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Ft. Greene and Clinton Hill Buildings Could Get Taller Under Zoning Change

By Rosa Goldensohn | September 30, 2015 2:23pm
 Maximum heights will be increased under the rule change.
Maximum heights will be increased under the rule change.
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DCP

CLINTON HILL — Buildings in DUMBO, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill and Vinegar Hill would be allowed to grow taller under a proposed zoning change in Brooklyn's District 2, the Department of City Planning said Monday. 

The department plans to update the city’s zoning rules, lifting building height caps for construction to encourage developers to build retail-friendly ground floors that are more “contextual,” officials said during a public review meeting at Pratt Institute.

In most cases, a new building's maximum height would rise by 5 feet, but could climb by as much as 30 feet in some locations, depending on current zoning limits.

DCP contends that the height adjustments, which come with a provision that ground-floor ceilings must also be raised, will result in new buildings that better match the neighborhood's streetscape of stoops and raised parlor floors.

But community members who attended the presentation said they did not think real estate developers would use the extra height to make "more interesting buildings."

"The main thing is that City Planning does these changes without any understanding of how developers think," said Fort Greene resident Enid Braun, who has owned a home in the area for nine years. "Developers will never give up a square foot that is revenue-producing for better design, unless it’s extremely high-end housing, maybe."

Simeon Bankoff of the Historic Districts Council, who attended the meeting, called zoning a "blunt tool" for influencing building aesthetics. "I just really feel that there needs to be a neighborhood-by-neighborhood examination of whether or not this is a good idea," he said.

DCP officials said the zoning change would not require developers to build new affordable housing, but said they hoped it would sweeten the deal for them to add it voluntarily.

In some areas, developers could gain extra height, 20 to 30 feet, by including affordable housing in their plans, and get extra space if they build it for seniors, according to the proposal.

Along parts of Fulton Street and Myrtle Avenue, it would mean 20-foot height increases for developers that agree to include affordable units in their buildings.

Within a certain "transit zone," mostly in Downtown Brooklyn, developers who build senior and affordable housing would be able to sidestep rules on the creation of parking, which DCP says would help to lure builders.

Locals expressed concern about potential affordable housing being too expensive, with one attendee calling the income range the administration is targeting "nutty."

Recent "affordable" projects in the neighborhood created units for people making up to $121,000 — which is 200% of the area median income (AMI), or $60,500 for an individual this year. The AMI is based on the earnings of residents in the entire New York City region including Westchester County, Rockland County and the Hudson Valley's Putnam County.

When Alex Sommers, the city planner who gave the presentation, said the department realized "that that’s not deep enough affordability for everyone," he was met with laughs from the audience.

Locals said they were concerned the height increase would encourage developers to tear down old buildings and replace them with new ones packed with more units. Sommers said the zoning plan wouldn't encourage developers to buy homes and demolish them to build taller. 

Braun said she disagrees.

She said she gets six calls a week from developers looking to buy her home and tear it down to build condos.

"I have five concurrent construction sites on my one block," Braun said. "You can’t just not [incentivize] tear downs. You have to de-incentivize so that people aren’t preyed upon."

DCP had previously met with market-rate developers and nonprofit developers as well as the community board and the business improvement district to develop the proposal, Sommers told the meeting.

But attendees said they believe local residents had little say in the decision.

"We have to totally revamp the process, in terms of community inclusion," City Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo said.

The rezoning plan is currently in the public review phase, and is expected to go before the City Council early next year.