The beginning of summer could mean a new beginning for Canarsie.
By the end of June, City Council Member Lewis Fidler predicted, the rezoning of the neighborhood could be enacted.
Fidler, speaking to members of the United Canarsie South Civic Association (UCSCA), who had gathered at the Hebrew Educational Society (9502 Seaview Avenue) for their May meeting, said that the City Planning Commission’s vote on the rezoning plan was scheduled for June 3. Assuming they vote in favor, Fidler went on, the proposal would move to the City Council, which is the final stage of ULURP (Uniform Land Use Review Procedure), the mandated process that any change in city zoning must go through.
“If City Planning passes the zoning on June third,” he said, “the City Council will pass it before the end of June.” Once the City Council votes to support a rezoning, it becomes law.
“We will be fully independent of over−development by July fourth,” Fidler added.
The rezoning has already been approved by Community Board 18 and Borough President Marty Markowitz. CPC held its hearing on the rezoning earlier this month, but delayed its vote from mid−May to early June because testimony was given by some area residents, members of the South Canarsie Civic Association (SCCA), in opposition to aspects of the rezoning, Fidler said.
“Some of your neighbors came and asked the same questions that they have asked and asked and asked, and that have been answered and answered and answered,” Fidler said. “All it did was delay the vote on the down−zoning from the middle of May to early June. Truthfully, that’s not going to be a calamity, because there’s not a whole lot of building going on in this economy, right now. But, if somebody lays a foundation for a four−story condo where a one−family home is sometime between now and the time we’re able to pass this zoning plan, I’m going to send those folks to the people who were testifying.”
The purpose of the rezoning is to protect the scale and density of Canarsie as it currently exists, according to the Department of City Planning (DCP). With 83 percent of the neighborhood’s building stock currently one and two−family homes, and only 10 percent multi−family structures, the ultimate goal of the 250−block rezoning is to keep the low−density, low−rise streetscape intact.
Thus, areas of largely freestanding homes and semi−detached homes are being rezoned to reflect that, while areas of rowhouses with community driveways behind are being put into a zoning district that mimics that built environment.
The R5D district has been proposed for certain sections of the area’s commercial strips: Avenue L, Flatlands Avenue and Rockaway Parkway. This zoning district allows ground floor retail (with a commercial overlay), with two stories of housing above, but could also allow four−story residential buildings.
The R5D zoning was one of the things that the SCCA members objected to. They also objected to the zoning for the UCSCA area, Fidler said, even though the choice was made, in part, because members of UCSCA had asked for zoning that would allow residents in the area to add, perhaps, an extra bedroom.
The SCCA members also criticized the fact the DCP was “moving the residential zoning line from the Paerdegats to the bulkhead,” to correct a technical mistake on the zoning map, Fidler said. “They are going around saying that this zoning is going to permit people to build housing on their park,” he told the group. “It’s utter nonsense. It takes an act of the legislature to give up parkland. It’s been explained four times, yet they testified at City Planning against it.”
