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FGA Pushes for Zoning Reform
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After the wake-up call of the tower at 383 Carlton Avenue, neighborhood residents launched the Joint Taskforce for the Rezoning of Clinton Hill and Fort Greene, a joint effort between the Clinton Hill Society and the FGA. Throughout the summer over seventy-five neighborhood volunteers received training guided by the NYC Department of City Planning to learn how to characterize each building in the proposed R6B areas. Within four weeks a survey was completed for every block and lot to show the number of stories, construction style and usage of each building. The data was then computer formatted and turned over for analysis to the Brooklyn office of the Department of City Planning. The Department of City Planning was impressed with the speed and commitment of the community and hopes to give the Taskforce a timetable as to when our goals can be achieved. The FGA understands that this is one of the highest priority issues the community is facing. After completing the survey it is clear that individual lots are being bought up by single investors in order to consolidate their land mass. When individual developers reach the required land mass for large development we may be seeing sections of Brownstone Brooklyn being torn down in favor of steel hi-rises. For more details on our efforts please visit the FGA website. To volunteer drop us an email and put R6B in the in the subject line. We are no longer asleep.
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-FGA Pushes for Zoning Reform
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Sample Letter to Commissioner Amanda Burden -
Commissioner Amanda Burden
Department of City Planning
22 Reade Street
New York, NY 10007-1216
June 11, 2005
Re: Contextual Rezoning for Fort Greene Clinton Hill
Dear Commissioner Burden:
I am writing to ask you to support our community’s contextual rezoning proposal. I live in the Fort Greene / Clinton Hill area and I want to preserve our low-rise, brownstone community – full of light, air and heart – and our neighborhood shopping streets – full of local businesses. And I want local residents and business owners to continue to benefit from the neighborhood’s healthy, community-based economic growth.
The rezoning proposal of the Fort Greene and Clinton Hill Associations includes R6A rezoning on the commercial streets of Myrtle and Fulton and R6B rezoning of the entirely residential streets. This combination of these contextual zones will best create positive new development; rowhouses and similar scale buildings on the residential side streets and 6-story buildings on the neighborhood commercial avenues.

I strongly believe that this contextual rezoning will protect the existing scale of our neighborhood while still allowing for its future development. It will create possibilities for appropriate infill development and provide residential and entrepreneurial opportunities for current and new residents alike. It will not impose the physical barriers created by large out-of-scale buildings nor will it cause the wholesale displacement of long-time businesses and residents. Incremental, neighborhood-driven revitalization of our community is the best way to bring about inclusive economic development that generates local jobs, local ownership, and local wealth.

Please help us protect what we love about our neighborhood! Support our communities’ R6A and R6B contextual rezoning proposal.

Sincerely,
-The Request to CB-2 for Support and Participation
In the Rezoning of
Clinton Hill and Fort Greene
The Joint Taskforce for the Rezoning
of Clinton Hill and Fort Greene
17 December, 2003
-The following is a request for support and participation of Community Board 2 Land Use Committee for the re-zoning of the Fort Greene and Clinton Hill neighborhoods from R6 to R6B. The boundaries of this request are roughly from St. Felix Street to Classon Avenue and from Park Avenue to Fulton Street with knockouts for existing manufacturing and commercial districts. The area is highlighted in green and also includes the Fort Greene and Clinton Hill Historic Districts as indicated by the shaded areas. (See illustration 1)
To understand this it is vital to have an understanding of the meaning of R6 and R6B and some of the basic principles and history of the New York City zoning code.
With the introduction of steel beam construction and improved elevators the technical restraints that had traditionally limited building height vanished. In 1915 the huge shadow cast by the 42-story Equitable Building, built on lower Broadway, deprived neighboring properties of light and air and as a result the pioneering 1916 Zoning Resolution established height and setback controls. Separating what was seen as functionally incompatible uses, such as factories from residential neighborhoods, the ordinance became a model for urban communities throughout the United States.
“In 1926, the U.S. Supreme Court validated the zoning ordinance of Euclid, Ohio, in the landmark case of Village of Euclid v. Ambler, finding that it rested on a comprehensive plan for maintaining, protecting and upgrading the community. The Court recognized that zoning is an appropriate extension of the community’s authority to pass laws related to protecting the public health, safety, morals and general welfare. The historic ruling also contained a far-seeing passage suggesting that zoning must evolve to meet the changing needs of changing times.”[1]
The scope of the 1916 Zoning Resolution did expand greatly to meet the new and different conditions but, after 45 years of rapid changes in the City, it was clear that there was a need for a total reconsideration of zoning in New York City. In 1961 the current Zoning Resolution was enacted and took effect. Championed by Robert Moses and other believers of the Le Corbusier as described in his book The City of Tomorrow, the 1961 Zoning Resolution coordinated use and bulk regulations. The master plan introduced the concept of incentive zoning by offering a bonus of extra floor area in return for office buildings and apartment towers with public spaces. Quoting William Stern of the City Journal “They wanted the city to embody the vision of the then-celebrated Swiss architect Le Corbusier- who favored giant, boxy towers isolated in big, open plazas- so they allowed builders to make their edifices taller, and so boost rental footage, if they set them back from the sidewalk and surrounded them with open space.”[2]
To quote the New York City Department of Planning “Cities never stand still, nor should zoning”[3] and to deal with the shortcomings of the 1961 Zoning Resolution amendments including, contextual zoning, waterfront zoning, mixed use zoning, and special districts have been used to make zoning more responsive and sensitive to the changing needs of New York City and the people who live and work here. So, if the Department of City Planning thinks zoning should not stand still why has the R6 zone in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill remained unchanged? For that matter what is R6 or R6B?
The following is from the New York City Zoning Handbook, which explains the basics of the residential zoning code. Residence districts are designated by the prefix R in the Zoning Resolution. There are ten standard residence districts in New York City — R1 through R10. The numbers refer to the permitted density (R1 having the lowest density; R10 the highest) and certain other controls such as required parking. A second letter or number signifies additional controls in certain districts. Unless otherwise stated, the regulations for each of the ten residence districts pertain to all sub-categories within that district. The R4 district, for example, encompasses R4-1, R4A and R4B.
R1 and R2 districts allow only detached single-family residences and certain community facilities. The R3-2 through R10 districts accept all types of dwelling units and community facilities and are distinguished by differing bulk and density, height and setback, parking, and lot coverage or open space requirements.
The R6 through R9 districts without a letter suffix (R8 rather than R8A, for example) encourage on-site open space and on-site parking. These objectives are addressed by a complex formula involving three variable controls: floor area ratio (FAR), height factor (HF), and open space ratio (OSR). The Zoning Resolution assigns a range of floor area ratios in these districts. The maximum floor area ratio in each district is reached for a building with a specific height factor in combination with a specific open space ratio often resulting in a tall, low-coverage building set back from the surrounding streets. This open space emphasis in R6 through R10 districts sometimes leads to the construction of buildings that are out-of-scale with the surrounding neighborhood, breaking the existing street wall continuity which characterizes many New York neighborhoods. In 1984, 1987 and again in 1989, the Zoning Resolution was amended to establish a number of new and revised residential districts. These districts, generally identified with the suffix A, B. X or 1 (except R7), are termed contextual because they maintain the familiar built form and character of the existing community while providing appropriate development opportunities.
A major emphasis of the 1961 Zoning Resolution was the construction of tall, slender buildings surrounded by large, open spaces. However, new residential development was often incompatible with the character and configuration of older neighborhoods. In 1984 and 1987, the Zoning Resolution was amended to establish a number of contextual districts in medium and higher density residential areas (R6A, R6B, R7A, R7B, R7X, R8A, R8B, R8X, R9A, R9X, R10A).[4]
-The typical R6 development is usually between three and twelve stories. FAR in R6 districts ranges from 0.78 to 2.43. The higher ratio is applied to new buildings that provide more open space. Parking must be provided for 70 percent of the dwelling units.[5] More importantly the height restriction on a building in an R6 district is developed by a complex calculation of sky exposure planes from the street relative to the building. The resultant building height can be 120 feet or more. The regulations of R6B encourage low-rise buildings with greater lot coverage. With the lower FAR of 2.0, R6B typically produces shorter, four story rowhouses or apartment buildings as typically found in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. The Quality Housing Program is mandatory in R6B districts, which limits the maximum building height to 50 feet. (See illustrations 2 and 3)
The question is; why is there a need to change the zoning from R6 to R6B? The answer is; that R6 has failed. R6has not failed in providing its authors their vision of Brooklyn but it has failed in keeping Brooklyn, Brooklyn.
-The most blatant example of this is the new luxury condominium currently being built at 383 Carlton Avenue. (See illustration 4) The new structure while adhering to all of the codes of R6 has failed in adhering to the codes of community. Paradoxically these R6 over-developers in are benefiting from what they want to destroy; the low-rise and close-knit community now shadowed by the building. To reply to one of my neighbors, Lola Robinson, who has been living in the same house for over forty years when she said “They can’t build something that tall here.” Well Lola the truth is they can and they are. To respond to one of the developers Jonathan Jacobs when he told me “that this land is a gold mine. You should have bought it before we did.” Well Jonathan unfortunately we don’t have the money to scoop parts of the community to protect them from your brand of development but we do have the ability to make it known that the time for action is now.
-To this effect the Clinton Hill Society and the Fort Greene Association have formed the Joint Taskforce for the Re-zoning of Clinton Hill and Fort Greene. Working with these organizations and with the other area block associations we hope to insure the vitality of the community for generations to come. The steps to secure this goal are many and we are just at the beginning; the first step in this procedure will be a land use survey. Normally performed by the under staffed City Planning Commission the Joint Taskforce will accelerate this process by performing the survey. In the survey the Taskforce will confirm the land use of each building in the study, tax lot by tax lot. By using teams of community volunteers our goal is to complete the survey in four months time. From the completed survey, land use, building height, and FAR, maps are created by the City Planning Commission. Finally a formal proposal is initiated and the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) goes into effect. (See illustration 5 and 6)
During the ULURP process the Community Board will be ask to notify the public, hold public hearings, and to make recommendations but at this time I would like this committee to issue a letter of support to the full board so that this community action can proceed in good faith. With the increasing pressure of urban renewal in our area, the time to act is now to insure the character that has made Clinton Hill, Fort Greene, and all of Brooklyn unique and great. Failure to act will result in dissecting the fabric of our community until it no longer exists.
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[1] New York City Department of Planning, “New York City Zoning History”, http://home.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/zone/zonehis.html
[2] -City Journal, “Why, Gotham’s Developers Don’t Develop”, William Stern, http://www.city-journal.org/html/10_4_why_gothams.html
[3] New York City Department of Planning, “New York City Zoning History”, http://home.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/zone/zonehis.html
[4] NYC Zoning Handbook: Residence Districts, http://tenant.net/Other_Laws/zoning/zonch03.html
[5] NYC Zoning Handbook: Residence Districts, http://tenant.net/Other_Laws/zoning/r6.html