CB9 ULURP Committee Meeting, May 19, 2015

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

Population Growth

Projected population growth for CD9 by the year 2030 is 2000-5000 people (see link and map below).

Department of City Planning uses an estimate of 2.7 persons per dwelling unit. Therefore, between 740-1850 new units of development should be needed to accommodate projected population growth over the next 15 years. According to the New Development map on our website, we already have 2529 units of new development in the pipeline for the next few years.

In other words, new construction in this district has already exceeded new supply required to accommodate the highest estimates of population growth by nearly 40%. What will be the future of our district if we do not downzone to significantly reduce development?? Years of disruptive construction ending with hundreds of vacant luxury units? Or the Manhattanization of our quiet and stable neighborhoods?

http://www.nyc.gov/html/oem/downloads/pdf/hazard_mitigation/section_3c_population_and_development_trends.pdf

Past population growth trends

Population has been relatively stable in Community District 9 from 1970 to 2000; by comparison Park Slope, Bedford Stuyvesant and North Crown Heights (Board 8) lost significant population density while Flatbush and Midwood gained.

COMMUNITY DISTRICTS			Total Population					Change 1970-2010
			1970	1980	1990	2000	2010	Number	Percent
M	1	Battery Park City, Tribeca	7,706	15,918	25,366	34,420	60,978	53,272	691.30%
S	3	Tottenville, Woodrow, Great Kills	72,815	108,249	126,956	152,908	160,209	87,394	120.00%
M	5	Midtown Business District	31,076	39,544	43,507	44,028	51,673	20,597	66.30%
Q	4	Elmhurst, South Corona	108,233	118,430	137,023	167,005	172,598	64,365	59.50%
S	2	New Springville, South Beach	85,985	105,128	113,944	127,071	132,003	46,018	53.50%
BX	10	Throgs Nk., Co-op City, Pelham Bay	84,948	106,516	108,093	115,948	120,392	35,444	41.70%
Q	3	Jackson Heights, North Corona	123,635	122,090	128,924	169,083	171,576	47,941	38.80%
Q	9	Woodhaven, Richmond Hill	110,367	109,505	112,151	141,608	143,317	32,950	29.90%
S	1	Stapleton, Port Richmond	135,875	138,489	137,806	162,609	175,756	39,881	29.40%
M	4	Chelsea, Clinton	83,601	82,164	84,431	87,479	103,245	19,644	23.50%
BX	7	Bedford Park, Norwood, Fordham	113,764	116,827	128,588	141,411	139,286	25,522	22.40%
Q	7	Flushing, Bay Terrace	207,589	204,785	220,508	242,952	247,354	39,765	19.20%
Q	2	Sunnyside, Woodside	95,073	88,927	94,845	109,920	113,200	18,127	19.10%
BK	14	Flatbush, Midwood	137,041	143,859	159,825	168,806	160,664	23,623	17.20%
Q	14	The Rockaways, Broad Channel	98,228	100,592	100,596	106,686	114,978	16,750	17.10%
M	6	Stuyvesant Town, Turtle Bay	122,465	127,554	133,748	136,152	142,745	20,280	16.60%
BK	12	Borough Park, Ocean Parkway	166,301	155,899	160,018	185,046	191,382	25,081	15.10%
BK	7	Sunset Park, Windsor Terrace	111,607	98,567	102,553	120,063	126,230	14,623	13.10%
BX	12	Wakefield, Williamsbridge	135,010	128,226	129,620	149,077	152,344	17,334	12.80%
M	8	Upper East Side	200,851	204,305	210,880	217,063	219,920	19,069	9.50%
Q	12	Jamaica, St. Albans, Hollis	206,639	189,383	201,293	223,602	225,919	19,280	9.30%
Q	10	Ozone Park, Howard Beach	113,857	105,651	107,768	127,274	122,396	8,539	7.50%
BK	5	East New York, Starrett City	170,791	154,931	161,350	173,198	182,896	12,105	7.10%
BK	11	Bensonhurst, Bath Beach	170,119	155,072	149,994	172,129	181,981	11,862	7.00%
BX	11	Pelham Pkwy, Morris Park, Laconia	105,980	99,080	97,842	110,706	113,232	7,252	6.80%
M	2	Greenwich Village, Soho	84,337	87,069	94,105	93,119	90,016	5,679	6.70%
BK	13	Coney Island, Brighton Beach	97,750	100,030	102,596	106,120	104,278	6,528	6.70%
Q	8	Fresh Meadows, Briarwood	142,468	125,312	132,101	146,594	151,107	8,639	6.10%
BX	5	University Hts., Fordham, Mt. Hope	121,807	107,995	118,435	128,313	128,200	6,393	5.20%
M	12	Washington Heights, Inwood	180,561	179,941	198,192	208,414	190,020	9,459	5.20%
Q	5	Ridgewood, Glendale, Maspeth	161,022	150,142	149,126	165,911	169,190	8,168	5.10%
BK	17	East Flatbush, Rugby, Farragut	149,496	154,596	161,261	165,753	155,252	5,756	3.90%
BX	9	Soundview, Parkchester	166,442	167,627	155,970	167,859	172,298	5,856	3.50%
Q	1	Astoria, Long Island City	185,925	185,198	188,549	211,220	191,105	5,180	2.80%
BK	18	Canarsie, Flatlands	188,643	169,092	162,428	194,653	193,543	4,900	2.60%
Q	13	Queens Village, Rosedale	184,647	173,178	177,535	196,284	188,593	3,946	2.10%
BX	4	Highbridge, Concourse Village	144,207	114,312	119,962	139,563	146,441	2,234	1.50%
M	7	West Side, Upper West Side	212,422	206,669	210,993	207,699	209,084	-3,338	-1.60%
BX	8	Riverdale, Kingsbridge, Marble Hill	103,543	98,275	97,030	101,332	101,731	-1,812	-1.70%
BK	9	Crown Heights South, PLG, Wingate	101,047	96,669	110,715	104,014	98,429	-2,618	-2.60%
M	9	Manhattanville, Hamilton Heights	113,606	103,038	106,978	111,724	110,193	-3,413	-3.00%
BK	15	Sheepshead Bay, Gerritsen Beach	164,815	149,572	143,477	160,319	159,650	-5,165	-3.10%
BK	1	Williamsburg, Greenpoint	179,390	142,942	155,972	160,338	173,083	-6,307	-3.50%
BK	10	Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights	129,822	118,187	110,612	122,542	124,491	-5,331	-4.10%
Q	6	Forest Hills, Rego Park	120,429	112,245	106,996	115,967	113,257	-7,172	-6.00%
Q	11	Bayside, Douglaston, Little Neck	127,883	110,963	108,056	116,404	116,431	-11,452	-9.00%
BK	2	Brooklyn Heights, Fort Greene	110,221	92,732	94,534	98,620	99,617	-10,604	-9.60%
M	3	Lower East Side, Chinatown	181,845	154,848	161,617	164,407	163,277	-18,568	-10.20%
BK	4	Bushwick	137,902	92,497	102,572	104,358	112,634	-25,268	-18.30%
BK	8	Crown Heights North	121,821	88,796	96,400	96,076	96,317	-25,504	-20.90%
M	11	East Harlem	154,662	114,569	110,508	117,743	120,511	-34,151	-22.10%
BK	6	Park Slope, Carroll Gardens	138,933	110,228	102,724	104,054	104,709	-34,224	-24.60%
BK	3	Bedford Stuyvesant	203,380	133,379	138,696	143,867	152,985	-50,395	-24.80%
BX	6	East Tremont, Belmont	114,137	65,016	68,061	75,688	83,268	-30,869	-27.00%
M	10	Central Harlem	159,267	105,641	99,519	107,109	115,723	-43,544	-27.30%
BK	16	Brownsville, Ocean Hill	122,589	73,801	84,923	85,343	86,468	-36,121	-29.50%
BX	1	Melrose, Mott Haven, Port Morris	138,557	78,441	77,214	82,159	91,497	-47,060	-34.00%
BX	3	Morrisania, Crotona Park East	150,636	53,635	57,162	68,574	79,762	-70,874	-47.00%
BX	2	Hunts Point, Longwood	99,493	34,399	39,443	46,824	52,246	-47,247	-47.50%

CB9 Board Meeting, April 28, 2015

43rd Assembly District Special Election May 5th, 2015

Candidate Forum at Grace Church 

Sponsor:  Prospect Lefferts Gardens Neighborhood Association.

Moderator: Rachel Holiday Smith, DNAInfo

Candidates:

Geoffrey Davis, Love Yourself Party (not present)
Shirley Patterson, Independent Democrat Watch Video
Menachem Raitport, Conservative Party (not present)
Diana Richardson, Working Families Party Watch Video

ULURP Meeting, April 20, 2015

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!

CB9 rezoning information session by DCP