Save the Livability of Brooklyn Brownstone Communities

In February 2015, the de Blasio Administration released a citywide zoning plan, “Housing New York: Zoning for Quality and Affordability,” that would overturn the hard-fought zoning protections that Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Clinton Hill, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Fort Greene, and Prospect Heights - as well as many other NYC neighborhoods - gained over the last 20 years. Despite its rhetoric, the zoning proposal would not provide the affordable housing or senior housing it promises.

Instead, it would bring more out-of-scale, market-rate developments, promote ungainly additions to existing buildings on many of our blocks, and displace affordable housing. It would compromise the livability of our communities without providing any real benefits in return.

We would not object to a proposal that provides real affordability to families being pushed out by high housing costs and to seniors needing more supportive housing. But those goals are not delivered by this zoning proposal. We deserve to be part of a planning process that gives us a voice in the future of our communities, not one that is imposed by the City in a one-size-fits-all approach.

We deserve better!

We specifically object to the zoning proposal on these grounds:

• It will allow developers to build 5 feet higher in all contextual districts - R6A, R6B, and R7A – which will gut the contextual zoning protections we have achieved through long effort.

• It will promote the addition of another 20 feet on many 3-story rowhouses, which will adversely affect the scale and character of our blocks.

• Since the proposal does not mandate the “quality design” elements, cost-conscious developers will b e solely guided by their quest to maximize profit and inferior design will be the result.

• Any new housing created under the proposal will be entirely at market rate and existing affordable housing, as in the case of 4th Avenue, will be displaced. Our communities will lose, not gain, affordable housing.

• The plan makes no provision for mandating that any development include truly affordable housing or to replace the affordable units that are displaced.

• The definition of affordability of about $100,000 for a family of four is well beyond the means of the families whose needs are most acute.

• There is no provision for investments in public school seats, open space, or transit improvements to support the increased population generated by this proposal, which will adversely affect our already strained public infrastructure and degrade our quality of life.