Crazy Zoning Change shot down by CB 6 for 41 Summit St., Story and photos by George Fiala

A young fellow named David Rosenberg started off the October CB6 Landmarks and Land Use meeting by professing to be a little nervous. He didn’t expect the full PS 15 auditorium. They came because of two controversial issues on the agenda. Rosenberg’s presentation involved a zoning change request for three lots surrounding the Chase bank on Hamilton Avenue.

The petition was made specifically concerning the building next to the Chase parking lot. That building, 41 Summit Street, was once home to a coffee distributor that also distributed cocaine. It was seized by the feds in the early 1990’s following the cocaine bust, and finally sold at auction a few years ago.
Evidently, some developers bought the property, which had been remodeled and offered for rent as a commercial property. Much of Summit had been zoned industrial back when the city thought the whole area would become a containerport, and little by little it has been changed back to residential.

Much of the surrounding area is now zoned R6B, which is defined by the Department of City Planning as follows: R6B districts are often traditional row house districts, which preserve the scale and harmonious streetscape of neighborhoods of four-story attached buildings developed during the 19th century. Many of these houses are set back from the street with stoops and small front yards that are typical of Brooklyn’s “brownstone” neighborhoods, such as Park Slope, Boerum Hill and Bedford Stuyvesant.

Rosenberg’s proposal was to change the lot that he was representing, plus two other adjacent lots, to R7A. City Planning describes R7A as follows: The contextual Quality Housing regulations, which are mandatory in R7A districts, typically produce high lot coverage, seven- to nine- -story apartment buildings, blending with existing buildings in many established neighborhoods. R7A districts are mapped along Prospect Park South and Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn, Jackson Heights in Queens, and in Harlem and along the avenues in the East Village in Manhattan.

While the rendering that Rosenberg produced showed a simple 7 story building, sticking out on the block like a sore thumb, were his proposal enacted by the City Council, those lots could be developed into something completely new to the neighborhood. He tried to justify what he tried to hide by saying that this area is really on an Avenue (Hamilton), facing a (great) park, the pretty pedestrian Harold Ickes park in back of the Battery Tunnel entrance.

Rosenberg made clear that he was representing only the owner of 41 Summit.

When asked whether the owner had been in contact with the other property owners, he responded simply that he didn’t know, probably not, but whether they might have had coffee together he couldn’t say.

Other issues raised included shading of the adjacent gardens, including the beautiful community garden on the corner of Hamilton and Van Brunt. Rosenberg responded with the traditional developer response, saying that “shading studies” had been conducted, and assured everyone that every four out of so many hours the plants would receive a little sunlight.

In any case, the foolishness was shot down by the committee 15-1. It does, however, proceed to the Borough President’s office, where it will be heard in a public hearing at 6 pm at Borough Hall on November 27. Afterwards it goes to City Planning and finally to the City Council, where it will be voted on. The opinion of councilmember Brad Lander, who was in the audience to testify on a Cobble Hill matter, will be vitally important to the future of this part of Red Hook.