Closing Bell: Mayor Alters Zoning Plan, But Critics Say Row House Areas Still Vulnerable

After fervent opposition, the city has dialed back a plan to change zoning codes to allow for higher buildings in neighborhoods across the city.

In a letter dated May 15, Carl Weisbrod, chair of the NYC Planning Commission, said the city was backing off by 10 feet on proposed height increases it sought as part of the mayor’s citywide “Zoning for Quality and Affordability Plan.”

For example, in Brooklyn’s traditional residential row house districts, zoned R6B, developers would be permitted to put up new buildings as high as 55 feet, which is 10 feet less than the 65-foot-height limit proposed before. The Mayor’s office and City Planning have said the new height limits will accommodate new ways of building and also create more affordable housing. Local residents, activists, preservationists and other critics have said it will blight neighborhoods while achieving little besides benefitting developers.

Right now, the base height of a new building in an R6B district is between 30 and 40 feet. With a setback, the maximum height allowed is 50 feet. Under the new proposed rules, it would be 55 feet without a setback. The zoning in R7A would allow a maximum height of 85 feet, and R8B would stay the same as it is today: 85 feet.

Despite improvements, “the plan still includes troubling increases in the allowable height limits for new development in areas…and remains premised on questionable notions that such changes would increase the quality and affordability of new housing,” said Andrew Berman, Executive Director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, in an emailed statement.

The plan will be up for discussion at meetings of all 59 of the city’s community boards in late May and June. In his letter, Weisbrod promised the city would soon create individual profiles for each community board, outlining how the proposed changes would affect their communities.

Zoning Text Amendment Update [City Planning]
WSJ: Mayor’s Housing Plan Threatens Park Slope But Won’t Help East New York [Brownstoner]