CB9 Rezoning

Fund Raising

A positive step for rezoning Prospect Lefferts Gardens

Dear Neighbors,

Broad support prevails throughout our neighborhood for a contextual rezoning by City Planning to prevent out-of-scale buildings like the 23-story luxury building at 626 Flatbush Avenue. Lack of appropriate zoning in Prospect Lefferts Gardens has lured developers seeking big profits threatening our community, stressing our infrastructure, while failing to preserve affordable rent. Only community-defined contextual zoning can protect the neighborhood from changing overnight into a place we won’t recognize.

Unfortunately, however, controversies and delays surrounding recent efforts by our Community Board (CB9) to request a zoning study from City Planning have left many of us in PLG without confidence that CB9’s process will result in benefits for our neighborhood. Because the current agenda of City Planning seems to rely more on removing than imposing limits on developers, we feel we would be foolish to deal with the City unprotected by professional expertise.

We therefore propose to take a positive step as a community. And we’re asking for your moral and financial support.

We feel strongly we must retain a professional planner to develop a zoning plan tailored to our specific needs. Such a plan would serve as a basis for negotiation with City Planning. Given the lethal combination of developers’ aggression and our unique vulnerability, there is no time to lose.

Paul Graziano is a deeply experienced planner with many successes in helping neighborhoods preserve character. (Explore Paul’s background http://www.paulgraziano.com/biography.html.) We want to retain Paul to develop a comprehensive, defensible zoning plan for PLG, taking into account both our desire for preservation of neighborhood character and diversity and the City’s agendas regarding housing and development. We think hiring Paul will not only help us arrive at a clear basis for negotiating with the City but also serve as a means for focusing community discussion on the rezoning issue.

Our immediate goal, therefore, is to raise $6000 to enable Paul Graziano to begin the first of four phases of work on the rezoning study. Concerned Citizens for Community-Based Planning have already raised $3000, and we’re in the process of forming a non-profit organization and establishing a dedicated bank account for the project. We have high hopes that raising many modest contributions toward the goal will empower community action, and we’ll be scheduling an event to further discuss the effort and report progress. In the meantime, no contribution is too small (or too large!).

There are two ways to donate:
(1) Credit or Debit Card - choose an amount and click the donation button on the right
(2) Checks should be made out to Concerned Citizens for Community-Based Planning and mailed to 190 Lincoln Road, Brooklyn, NY 11225.

To learn more about how zoning and other planning issues affect PLG, see the following website:

Concerned Citizens website www.CB9rezoning.org

Thanks for any support that you can give this effort to develop a plan to protect our neighborhood.

Signed,

Bill Hogeland and Gail Brousal, 87 Fenimore Street
Alan P. Berger, 190 Lincoln Road
Suwen Cheong & Barnabas Wolf, 79 Fenimore Street
Sarah and Alex Prud'homme, 219 Lincoln Road
James Betts & Grace Kessler Betts, 227 Lincoln Road
Rebecca Burrows & Erik Addington, 246 Midwood
Grahame Conibear & Sandra Skoblar, 47 Sterling Street
J. Milton, Fenimore Street
Denise Dostaly, 55 Sterling Street
Susan Kuralt Smith & Nat Smith, 99 Hawthorne Street

Building Heights

Buildings under 50ft: (8253 buildings, 96% of CD9)
Buildings 50ft-70ft: (278 buildings, 3% of CD9)	Buildings 70ft-80ft: (52 buildings, <1% of CD9)
Buildings 80ft-100ft: (15 buildings, <1% of CD9)	Buildings over 100ft (25 buildings, <1% of CD9)

Data Source: NYC City Planning (Primary Land Use Tax Lot Output, or PLUTO)
Map: OpenStreetMap, PLUTO, NYC Building Footprints

New Developments

TOTAL RESIDENTIAL UNITS IN DEVELOPMENT: 2529

Address	Units	Job#	Address	Units	Job#
533 ALBANY AVENUE	9	320981880	742 LEFFERTS AVENUE	7	320622171
690 ALBANY AVENUE	95	320135616	744 LEFFERTS AVENUE	7	320622180
738 ALBANY AVENUE	114	320135607	33 LINCOLN RD	87	320350678
1566 BEDFORD AVENUE		320302766	329 LINCOLN RD.	22	320359303
1930 BEDFORD AVENUE	38	321081342	336 LINCOLN ROAD	6	321098968
1967 BEDFORD AVENUE	8	320914267	338 LINCOLN ROAD	6	321098977
543 BROOKLYN AVE	5	320917059	371 LINCOLN ROAD	5	320622796
559 BROOKLYN AVE	6	320545077	429 LINCOLN ROAD	8	320419766
517 BROOKLYN AVENUE	8	320913428	451 MAPLE ST	0	320516394
537 BROOKLYN AVENUE	8	321061676	521 MAPLE ST	0	320576578
931 CARROLL ST.	69	321080833	521 MAPLE ST	8	320576578
50-54 clarkson ave	93	321087453	525 MAPLE ST	8	320576587
111 CLARKSON AVENUE	28	320917745	525 MAPLE ST	0	320576587
149 CLARKSON AVENUE	10	320593559	237 MAPLE STREET	17	320523910
91 E46TH STREET	8	320753788	435 MAPLE STREET	6	320596253
93 E46TH STREET	8	320753779	453 MAPLE STREET	0	320516401
918 EAST NEW YORK AVE	66	320597181	518 MAPLE STREET	4	320622233
474 EAST NEW YORK AVENUE	10	310065096	531 MAPLE STREET	10	302068615
155 EMPIRE BLVD		320914622	109 Montgomery Street	173	321090029
43 EMPIRE BLVD		320159902	295 MONTGOMERY STREET	3	301441973
510 FLATBUSH AVENUE	56	320374064	601 NEW YORK AVE	22	321080815
626 FLATBUSH AVENUE	254	320514760	664 NEW YORK AVE	37	321084526
902 FRANKLIN AVE	209	321042304	651 NEW YORK AVENUE	40	320591775
293 HAWTHORNE	20	320904955	844 NOSTRAND AVE	29	320986590
272 HAWTHORNE STREET	2	320596119	628 PARKSIDE AVE	29	321098192
274 HAWTHORNE STREET	3	310037153	520 PARKSIDE AVENUE	22	320917736
276 HAWTHORNE STREET	3	310037162	1721 PRESIDENT STREET	17	320622386
278 HAWTHORNE STREET	3	310037171	267 ROGERS AVE	165	320613813
280 HAWTHORNE STREET	3	310037180	491 RUTLAND ROAD	3	320513510
316 HAWTHORNE STREET	8	321017582	495 RUTLAND ROAD	3	320513529
318 HAWTHORNE STREET	8	321017608	533 RUTLAND ROAD	3	320593032
546 KINGSTON AVENUE	40	301605449	329 STERLING ST.	28	320707749
546 KINGSTON AVENUE	40	301605449	195 SULLIVAN PLACE	19	320624598
492 LEFFERTS AVE	38	320627648	86 SULLIVAN PLACE	28	302095462
396 LEFFERTS AVE.	4	320498163	341 TROY AVE	26	321214574
374 LEFFERTS AVENUE		321009591	445 TROY AVENUE	0	320082085
382 LEFFERTS AVENUE	46	302214360	1764 UNION STREET	16	320622260
393 LEFFERTS AVENUE	50	301540170	995 WASHINGTON AVENUE	2	320589877
470 LEFFERTS AVENUE		320551372	560 WINTHROP STREET	293	320595058

Data Source: NYC City Planning, DOB Permits, DOB Job Applications
Map: OpenStreetMap, PLUTO, NYC Building Footprints

Zoning Requests

CB9 2008 Rezoning Request

City Planning 2008 Response

Borough President 2013 Rezoning Request

City Planning 2013 Response to Borough President

Councilman Eugene 2013 Rezoning Request

ULURP Meeting Agenda September 2013

CB9 March 2014 Draft Rezoning Request

Population Density

2010 Population Density By Census Tract, NYC Department of City Planning

As you can see by the dark strips near Prospect Park, Prospect Lefferts Gardens is already one of the densest parts of Brooklyn.

Community District 9 is already the densest district in Brooklyn:

BROOKLYN COMMUNITY DISTRICTS			Population Density / Square Mile
BK	9	Crown Heights South, PLG, Wingate	60,536
BK	8	Crown Heights North	58,880
BK	4	Bushwick	55,411
BK	14	Flatbush, Midwood	54,503
BK	3	Bedford Stuyvesant	53,674
BK	12	Borough Park, Ocean Parkway	53,433
BK	11	Bensonhurst, Bath Beach	49,172
BK	16	Brownsville, Ocean Hill	46,566
BK	17	East Flatbush, Rugby, Farragut	46,146
BK	1	Williamsburg, Greenpoint	36,621
BK	2	Brooklyn Heights, Fort Greene	35,008
BK	6	Park Slope, Carroll Gardens	34,144
BK	15	Sheepshead Bay, Gerritsen Beach	33,808
BK	7	Sunset Park, Windsor Terrace	33,793
BK	13	Coney Island, Brighton Beach	32,979
BK	5	East New York, Starrett City	32,794
BK	10	Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights	31,258
BK	18	Canarsie, Flatlands	22,894

CB9 Board meeting, March 24, 2015

CB9 ULURP meeting, March 16, 2015

CB9 board meeting, Feb 24, 2015

CB9 ULURP Committee Meeting, Feb 11, 2015

CB9 ULURP Committee Meeting, Feb 4, 2015

Support Community Sponsored Rezoning

SAY NO TO CITY PLANNING!

SAY YES TO COMMUNITY SPONSORED CONTEXTUAL REZONING!

Sign our petition

Dept. of City Planning at a recent community informational session stated:

they want out of context buildings of 10-12 stories and more market rate density on all major avenues
they will worry about infrastructure and needed services after development takes place

If City Planning controls this process:

they can propose as much height and density as they want
we will not be able to change those proposals to reduce density during the public process

Here's what this means for all of us:

we could get as many as 16,000 new units or 43,000 new residents!*
we would lose light and air as canyons of 10-12 story buildings fill the avenues
Given higher density linked to ten and twelve story height limits, builders would tear down 3-6 story buildings
a tremendous increase in traffic, mass transit overcrowding, school overcrowding, parking, negative effects of construction-- noise, vibrations, garbage, etc.
many long time residents and small businesses would be forced out
we would lose the essential character and diversity of our neighborhood

Here's what you can do about it:

call or write CB9 board members and tell them to vote no to any resolution asking Department of City Planning to “begin a study”, regardless of what the resolution proposes.
join us in calling for an independent professional planner to create a community sponsored plan and rezoning application that reflects what we want and need.
come to the land use (ULURP) meeting this coming Wed. Feb. 4th at 7pm (St Francis DeSales School 260 Eastern Parkway, corner of Classon Avenue
come to the CB9 General Meeting - Feb 24, 7pm (location TBA)

Here's why a community sponsored rezoning application and study is better than simply requesting a zoning study from City Planning:

we determine the height limits and density changes
we will have a much better chance to keep the character and diversity of our community
we can make infrastructure/service needs and real affordability a higher priority
we have a vision for our community that adds a reasonable amount of truly affordable housing with the infrastructure and services that we need as a community while preserving the character and diversity of our neighborhood

Concerned Residents of Community District 9 supporting community sponsored rezoning

*Mayor de Blasio's housing plan calls for 80,000 new units of affordable housing to be built by upzoning just 15 neighborhoods out of 59 community districts. That means each rezoned neighborhood has to build about 5,500 units of “affordable” housing. To reach 5,500 new affordable units our neighborhood will have to build 16,000 new units (if we can negotiate 1 affordable unit for every two market rate units) - that's 43,000 new people, at 2.7 people per unit, moving into PLG and south Crown Heights!

Pages

Buildings under 50ft: (8253 buildings, 96% of CD9)

Buildings 50ft-70ft: (278 buildings, 3% of CD9)

Buildings 70ft-80ft: (52 buildings, <1% of CD9)

Buildings 80ft-100ft: (15 buildings, <1% of CD9)

Buildings over 100ft (25 buildings, <1% of CD9)

Data Source: NYC City Planning (Primary Land Use Tax Lot Output, or PLUTO)Map: OpenStreetMap, PLUTO, NYC Building Footprints