Throgs Neck Rezoning

[billyblancoNYC]

New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com

Bronx in a new zone

City eyes plan to limit development

By BOB KAPPSTATTER
DAILY NEWS BRONX BUREAU CHIEF

Friday, November 28th, 2003

A new city zoning proposal for a Bronx neighborhood could set the example to stop developers from destroying the character of neighborhoods across the city dead in their bulldozer tracks.
Mayor Bloomberg unveiled the plan - roughly similar to one being studied on Staten Island and in the wings for Bay Ridge in Brooklyn, possibly Bayside, Queens and other neighborhoods after that - at a community meeting in Throgs Neck on Tuesday night.

The proposal would rezone Throgs Neck and surrounding East Bronx communities to block developers from building large attached townhouses on single and double lots, skimping on parking spaces and encroaching on the area's precious waterfront.

"We have to continue to protect the neighborhoods of this city ... to preserve the character of those neighborhoods," the mayor told a packed - and enthusiastic - meeting of the Throgs Neck Homeowners Association on Tuesday night.

They have complained that their neighborhood of small one- and two-family homes is being ruined by the surge of out-of-character townhouse construction that brings with it parking congestion, a strain on the local infrastructure and the loss of precious waterfront space to monster townhouses.

The proposed plan by the Department of City Planning and the Buildings Department would:

• Change zoning to prohibit townhouses and permit only detached housing in some areas and detached and semidetached homes in others, with the housing "more contextual with existing homes." Townhouse construction already approved or underway would be closely monitored by the Buildings Department for violations.
  
  Create a new waterfront zoning district allowing marinas and other waterfront uses but limiting residential development to detached houses. The underwater distance allowed to calculate allowable floor space also would be shortened dramatically.
  
  Require new one-family homes to have two parking spaces instead of one, and two-family homes three spaces.

"The issue of inappropriate development has become a huge issue in the city, particularly in the past two or three years," said city Planning Director Amanda Burden.

"The housing starts are off the charts in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens," she said. "Most of them are in low-density neighborhoods where there is a total mismatch between the existing character of the community and what the zoning allows. People are really upset that their neighborhoods are being destroyed."

Bloomberg estimated it could take some time for the Throgs Neck rezoning to get through the city's Uniform Land Use Review Process, but James Vacca, district manager of local Community Board 10, said he believed at least several months could be shaved off the process.

[Kris]

http://www.news12.com/BX/topstories/article?id=95611

[muscle1313]

Totally ridiculous. Was talking to my family yesterday about this rezoning garbage. Consensus was people in community groups would rather have their old bungalows and shantis than new beautiful condos in their community. Probably 99% of people like new development but 1% of the people have nothing better to do with their lives so they join community groups and try to stop any new development and impede progress. Character of neighborhoods LOL. Yes I want my city neighborhood to be full of run down old bungalows instead of luxury condos. Doesn't everybody??? Ridiculous

[muscle1313]

Thank goodness this rezoning is taking time to accomplish and going slowly because in this housing boom neighborhoods like mine in Sheepshead Bay are exploding with new development (8 condos and 2 hotels in development on Emmons Ave on the oceanfront here). By the time this new legislation goes through my neighborhood will already be beautifully developed thank goodness. Can't stop condos that are already approved!

[Gulcrapek]

Three parking spaces for two family homes? Two for one families?

Aren't we in the 21st century?

[billyblancoNYC]

This isn't about shitty little bungalows. This is about taking a nice one-family house in an area of one families and having them be torn down and replaced with 3 attached 2 familes.

I know exactly how this can effect neighborhoods. While I am all for deveopment, I see the reason for this as well. I guess it's all a matter of how time will tell.

[muscle1313]

And what exactly is wrong with replacing a 1 or 2 family house with a condo? I don't buy that it ruins the character of a neighborhood. I see neighborhoods getting more expensive where condos are being built. If anything it improves the market value of homes in a neighborhood. I see it as an improvement. I think the key is that these condos should be built with adequate parking space (garage or lot in the back etc) but to tell you the truth I see that happening more and more nowadays.

[billyblancoNYC]

Ok, so it would be ok to knock down 10 brownstones in Brooklyn Heights to build a 10 story condo?

[muscle1313]

I don't see that happening at all. Why would it? Brownstones already go for millions and have multiple units. What I see happening in the boroughs now is that 1 or 2 family houses are being torn down that go for 200 to 300 grand (at most) and condos are replacing them with individual units selling for twice the amount of the original house. Great for the neighborhoods where these are being built. Market values in these neighborhoods are soaring, and loudmouth community boards are screaming "no our history our character!" Just a bunch of people who have nothing better to do but complain about progress. Unfortunately these backward thinking community boards have political clout. 99% of people that live in neighborhoods never even attend a community board meeting because they have more important things to do with their lives. So the 1% scream and yell and unfortunately stop progress.

[ZippyTheChimp]

I don't see that happening at all. Why would it? Brownstones already go for millions and have multiple units.

Yes, but you're looking at it from the present. There was a time (in Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens) when those brownstones were not looked upon so favorably, and your argument could have been made to replace them with new condos. That wasn't done, and look at those neighborhoods now.

I grew up in Sheepshead Bay, and some of the stuff that has gone up on Emmons Ave is not only out of character, but ugly.

[muscle1313]

Have lived here all my life. It may be ugly to you but when I see a condo going for $1.2 million on my block I say to my wife Wow its happening all over again. Emmons Avenue was known as Millionaire's Row a century ago.

[ZippyTheChimp]

If money alone is your rationale, then I'm with those one percent. There's no excuse for housing being expensive and ugly.

If Emmons Ave follows that course, it will never be the millionairs' row of Belmont, Travers, and Tappan.

[muscle1313]

We shall see. My bud Gulcrapek thinks Oceana condos are hideous. I think Gulcrapek is one of the best posters here. I see the Oceana prices are now going up to $1.5 mil a unit and people are taking pictures of it from the boardwalk. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[billyblancoNYC]

But the point of this is to preserve different areas in NYC for different housing stock. Some people like one type of house, and others like a different kind. It's b/c within NYC you can live in so many distinct neighborhoods that make it great. Condos are great, especially if it's developing an area that needs it. Many of the areas do not "need" it, it's just about the developers.

I love development and I love how Brooklyn has really taken off, but there has to be some restraint to development. It all has to make sense and make the city stronger as a whole.

[Kris]

Throgs Neck Area Zoning Study