For those of you who know Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn, you know that what we have here is pretty special. For those who don't, our neighborhood is a rather well preserved example of a brownstone neighborhood: rows and rows of beautiful turn of the century townhouses. In any other big city, city officials would protect such a historical treasure. Especially if the community wants it. In the case of our elected officials, they attach conditions to the the protection of the neighborhood. Our Councilman Bill DeBlasio (yes the same one mentioned in yesterdays entry) seems to make his support contingent on the rezoning of the Gowanus Canal area, a neighboring strip of mixed use development which he wants to rezone to open it up for residential development or rather, overdevelopment. In other words, he will help the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association protect Carroll Gardens if it sells their Gowanus neighbors down the river.
What Bill DeBlahBlah seems to forget is that the Gowanus area is part of Carroll Gardens too. He justifies his pro-development stance by saying that rezoning in favor of development means that we can demand an affordable housing component from developers. That sounds very noble. However, why does the city need developers to do that? If Bill is that concerned about creating lower cost housing, why does he not reach out to such worthwhile organizations as Habitat For Humanity. The city is sitting on plenty of property all over the city that could be developed by non-profit organizations. Do we really need developers to do it for us in exchange for allowing them to build into the sky?
Oh when, oh when will politicians remember that they are elected to represent citizens and not commercial interests?
* Yes, the Glenn Kelly mentioned in the article below is no other than my other half
From The Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill Courier 05/21/2007
Pols tepid on Gardens rezoning
By Joe Maniscalco
After a painstakingly-long process of surveying community concerns, cataloguing the local housing stock and building neighborhood consensus, the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association is finally ready to bring its rezoning plan to the city administration.
But just as the group prepares for a scheduled meeting with City Planning later this week to present its plan for preserving the unique character of Carroll Gardens from overdevelopment, murmurs are beginning that local elected officials aren’t as solidly on board with the effort as originally believed.
CGNA member Glenn Kelly made the observation at Monday night’s meeting on 1st Place after talking to both Councilmen Bill de Blasio and David Yassky.
“They didn’t seem as eager as they say they are at meetings,” said Kelly. “It sounded to me that they were just going to sit back and let City Planning take over.”
Councilman de Blasio has talked about coupling the effort to rezone Carroll Gardens with efforts to rezone the Gowanus and “maximize” the amount of affordable housing there – especially for senior citizens.
“I also think it is crucial that the rezoning be designed to minimize displacement of existing jobs, and to provide opportunities for industrial firms to grow and to locate in the area,” de Blasio said. “The Gowanus rezoning offers us an opportunity to make sure the Carroll Gardens downzoning is also accomplished and that’s why I believe it is important that they be considered together.”
The CGNA however, doesn’t it see it that way.
“We feel as a group that what’s going on in Gowanus is separate from what’s going on here,” Kelly said.
The CGNA rezoning plan covering the entire community calls for new restrictions on the height of buildings to generally reflect what already exists on the ground.
Many in the community fear that without such restrictions, blocks of existing row houses could be bought, torn down and replaced with soaring multi-unit towers.
They see troubling warning signs already throughout the traditional three- and four-story brownstone neighborhood.
One such project – by architect Anthony Scarano – reportedly calls for 46 units of housing in an eight-story development at 2nd Place and Smith Street.
Critics of overdevelopment also say there is the potential for the footprints of existing properties to be combined allowing for even taller structures.
Carroll Gardens’ signature front yards, meanwhile, could also be counted as wide streets, which potentially give developers license to go bigger than anything that now exists in the community.
“We don’t know what is going on [with Gowanus], or when it’s going to happen,” said Kelly. “We have a pressing need here.”
The CGNA has already taken its rezoning plan to Borough Hall and Community Board Six – which has been lending technical assistance along the way.
“I give them a lot of credit taking it to the point where they have gotten it to,” said District Manager Craig Hammerman. “Hopefully, the city will give it a warm reception. Carroll Gardens brings certain images to mind, perhaps nostalgic, but a history worth preserving.”
While acknowledging the need for the support of elected officials – any Carroll Gardens rezoning plan will ultimately have to go through the Uniformed Land Use Review Procedure and be approved by the City Council – CGNA President Maria Pegano suggested the group might have to do an “end run around” officials who aren’t supportive of their efforts.
The group’s leadership has called on members and other supports to write letters to City Planning advocating the rezoning changes.
The CGNA could face opposition from other quarters, as well.
Despite the results of a communitywide questionnaire citing overdevelopment as the chief concern of neighborhood residents, some owners of 4-story buildings have started to grouse that new zoning would impede their ability to expand their properties if they desired to do so.
That however, is contrasted by those who are fed up with the prospect of having their garden views replaced with cinderblock walls.
Some now even want the scope of the CGNA rezoning effort to be extended down to Van Brunt Street.
“There is a lot of open space available for development,” Pegano warned.
Hammerman said that the group was fully prepared to meet with City Planning this week.
“Absolutely,” he said. “They’ve done a lot of good, hard work. It’s time that they checked in with the city.”
Those wishing to preserve the essential character of their neighborhood aren’t out of the woods even if City Planning supports the rezoning effort, however.
As demonstrated in other “downzoned” communities across Brooklyn, the advent of new zoning regulations only increases building efforts as developers rush to “beat the clock.”
“No is not an option,” Kelly said. “We do have to get this moving.”
