After an 11th hour attempt by the developer to garner community support for an R7a (4.0 FAR) upzone, Bill de Blasio and City Council  stuck to the most recent community compromise consensus of support for R7b (3.0 FAR).  While the outcome is technically an upzoning of the lot, the tradeoff is that it will be built to a contextual height of 60 foot at the street wall and 15 foot extra on the setback with an agreement to provide a 16 foot sideyard for 81 OP.

Fears that the developer would rather pull his application and build under R6 than build under R7b proved to be ungrounded. Let us make no mistake, though, the building that can be built under R7b is no small thing. We will still see a quite large building go up and we will still see a 35%+ increase in population and cars in this small area. This fight was a fight to compromise and not be completely bulldozed.

The real victory that has come of this struggle is that we now have a committment from Councilmember Bill de Blasio to sponsor a downzone of the neighborhood and eradicate the rest of the R6 that is the bane of Brooklyn. It is now more important than ever that the community come out and participate in our planning workshops. We need to preserve what we feel is most important and encourage sensible development.

 Save the date: April 30th, 2006--second planning workshop.

Interesting note: A city planner involved in the Midwood downzoning said that the R6 in Brooklyn is leftover from the City's need to secure federal funding by having a 5-year plan. When it became too difficult to develop such a plan, the R6 designation was mapped over most of the outer boroughs with the intent to remove it later when time could be spent on planning. It's been 30 or 40 years and still we have R6! Communities need to do their own planning before we are destroyed!

We are pleased to announce that our community group has been awarded two separate grants to assist us with fundraising for our planning workshops:

$500 Grant from Bill de Blasio's office
Bill de Blasio's office has given us this money in support of our community planning workshop process. As you all may recall, we need to raise money to pay for staff and materials for the workshops. This contribution is very helpful in helping us meet our goal. Our thanks to Councilmember de Blasio and his staff.

Independence Community Foundation Matching Grant
Tom Angotti, professor of Urban Affairs and Planning at the Hunter College Center for Community Planning and Development included our group in a grant he applied for from the Independence Community Foundation and he got the grant! So, that means that any money we raise will be matched by the grant. So, while we originally needed to raise $5,000, this brings our goal down to $2,500. Thanks, Tom!

Here is the report from the City Planning Commission with regard to 22 Caton Place ULURP.

Download Report (Word Format)

The neighborhood came out in force yet again to testify at the Borough President's Public Hearing for the upzoning application of 22 Caton Place. Community members spoke out against the leaseholder's bid for increased density. NY1 was there and issued a televised report (see story and link to clips here ). Fran from the stables even rode in on a horse to make her point.

The BP's office took our concerns seriously and issued a ruling on Dec. 29, 2005 that "Disapproved with Modifications" the applications. To read the full text of the ruling, see the following PDF:

BP's Ruling on 22 Caton Place ULURP