The city earned some serious brownie points in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill this week, quashing a developer’s plans to build a 16-story tower on a four-story bock that neighbors said would have stuck out like, well, like a 16-story building on a four-story block.
The tower, planned for 163 Washington Ave., between Myrtle and Park avenues, had stirred up a maelstrom of fury among area homeowners, who said the building would fundamentally alter the laid-back, brownstone character of the neighborhood. Like birds circling their prey, activists monitored the developers’ every move, hoping to catch him in some infraction and thereby stall the project until the area’s “downzoning” could be passed, which would make such large buildings illegal.
According to the Buildings Department, if a developer is far enough along that the building’s concrete foundation has been poured, then that project can be grandfathered in under the old rules, and not subject to the new, more stringent guidelines.
Councilwoman Letitia James (D-Fort Greene) and area residents like Jane Zusi managed to lodge a whopping 56 complaints and attain at least one partial stop-work order against the development. But as late as June, Zusi told The Stoop, “I’m not sure that anything other than an act of god will stop this building.”
Well, that or, at least, the Buildings Department.
Following last week’s rezoning, the Buildings Department sent out a team of four inspectors to determine which developments along 99 blocks in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill would be grandfathered in. Of the 31 sites inspected, only 10 (32 percent) were allowed to move forward as planned. Twenty-one developers (or 68 percent) were issued the stop-work orders.
While 163 Washington Ave., perhaps the most reviled of recent developments, got the pink slip, two other controversial developments will be allowed to move forward: an 11-story tower on Adelphi Street and an 11-story building slated for Grand Ave., both between Myrtle and Park avenues.
Even so, it was the Washington Avenue high-rise that was the talk of the neighborhood.
“[We are] savoring the moment, but with the understanding that this is not the end,” said Zusi. “We fully expect the developer to appeal, and we are quickly doing our homework so that we can continue to fight the [tower].”
“Once again, I would like to go on the record as saying that we were never against a building on that site (the original seven-story plan had more units), but we are against a building that will look freakish on our block,” added Zusi.
The developer did not respond to a request for comment.
Dana Rubinstein is a staff reporter for The Brooklyn Paper
Kitchen Sink
Our Clinton Hill buddy Bowman Hastie and his wunderdog — artist and Jack Russell terrier Tillamook Cheddar — will travel to Berlin for a joint gallery show with human artist Wanne LeCompte in “Boundaries: Paintings by Man and Dog” this month. “Wannes LeCompte and Tillamook Cheddar are strikingly physical in their approach to the enclosed plane of the canvas,” read a press release from Hastie, keeper of what the Art Newspaper called “The most successful living animal painter.” Alles gute! …
Last Wednesday, green locals turned out for the Ecologically Minded Ice Cream Sandwich Social at Habana Outpost (and no, they didn’t have to churn their own ice cream). The proceeds went to helping outfit the Outpost with a water reclamation system. …
We hear the Fort Greene PUPS are mighty peeved that the $3,000 they raised and donated to the Parks Department for a new doggy water fountain in Fort Greene Park still has not been spent. …
Looks like Luz, the scrumptious Nuevo-Latino-style restaurant on Vanderbilt and Myrtle avenues, is getting some competition. We hear a new Nuevo-Latino boite called Tamboril is coming to Myrtle Avenue, between Grand and Steuben streets.
