By Samuel Newhouse
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

HOYT STREET – Developers might have to admit defeat in their battle over the contentious 15 feet that would give a new Carroll Gardens condominium a towering presence in the neighborhood and room for a floor of pricey penthouse apartments.

The Community Board 6 Land Use Committee voted unanimously Thursday night to recommend that the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) not allow continued construction on the proposed 70-foot building at 360 Smith St. Earlier they had heard members of the community speak for and against the development, as well as making inquiries of developer Billy Stein.

According to the Carroll Gardens Places Text Amendment that zoned the area including First, Second, Third and Fourth places and Carroll and President streets between Smith and Hoyt streets as being “narrow roads,� no building can be built higher than 55 feet.

The majority of those in the crowd were indignant and defensive about their neighborhood during the hearing at P.S. 32. More than 20 citizens spoke out against the development, and only four spoke in favor of it.

At one point, as resident Judith Thompson described the corner as an “ugly space,� someone from the crowd shouted, “We live here!�

Developer Billy Stein remained silent during most of the meeting, allowing his attorney, Deidre Carson, to explain the basis of their appeal to the BSA to be allowed to continue building as planned to a height of 70 feet.

Carson argued that “substantial progress� had already been made on the project when the “narrow roads� legislation passed and a stop-work order was filed. Carson asserted that 50 percent of construction had been completed through the work on 90 foundation piles, which would validate Stein’s appeal to the BSA to be allowed to complete construction to its full height.

However, this statement contradicts the assessment of the Department of Buildings (DOB), which said that only 20 percent had been completed in their stop-work order. Carson, a former president of the Brooklyn Heights Association, suggested that the DOB inspector had made an incorrect assessment. The DOB did not respond to calls for a comment on this discrepancy.

Most citizens were not as concerned with the new building’s presence as with its towering height, which some suggested would set a precedent for further development in the area and “block out the sun.� Members of the Coalition for Respectful Development (CORD) delivered 500 signed letters of protest against the development.

“We have interests to protect. I think what we’re doing is establishing that line,� said Mark Lindner, a resident of Carroll Gardens for 35 years.

Buddy Scotto, founder of the Carroll Gardens Association and longtime neighborhood activist, called this project “the best thing that’s happened to that corner in my life.�

Construction of the 49-unit condo, known as the “Oliver House,� was allowed because of a loophole in zoning regulations. Certain streets in the neighborhood have 33-foot front gardens that are technically owned by the city. These gardens were included in the width measurement of the streets, and the streets were defined as “wide� rather than “narrow� for zoning calculation purposes. This allowed for higher, denser new development.

After this project, in development since June 2007, was approved for construction May 15, citizens banded together to argue for the area to be rezoned.

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