letter that was approved by the board
At the request of Crown Heights Jewish Community Council, the study area included the blocks of Crown and Carroll streets currently zoned R-2 which allows only detached single-family residences.
The letter approved by the Community Board 9, asked that those blocks should be afforded a zoning that would permit homeowners to make modest incremental expansions of their homes.
Despite not being mentioned specifically, Empire Boulevard may still be part of any future zoning changes.
If the city plans to move forward with the study, it could be years before the neighborhood sees any land use rules change, which have to be approved through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure.
#7 while what you write is true but by changing the zoning this will only hasten the mass exodus that can very likely happen if a family of ok means can no longer afford to housing costs. Other communities are trying to tackle this with little results other than encouraging young to move out of the city. We really need to get our heads out of the sand bc these changes will hurt abd in the most painful places like schools creating a pinch on tuitions/teacher pay…
I think the more likely thing to happen if the zoning is changed is that houses that go on the market will be viewed and priced as a potential three family/condo house as is the case with all brownstones (split the top two floors and a walk in in the basement) this then puts the houses in ch out of the reach of even ppl earning a good living (100k+) as they will essentially need to buy three condos to get the house bc of zoning changes. If this happens young ppl with good income will be faced with no… Read more »
We live in the city. Our city is expanding. People from all over the country are coming here for jobs. Thank Gd we live here and not in city people are leaving from! You can’t stop growth nor do i see a reason to stop it.
The law affects us. We tried expanding our house, but because it’s currently an R2 zone we weren’t allowed. We should be able to build a small studio apartment to rent out and if the zoning does change, we will.
#4 is spot on. This whole for or against development is very unclear and shouldn’t be used as an us or them controversy.
i commend mr berman for abstaining.
i have yet to hear an explanation from someone in the community how allowing developers to build luxury buildings does anything to help the ch jewish community. in fact, it seems that this kind of expansion would increase rents and make living here more and more difficult.
if someone has an explantion for this, i would love to hear it.
How about we allow the large condos with the condition that a certain percentage needs to be low income and only for people who have lived here for 5 or more years or their children or grandchildren. Also a certain percentage must be apartments with 3,4 or 5 bedrooms and 2 baths. We are outgrowing our borders fast and all the current populaces of crown heights are facing the same issues. It is completely wrong that all Jews are rich whereas most aren’t. Many black and Hispanic families are quite large and need the large apartments too. If requirements can… Read more »
Great, get ready for empire boulvard to turn into high end studios for our new neighbors in town. WHEN WILL WE GET TO TOGETHER TO HELP OUR OWN PEOPLE. studios and bedrooms that fit one 54 in bed dont help us and instead help crown heights become attractive to others. lets help the community grow in numbers for out own people. Our own landlords and others are building to suit the yuppies. Young working lubavitchers are ready to pay for normal sized living quarters. enoough studios
How are people living in CH effected by all this?