Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Crown Heights CB9 May Consider Changes to Controversial Rezoning Resolution

 This stretch of Empire Boulevard near Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights could see new zoning rules if Brooklyn Community Board 9 moves forward with a study to consider changes to the neighborhood's land use regulations.
This stretch of Empire Boulevard near Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights could see new zoning rules if Brooklyn Community Board 9 moves forward with a study to consider changes to the neighborhood's land use regulations.
View Full Caption
DNAinfo/Rachel Holliday Smith

CROWN HEIGHTS — Brooklyn's Community Board 9 may consider revising its recommendations on the neighborhood's zoning rules this week, following months of controversy surrounding the issue.

After a series of protests at CB9 over a resolution on rezoning the board had sent to the Department of City Planning this spring, board member and local blogger Tim Thomas revised the disputed document to include specific requests for zoning rules and a six-story height limit for new buildings, he said in an email sent Friday to all CB9 members that included the new version.

“I've changed it to reflect the broadest consensus that I've been able to determine through [the] last few weeks of back and forth with many of you and elected officials and the community at large,” he wrote.

Thomas said he hopes the board will approve the redrafted resolution at its monthly meeting Tuesday, saying "time is of the essence" when it comes to changing zoning rules in the board's area, which covers southern Crown Heights and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens.

The original version of the document was sent to city planning in April to begin the process of studying zoning changes in the area. But since then, a local activist group, Movement to Protect the People, aggressively rallied against the resolution at multiple board meetings and outside of the board’s offices, saying the letter was written without enough community input and would allow developers to build high-rises in the area.

Now, Thomas says his version of the document, which stipulates that “modest increased residential density” should be considered only with a six-story height restriction, should appease everyone, including MTOPP.

But it’s unclear how the new version will go over at Tuesday’s meeting.

While one CB9 member praised the draft in an email reply to the group, another said the board needed more time to discuss the language of the document, advocating against taking a vote this week.

“We need to make sure that everyone is up to speed and on the same page before we reconsider the resolution,” wrote board member Fred Baptiste, who brought a motion to rescind the original resolution at a September board meeting.

As of Monday, any mention of the rezoning issue was absent from the CB9 agenda for Tuesday’s meeting. Calls and emails to CB9’s district manager, Pearl Miles  who admitted earlier this month to incorrectly tallying the September vote on the resolution, changing the outcome of the vote — and CB9 chairman Dwayne Nicholson were not immediately returned.

The full board meeting of Brooklyn Community Board 9 will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 9 at 7 p.m. at the Founders Auditorium at Medgar Evers College, 1650 Bedford Ave. on the corner of Crown Street.